Department of Agriculture 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the availability of and requesting comment on the revised guideline to assist poultry establishments in controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter in raw poultry. The Agency has revised its guideline to provide updated information for establishments to use to control pathogens in raw poultry products with the goal of reducing human illnesses associated with consuming poultry contaminated with Salmonella and Campylobacter. The guideline represents the best practice recommendations of FSIS based on scientific and practical considerations. This document does not represent regulatory requirements. By following this guideline, poultry establishments should be able to produce raw poultry products that have less contamination with pathogens, including Salmonella and Campylobacter, than would otherwise be the case.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on the Agency's proposed information collection for the Summer Food Service Program. This collection is a revision of a currently approved information collection.

We are proposing to consolidate the regulations governing bovine tuberculosis, and those governing brucellosis. As part of this consolidation, we are proposing to transition the tuberculosis and brucellosis programs away from a State classification system based in disease prevalence. Instead, States and Tribes would implement animal health plans that identify sources of the diseases within the State or Tribal lands and specify mitigations to address the risk posed by those sources. The consolidated regulations would also set forth standards for surveillance, epidemiological investigations, and affected herd management that must be incorporated into each animal health plan, with certain limited exceptions; would provide revised conditions for the interstate movement of cattle, bison, and captive cervids; and would provide revised conditions for APHIS approval of tests, testing laboratories, and testers for bovine tuberculosis or brucellosis. Finally, we are proposing to revise the bovine tuberculosis- and brucellosis-related import requirements for cattle and bison to make these requirements clearer and assure that they more effectively mitigate the risk of introduction of these diseases into the United States.

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), is sponsoring a public meeting on January 14, 2016. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States (U.S.) positions to be discussed at the 22nd Session of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), taking place in Melbourne, Australia, February 6-12, 2016. The Under Secretary for Food Safety recognizes the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 22nd Session of the CCFICS and to address items on the agenda.

This final rule addresses recommendations submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) following their October 2014 meeting. These recommendations pertain to the 2015 Sunset Review of substances on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List). Consistent with the recommendations from the NOSB, this final rule removes two nonorganic agricultural substances from the National List for use in organic handling, fortified cooking winesmarsala wine and sherry wine. This final rule also removes two listings for synthetic substances allowed for use in organic crop production on the National List, streptomycin and tetracycline, as their use exemptions expired on October 21, 2014.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (Agency) published a notice in the Federal Register of October 6, 2015 (80 FR 60349), announcing the acceptance of applications for funds available under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. The 2014 Farm Bill provides funding for the program for FY 2016. This notice provides an amendment to Section V. Application Review Information, subsection A. Evaluation Criteria, to allow points to be awarded if any of the criteria are met and to maintain consistency with other Rural Development programs on how poverty areas are defined.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection for the Residue and Biomass Field Survey.

This notice announces the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) determination not to conduct a continuance referendum regarding the 1991 amendments to the Cotton Research and Promotion Order (Order) provided for in the Cotton Research and Promotion Act (Act) amendments of 1990. This determination is based on the results of a sign-up period conducted August 3 through August 14, 2015, during which eligible cotton producers and importers were provided an opportunity to request a continuance referendum.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has reached a preliminary decision to extend our determination of nonregulated status of Innate\TM\ potato to Snowden potato variety event SPS-00V11-6 (hereinafter V11 potato) in response to a request from the J.R. Simplot Company. V11 potato has been genetically engineered to exhibit low acrylamide potential in cooked potatoes and reduced black spot bruise. We are making available for public comment our preliminary finding of no significant impact, our similarity assessment, and our preliminary extended determination of nonregulated status.

This proposed regulation would allow Community Forest and Open Space Program (Community Forest Program) grant recipients to issue conservation easements to funding entities and, in some circumstances consistent with the program's purposes, convey community forest land to other eligible entities. The proposed regulation would also clarify definitions of program-specific terms, streamline the application process, and implement Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Agriculture's Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR parts 200 and 400).

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is adopting, as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that implemented a recommendation from the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee (Committee) to decrease the assessment rate established for the 2015-2016 and subsequent fiscal periods from $0.10 to $0.05 per hundredweight of onions handled under the Idaho-Eastern Oregon onion marketing order (order). The Committee locally administers the order and is comprised of producers and handlers of onions operating within the area of production. Assessments upon onion handlers are used by the Committee to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The fiscal period begins July 1 and ends June 30. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

The Siskiyou County Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) will meet in Yreka, California. The committee is authorized under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (the Act) and operates in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The purpose of the committee is to improve collaborative relationships and to provide advice and recommendations to the Forest Service concerning projects and funding consistent with Title II of the Act. RAC informaiton can be found at the following Web site: https://cloudapps- usda-gov.force.com/FSSRS/RAC_Meeting_Page?id=a2zt00000004CyPA AU.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request extension without change of a currently approved information collection, the Generic Clearance for Survey Research Studies. There are no revisions to burden hours or the number of responses under this information collection request.

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) increases its Patent Culture Collection charges, and revises the method of payment.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection, the Cold Storage Survey. Revision to burden hours will be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, expected increases in response rates, and modes of data collection. The questionnaires have had some minor modifications to accommodate changes in the products stored by the industry, and to make the questionnaires easier to complete. The target population for cold storage operators (both mandatory and voluntary samples) will be contacted for this data on a monthly basis. Fruit storage operations are contacted on a monthlyseasonal basis. The capacity survey is conducted once every other year of all operations with refrigerated storage capacity. Most of these surveys are voluntary; the one exception is for operations that store certain manufactured dairy products that are required by Public Law 106-532 and 107-171 to respond.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This is a revision of an existing collection for the Food and Nutrition Service to describe the roles of community-based organizations (CBOs) in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and to assess if, and how, the use of CBOs to conduct SNAP applicant interviews has impacted SNAP program outcomes such as timeliness, payment error rates, access, and client satisfaction across five (5) States.

In 2007, the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, now the Uinta- Wasatch-Cache National Forest (UWCNF), along with other forests in the Nation issued a number of decisions reissuing term grazing permits on range allotments using a provisional categorical exclusion (CE) authorized by Congress. In 2010, the United States Forest Service was sued for authorizing grazing on allotments using this CE authority. In December 2013, the Intermountain Region and the United States District Court for the District Court of Idaho agreed to the Range CE settlement agreement. This agreement stipulated that the UWCNF would issue a scoping notice by May 2014 on five domestic sheep allotments. These were Gilbert Peak, Hessie Lake-Henry's Fork, Red Castle, East Fork Blacks Fork, and the Middle Fork Blacks Fork allotments. In reviewing the management of these domestic sheep allotments it became apparent that the effects of grazing had to be considered for both the north and south slope of the Uinta Mountains because sheep trailed from the north slope of the Uinta Mountains to the south slope for the summer grazing season. Therefore, the analysis was then extended to include the Painter Basin, Tungsten, Oweep, Ottoson Basin, and Fall Creek sheep allotments on the Ashley National Forest, which are some of the domestic sheep allotments on the south slope of the Uinta Mountains. Since 2007, various species of terrestrial and aquatic animals as well as plants have been added to or removed from the Regional Forester's Sensitive Species (RFSS) list. The RFSS will be analyzed as part of the EIS. In May of 2014, scoping was initiated for this project; at that time, it was anticipated that the project would be completed as an Environmental Assessment. Since then, it has become apparent that there is a potential for significant impacts and that an Environmental Impact Statement is needed. This project will evaluate the effects of continued domestic sheep grazing on these 10 allotments. These 10 sheep allotments located on the north and south slopes of the Uinta Mountains and are located in the Ashley or Uinta-Wasatch-Cache NFs.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Business Operations, Office of Regulatory and Management Services (ORMS) is preparing to revise a portion of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) governing public participation requirements and procedures related to the issuance or revision of internal Agency directives. The Forest Service is committed to ensuring that a broad and representative cross- section of the interested public is provided advance notice and a full and fair opportunity to comment upon the formulation of standards, criteria, and guidelines applicable to Forest Service programs. In keeping with this commitment, the Agency is interested in enhancing its public engagement and expanding its approach for public notice and comment beyond just formal rulemaking. The Agency has identified a need to update the relevant regulations to reflect the varied media consumption patterns of key Forest Service stakeholders and the public at large. These potential regulatory revisions are also necessary to ensure that written policies align with the Agency's current practices, which have changed to ensure compliance with recent court orders. The Agency is hosting a webinar for all interested members of the general public to inform the public of these changes to the Forest Service's public participation procedures. This session will include additional information on the need for these changes and the outcomes the Agency is seeking to achieve. It will also include an outline of a potential path forward and provide attendees an opportunity to ask questions, provide input, and suggest ideas.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to seek approval to conduct a new information collection to gather data related to the production and marketing of foods directly from farm producers to consumers or retailers. In addition NASS will collect some whole-farm data to be used to classify and group operations for summarizing and publication of results.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the other Federal Departments and Agencies listed in this document are extending the comment period on the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects notice of proposed rulemaking. The NPRM requests comment on proposed revisions to modernize, strengthen, and make more effective the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects that was promulgated as a Common Rule in 1991. The NPRM was published in the Federal Register on September 8, 2015.

This rule implements a recommendation from the Florida Tomato Committee (Committee) for a decrease in the assessment rate established for the 2015-16 and subsequent fiscal periods from $0.0375 to $0.03 per 25-pound carton of tomatoes handled under the marketing order (order). The Committee locally administers the order and is comprised of producers of tomatoes operating within the area of production. Assessments upon tomato handlers are used by the Committee to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The fiscal period begins August 1 and ends July 31. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This document contains corrections to the published rule in the Federal Register of March 13, 2015, entitled ``Rural Development Loan Servicing.''