Department of Agriculture 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the surplus and purchased foods that the Department expects to make available for donation to States for use in providing nutrition assistance to the needy under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. The foods made available under this notice must, at the discretion of the State, be distributed to eligible recipient agencies (ERAs) for use in preparing meals and/or for distribution to households for home consumption.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the 2014 rates it will charge meat and poultry establishments, egg products plants, and importers and exporters for providing voluntary, overtime, and holiday inspection and identification, certification, and laboratory services. The 2014 basetime, overtime, holiday, and laboratory services rates will be applied on the first FSIS pay period approximately 30 days after the publication of this notice, which begins on February 9, 2014.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is soliciting nominations of veterinary service shortage situations for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) for fiscal year (FY) 2014, as authorized under the National Veterinary Medical Services Act (NVMSA), 7 U.S.C. 3151a. This notice initiates a 60-day nomination period and prescribes the procedures and criteria to be used by State, Insular Area, DC and Federal Lands to nominate veterinary shortage situations. Each year all eligible nominating entities may submit nominations, up to the maximum indicated for each entity in this notice. NIFA is conducting this solicitation of veterinary shortage situation nominations under a previously approved information collection (OMB Control Number 0524-0046).

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the availability of a compliance guideline for official establishments to control and reduce the spread of Salmonella in hog slaughter facilities. The guidance provides information on best practices that may be applied at a hog slaughter facility to prevent, eliminate, or reduce levels of Salmonella on hogs at all stages of slaughter and dressing. This guideline will help hog slaughter establishments better comply with the relevant regulatory requirements. FSIS has posted this guideline on its Web page https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/ topics/regulatory-compliance/compliance-guides-index.

This final rule adopts, with some revisions, changes to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) regulations, as set forth in the interim final rule published in the Federal Register on April 27, 2012. The changes conform to requirements contained in the Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act of 2010 regarding performance-based cash assistance for school food authorities (SFAs) certified compliant with meal pattern and nutrition standards. The changes finalized in this rule include requiring State agencies to certify participating SFAs that are in compliance with meal pattern and nutrition standard requirements as eligible to receive performance-based cash assistance for each reimbursable lunch. This rule also finalizes the requirement in the interim final rule that State agencies disburse performance-based cash assistance to certified SFAs, and withhold the performance-based cash assistance from SFAs determined to be out of compliance with meal pattern or nutrition standards during a subsequent administrative review. Additionally, this final rule is adopting minor changes based on comments on the interim final rule that will help to streamline the certification process. These changes include making permanent the flexibility that State agencies should consider any SFA compliant with the daily and weekly ranges for grain and meat/meat alternates if documentation is compliant with the daily and weekly minimums.

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is adopting as a final rule, without substantive changes, the proposed rule that amends the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations to implement Section 4121 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill), which requires adequate system testing before and after implementation of a new State automated data processing (ADP) and information retrieval system, including the evaluation of data from pilot projects in limited areas for major systems changes, before the Secretary approves the system to be implemented more broadly. The rule also provides that systems be operated in accordance with an adequate plan for continuous updating to reflect changed policy and circumstances, and for testing the effects of the system on access by eligible households and on payment accuracy. This final rule specifies the requirements for submission of a test plan, and changes the due date of an Advance Planning Document Update (APDU) from 90 days after to 60 days prior to the expiration of the Federal financial participation (FFP) approval, and revises language regarding the federal share of costs in consolidated information technology (IT) operations to specify that the threshold for service agreements applies to federally aided public assistance programs, rather than to SNAP alone. In addition, this rule amends SNAP regulations relating to the establishment of an ADP and information retrieval system and to provide clarifications and updates, which have occurred since this section was last updated in 1996.