April 7, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, authorizes the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), through NMFS, to provide monetary compensation to eligible Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) commercial lobster permit holders who were, and commercial bottomfish permit holders who will be, displaced by fishery closures resulting from establishment of the Papah naumoku kea Marine National Monument (Monument) in the NWHI. This proposed rule describes and seeks public comment on a permit compensation proposal, which identifies eligible permit holders and describes the permit valuation methodology. Holders of NWHI commercial Federal bottomfish and lobster permits who voluntarily accept monetary compensation would be required to surrender their permits and leave the fisheries.

In a final rule that was published in the Federal Register on January 16, 2009 (74 FR 2770-2786, Docket No. APHIS-2007-0052), and effective on February 17, 2009, we revised the regulations governing the interstate movement of fruits and vegetables from Hawaii and the territories. Those regulations do not apply to articles whose interstate movement is regulated under the subpart governing the interstate movement of soil, sand, earth, and plants in growing media from Hawaii and the territories; we neglected to indicate that in the final rule. In this amendment, we are amending the regulations to clearly indicate that the interstate movement of soil, sand, earth, and plants in growing media is governed by the regulations specific to those articles.

This rule relaxes the minimum size requirement for white seedless grapefruit grown in Florida and for white seedless grapefruit imported into the United States for the fresh market. The Citrus Administrative Committee (Committee) which locally administers the marketing order for oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and tangelos grown in Florida (order) recommended this change for Florida grapefruit. The corresponding change in the import regulation is required under section 8e of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. This rule relaxes the minimum size requirement for domestic shipments, making it the same as required for export shipments. This change is expected to maximize fresh white seedless grapefruit shipments and provide greater flexibility to handlers.

This document publishes in the Federal Register an amendment adopting airworthiness directive (AD) 2008-26-03. This AD requires modifying the electronic strike system of the cockpit door. This AD results from a report indicating that the equipment is defective. We are issuing this AD to prevent failure of this equipment, which could compromise flight safety.

Section 1261(b)(1) of the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Act) requires the Secretary of Agriculture to develop standard operating procedures to standardize the operations of State Technical Committees. NRCS published an interim final rule for State Technical Committees, 7 CFR part 610, in the Federal Register on November 25, 2008, that states NRCS will incorporate standard operating procedures for State Technical Committees into its directives system and provide public notice of those procedures. NRCS seeks public comment on this document that includes the current NRCS standard operating procedures as set forth in the NRCS directives system.

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is revising regulations as required by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill) to administer the Marketing Assistance Loans (MAL) and Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP) programs for wheat, feed grains, soybeans, other oilseeds, peanuts, pulse crops, honey, wool and mohair. The 2008 Farm Bill generally extends the existing programs with some changes that are implemented in this rule. The amendments in this rule will add large chickpeas, beginning with the 2009 crop year, to the list of pulse crops eligible for assistance and provide separate rates for long and medium grain rice beginning with the 2008 crop year. The addition of large chickpeas may increase the number of farmers and ranchers who may receive FSA and CCC program benefits. The amendments will also, in addition, to other amendments to the old rule and clarifications, allow producers to store collateral in Federally and State-licensed warehouses that do not have a CCC storage agreement, which may reduce redundant licensing costs for warehouse operators while allowing producers a greater choice of warehouses.