Department of Agriculture November 20, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will host a series of public meetings to provide the public with an opportunity to offer comments regarding current challenges and new approaches for future tuberculosis control methods and eradication in view of budgetary constraints.

We are amending the animal importation regulations by removing South Carolina from the lists of States approved to receive certain stallions and mares imported into the United States from regions affected with contagious equine metritis. This action is necessary because South Carolina no longer offers contagious equine metritis quarantine or treatment services and has requested removal from the lists.

USDA Rural Development administers rural utilities programs through the Rural Utilities Service. USDA Rural Development announces the availability of grants from the Household Water Well System (HWWS) Grant Program for fiscal year (FY) 2009, to be competitively awarded. This notice is being issued prior to passage of a final appropriations bill, which may or may not provide for funding this program, to allow applicants sufficient time to leverage financing and submit applications. USDA Rural Development will publish a subsequent notice identifying the amount received in the appropriations, if any. The HWWS Grant Program is authorized under Section 6010 of the Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (The Act), Public Law 110-234. The CONACT authorizes USDA Rural Development to make grants to qualified private non-profit organizations to establish lending programs for household water wells. The non-profit organizations will use the grants to make loans to individual homeowners to construct or upgrade a household water well system for an existing home. The organizations must contribute an amount equal to at least 10 percent of the grant request to capitalize the loan fund. Applications may be submitted in paper or electronic format. The HWWS Grant Program regulations are contained in 7 CFR part 1776.

This Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeks comments for the development of a proposed rule to implement a BioRefinery Assistance guaranteed loan program. In conjunction with this ANPRM, USDA is publishing a separate notice in this Federal Register announcing a Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) for a BioRefinery Assistance Program to provide guaranteed loans for the development and construction of commercial-scale biorefineries or for the retrofitting of existing facilities using eligible technology for the development of advanced biofuels. The comments being sought under this ANPRM reference the biorefinery assistance program described in a separate notice published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.