Department of Agriculture January 13, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 2703 of Title II of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Act) (Pub. L. 110-246) reauthorizes the subsection on Regional Equity established under section 1241(d) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3841(d)), as amended (Regional Equity provision). The purpose of this provision is to give priority to certain states for certain conservation program funding. States eligible to receive funding through the Regional Equity provision are those that have not received, for a given fiscal year, an aggregate allocation of at least $15,000,000 from programs specified in the Regional Equity provision. In addition, States must have approved applications for financial and technical assistance under the specified programs in order to be eligible to receive funding. The Regional Equity programs are all of the conservation programs authorized by subtitle D, Title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985, 16 U.S.C. 3801 et seq., except for the Conservation Reserve Program, the Wetland Reserve Program, and the Conservation Security Program, which are excluded from the conservation programs affected by the Regional Equity provision. This interim final rule sets forth how the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will implement the Regional Equity provision.

We are proposing to amend the domestic livestock regulations to require that when animal identification numbers (AINs) are used, only those numbers beginning with the 840 prefix will be recognized as official for use on all AIN tags applied to animals 1 year or more after the date on which this proposed rule is finalized. In addition, we are proposing to require that all new premises identification numbers (PINs) that are issued on or after the effective date of this rule use the seven-character alphanumeric code format. Official eartags that use a premises based numbering system issued after a 1-year phase- in period will be required to use the seven-character alphanumeric code format as well. Further, we are proposing several changes pertaining to the use of the U.S. shield on official eartags, numbering systems that use such eartags, and the correlation of those numbering systems with the PIN. These proposed changes are intended to achieve greater standardization and uniformity of official numbering systems and eartags used in animal disease programs and to enhance animal traceability, as discussed in previous Federal Register documents pertaining to the National Animal Identification System.