Department of Agriculture March 23, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This vegetation management project is designed to achieve goals of enhanced forest stand resilience and resistance to insect and disease agents by altering stand density, species composition, and age class structure, via use of timber harvesting and prescribed fire use. Big game forage would be enhanced through use of prescribed fire to rejuvenate and increase palatability of shrubs and grasses, including some sites within Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRA). No mechanical activities are proposed within IRA boundaries. This Project was originally initiated in 2010 with scoping of the proposed action. In addition, in 2011 public scoping was again initiated in reference to openings sizes exceeding 40 acres and the requirement for a project-specific Forest Plan amendment related to open road density in areas managed for big game summer range. Subsequent analyses of potential environmental effects were documented in an Environmental Assessment (EA). Based on the level of interest, and recognizing the scope and potential issues associated with the project, as the Forest Supervisor for the Kootenai National Forest I have made the decision to halt the EA process and commence with the process to document findings in an Environmental Impact Statement. The comments received during the scoping process for the Environmental Assessment will be used in preparation of the EIS; therefore scoping will not be reinitiated.

This Notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk for the period from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013. These guidelines are used by schools, institutions, and facilities participating in the National School Lunch Program (and Commodity School Program), School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program for Children, Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program. The annual adjustments are required by section 9 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. The guidelines are intended to direct benefits to those children most in need and are revised annually to account for changes in the Consumer Price Index.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This is a new collection for the Food and Nutrition Service to update and build upon previous research conducted in the 1990's, the WIC Infant Feeding Practices (WIC IFPS-1). The currently planned study will provide contemporary information on the feeding practices of this specific population of children enrolled in WIC over the first two years of their lives. It will determine the prevalence of particular feeding practices in the WIC population, and assess whether the new WIC food packages, instituted in 2009, have influenced those feeding practices, specifically as it relates to breastfeeding rates. This study will also examine the circumstances and influences that shape a mother's feeding decisions for their child and describe the impact of these decisions throughout early child development.

On April 2, 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) implemented the Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) program as required by the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 (1999 Act). In October 2006, the LMR program was reauthorized by Congress through September 2010. On September 28, 2010, the Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 2010 (2010 Reauthorization Act) reauthorized LMR for an additional 5 years and added a provision for mandatory reporting of wholesale pork cuts. The 2010 Reauthorization Act directed the Secretary to engage in negotiated rulemaking to make required regulatory changes for mandatory wholesale pork reporting and establish a negotiated rulemaking committee to develop these changes. This proposed rule reflects the work of the USDA Wholesale Pork Reporting Negotiated Rulemaking Committee (Committee).