Department of Agriculture March 21, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget regulations at 5 CFR part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request approval to reinstate an information collection, the Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey.

The Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS), of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), is proposing to increase fees assessed to delegated States and designated official agencies, hereafter known as official agencies, authorized by GIPSA to provide official inspection and weighing services to the U.S. grain industry. The increase in fees is necessary to collect sufficient revenue to cover the current and future cost of supervising the performance of the official agencies. Current supervision fees are charged to official agencies on a unit basis and represent an average rate of approximately 0.8 cent per metric ton of grain inspected or weighed by the official agencies. The proposed supervision fee increases the rate to a 1.1 cents per metric ton charge. Official agencies include the cost of GIPSA's supervision fee as part of the fee they charge their customers for grain services. The current average cost for services provided by official agencies is 21 cents per metric ton. Increasing the supervision fee by approximately 0.3 cent per metric ton should minimally increase the total cost of inspection and weighing services to the grain industry.

This notice extends until October 31, 2005, the period in which CCC will automatically reduce any Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payments (DCP) to satisfy a producer's obligation to repay unearned 2003-crop advance counter-cyclical payments. Scheduled payments received during this period include 2004-crop final direct payments, 2004-crop advance counter-cyclical payments, and 2005-crop advance direct payments.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Forest Service announces its intention to extend, with no revision, an information collection. The collected information will help the Forest Service fairly consider administrative appeals from timber companies appealing small business timber sale set-aside recomputations.