Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service February 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are advising the public that we added European Union (EU) and EU Member State-defined regions of the EU to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) list of regions affected with African swine fever (ASF). Going forward we will recognize as affected with ASF any region of the EU that the EU or any EU Member State has placed under restriction because of detection of ASF. These regions currently include portions of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, and all of Sardinia. APHIS will list the EU- and EU Member State-defined regions as a single entity. We also removed Sardinia as an individually listed region from the APHIS list of ASF affected regions. We took these actions because of the detection of ASF in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared a preliminary determination regarding a request from Monsanto Co. seeking a determination of nonregulated status for maize designated as event MON 87419, which has been genetically engineered for resistance to the herbicides dicamba and glufosinate. We are also making available for public review and comment our preliminary plant pest risk assessment, draft environmental assessment, and preliminary finding of no significant impact for the preliminary determination of nonregulated status.

We are amending the regulations governing the importation of plants for planting to authorize the importation of Phalaenopsis spp. plants for planting from China in approved growing media into the continental United States, subject to a systems approach. The systems approach consists of measures that are currently specified in the regulations as generally applicable to all plants for planting authorized for importation into the United States in approved growing media. This rule allows for the importation of Phalaenopsis spp. plants for planting from China in approved growing media, while providing protection against the introduction of quarantine plant pests.

We are amending the regulations pertaining to certain diseases of livestock and poultry to specify conditions for payment of indemnity claims for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Specifically, we are providing a formula that will allow us to split such payments between poultry and egg owners and parties with which the owners enter into contracts to raise or care for the eggs or poultry based on the proportion of the production cycle completed. This action is necessary to ensure that all contractors are compensated appropriately. We are also providing for the payment of indemnity for eggs required to be destroyed due to HPAI, thus clarifying an existing policy. Finally, we are requiring owners and contractors, unless specifically exempted, to provide a statement that at the time of detection of HPAI in their facilities, they had in place and were following a biosecurity plan aimed at keeping HPAI from spreading to commercial premises.

NHTSA is amending the side marker requirements contained in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) on lamps, reflective devices and associated equipment for vehicles 80 inches or more in width and less than 30 feet long. This final rule adopts the amendments proposed in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), published on December 4, 2012. These amendments will restore the side marker photometry requirements for motor vehicles under thirty feet in length that were in place prior to the 2007 final rule that reorganized the standard. Restoration of the side marker requirements will have no negative impact on safety or function and will allow motor vehicle manufacturers to avoid unnecessary modifications to their side marker lamps with no added safety or functional benefit.

We are amending the regulations governing the importation of plants and plant products to add orchid plants of the genus Oncidium from Taiwan to the list of plants that may be imported into the United States in an approved growing medium, subject to specified growing, inspection, and certification requirements. We are taking this action in response to a request from the Taiwanese Government and after determining that the plants could be imported, under certain conditions, without resulting in the introduction into, or the dissemination within, the United States of a quarantine plant pest.