Department of Agriculture August 29, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On May 20, 2008, the Secretary of Agriculture announced that the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) would begin working on a proposed rule to prohibit the slaughter of all non-ambulatory disabled cattle, without exception. As announced by the Secretary, FSIS is proposing to amend the Federal meat inspection regulations to remove the provision that states that FSIS inspection personnel will determine the disposition of cattle that become non-ambulatory disabled after they have passed ante-mortem inspection on a case-by-case basis. This proposed rule will require that all cattle that are non-ambulatory disabled at the time they are presented for ante-mortem inspection at an official establishment, and all those that become non-ambulatory disabled after passing ante-mortem inspection, be condemned and properly disposed of.

The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) is soliciting stakeholder input on the implementation of the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), which is authorized under section 1415A of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3151a). The purpose of this program is for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enter into agreements with veterinarians under which the veterinarians agree to provide, for a specific period of time as identified in the agreement, veterinary services in veterinarian shortage situations. As part of the stakeholder input process, CSREES is conducting a public meeting to solicit comments regarding the implementing regulations to be developed for this program.

The Department of Agriculture, Forest Service has initiated the process to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a road easement issuance to McKinley County for Forest Roads (FRs) 191 and 191D. The proposed action would grant an easement to McKinley County for FRs 191 and 191D and reassign an existing easement (dated December 21, 2001, from David Polich et al.) to the Forest Service across private land within Section 9, T 13 N, R 16 W, NMPM to McKinley County. The granting of the right-of-way allows McKinley County to upgrade the roads and take over their maintenance. The upgrade would make these portions of FR 191 and FR191D, approximately 2.78 miles, all-weather roads.