Department of Agriculture February 2, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Deschutes Provincial Advisory Committee will meet on February 17, 2005 starting at 9 a.m. at the Mid-Oregon Federal Credit Union Conference Room on 1386 NE Cushing (near the corner of 27th and Neff), Bend, Oregon. Agenda items will include an update of litigation, a briefing on the new planning rule, subbasin planning, Upper Deschutes Resource Management Plan, rechartering, Mt. Hood NF working group charter, Northwest Forest Plan monitoring, and an update of the B and B project. The remainder of the day will include info sharing and a Public Forum from 12:30 p.m. till 1 p.m. All Deschutes Province Advisory Committee Meetings are open to the public.

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States Department of Health and Human Services, are sponsoring a public meeting on March 15, 2005, to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items that will be discussed at the Twenty-sixth Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex). The 26th Session of the CCMAS will be held in Budapest, Hungary, April 4-8, 2005. The Under Secretary and FDA recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the agenda items that will be discussed at this forthcoming session of the CCMAS.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) is proposing regulations implementing its financial assistance programs for rural communities with extremely high energy costs. These programs are authorized under section 19 of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, as amended (7 U.S.C. 918a). This proposed rule is intended to establish and clarify eligibility and application requirements, the review and approval process, and grant administration procedures for RUS grants to rural communities with extremely high energy costs and for grants to State entities for bulk fuel revolving loan funds. This publication of these rules will assure timely and effective distribution of grant funds to eligible rural communities and state entities. In the final rule section of this Federal Register, RUS is publishing this action as a direct final rule without prior proposal because RUS views this as a non-controversial action and anticipates no adverse comments. If no adverse comments are received in response to the direct final rule, no further action will be taken on this proposed rule and the action will become effective at the time specified in the direct final rule. If RUS receives adverse comments, RUS will publish a timely notice withdrawing the direct final rule based on this action. Any parties interested in commenting on this proposed action should do so at this time.