National Institute of Food and Agriculture February 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR part 1320 (60 FR 44977, August 29, 1995), this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to revise a currently approved information collection entitled, ``Research, Education, and Extension project online reporting tool (REEport).''

The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program and the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG), under the auspices of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), are initiating an Interagency Special Report entitled the 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (referred to as ``SOCCR-2'' or ``the Report'' throughout this notice). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has agreed to be lead agency for this report as it is relevant to USDA and USDA has experience in producing a similar highly successful report of Climate Change and Food Security. The focus of SOCCR-2 will be on U.S. and North American carbon cycle processes, stocks, and flows in the context of and interactions with global scale budgets and climate change impacts in managed and unmanaged systems. Carbon stocks and fluxes in soils, water (including oceans), vegetation, aquatic-terrestrial interfaces (e.g., coastal, estuaries, wetlands), human settlements, agriculture and forestry are included. The Report will consider relevant carbon management science perspectives and science-based tools for supporting and informing decisions, as addressed in and related to the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan (2011), and other documents such as the USGCRP Strategic Plan (2012) and the White House Climate Action Plan (2013). The status of, and emerging opportunities for, improving measurements, observations and projections of stocks and fluxes in the carbon cycle, including uncertainty identification, will be part of the Report. SOCCR-2 will be a product of the USGCRP, organized and led by the Agency members of the CCIWG. This request for public engagement presents opportunities to (1) submit comments on the Draft Report Prospectus, (2) submit scientific/technical information to inform the assessment, and (3) nominate technical contributors.

This rule updates the list of institutions that are granted HSACU certification by the Secretary and are eligible for HSACU programs for the period starting October 1, 2015, and ending September 30, 2016.