Department of Agriculture September 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS) Caribou-Targhee National Forest (CTNF), have prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed East Smoky Panel Mine Project (Project), and by this Notice announce the opening of the public comment period.

On May 31, 2018, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) signed a Record of Decision for the Sterling Highway MP 45-60 Project, which involves highway construction and reconstruction near Cooper Landing, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service participated as a cooperating agency with FHWA and Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in the preparation of the draft and final Environmental Impact Statements (EIS). To support the FHWA decision, the Forest Service proposes a project-specific Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan) amendment to make the selected route consistent with the Chugach Forest Plan.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the Economic Research Service (ERS) to request extension of a currently approved information collection, the Generic Clearance for Survey Research Studies.

This notice helps to improve applicants' awareness of the Guarantee Fee rates for Guaranteed Loans for fiscal year (FY) 2019, the Maximum Portion of Guarantee Authority Available for FY 2019, and the Annual Renewal Fee for FY 2019 when applying for guaranteed loans under the Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program. The Agency has the authority to charge a guarantee fee and an annual renewal fee for loans made under the B&I Guaranteed Loan Program. Pursuant to that authority, and subject to the Continuing Resolution, the Agency is establishing an initial guarantee fee rate of 3 percent and an annual renewal fee rate of one-half of 1 percent for the B&I Guaranteed Loan Program. The initial guarantee fee is paid at the time the Loan Note Guarantee is issued. The annual renewal fee is paid by the lender to the Agency once a year. Payment of the annual renewal fee is required in order to maintain the enforceability of the guarantee. Additionally, the Agency will require the borrower to have an active System for Award Management (SAM) registration prior to obligation and maintain the active registration until all funds are disbursed.

This notice announces the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) intention to request an extension and a revision to the currently approved Advisory Committee and Research and Promotion Background Information AD-755 Supplemental ListAgricultural Marketing Service Commodity Specific Questionnaire. The revised form will now require applicants to indicate their U.S. citizenship status. The primary objective is to determine the qualifications, suitability, and availability of a candidate to serve on advisory committees and/or research and promotion boards.

As part of a final rule published in the Federal Register on October 5, 2012, we amended and republished the list of select agents and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to animal or plant health, or to animal or plant products. In that final rule we removed bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent from the list of select agents or toxins, but we neglected to remove it from the list of those select agents or toxins whose seizure must be reported within 24 hours by telephone, facsimile, or email. We are remedying that oversight in this document. We are also updating the name of another select agent to reflect its most current scientific classification, correcting a typographical error, and updating the name of a guidance document referenced in the regulations.

The Rural Utilities Service (the Agency) published a 60-day notice in the Federal Register on September 6, 2018, inviting comments on information collection for which approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be requested. The document provided incorrect date. This notice provides for a correction to the ``Date'' caption to allow for a 60-day comment period.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. App 2, Section 1408 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3123), and the Agricultural Act of 2014, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces a virtual meeting of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board.

The U.S Codex Program is sponsoring a public meeting on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. 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 40th session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Berlin, Germany November 26-30, 2018. The U.S. Manager for Codex Alimentarius and the Under Secretary, Office of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 40th Session of the CCNFSDU and to address items on the agenda.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend the Siluriformes fish inspection regulations to list Thailand as a country eligible to export Siluriformes fish and fish products to the United States. FSIS is proposing this action because the Agency has reviewed Thailand's laws, regulations, and inspection system as implemented and has determined that Thailand's Siluriformes fish inspection system is equivalent to the system that the United States has established under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and its implementing regulations. Under this proposal, only raw Siluriformes fish and fish products produced in certified Thailand establishments would be eligible for export to the United States. All such products would continue to be subject to re-inspection at U.S. points-of-entry by FSIS inspectors.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend the Siluriformes fish inspection regulations to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) as a country eligible to export Siluriformes fish and fish products to the United States. FSIS is proposing this action because the Agency has reviewed Vietnam's laws, regulations, and inspection system as implemented and has determined that Vietnam's Siluriformes fish inspection system is equivalent to the system that the United States has established under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and its implementing regulations. Under this proposal, only raw Siluriformes fish and fish products produced in certified Vietnamese establishments would be eligible for export to the United States. All such products would continue to be subject to re-inspection at U.S. points-of-entry by FSIS inspectors.

In accordance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Deepwater Horizon Federal and State natural resource trustee agencies for the Alabama Trustee Implementation Group (AL TIG) have prepared a Final Restoration Plan II and Environmental Assessment (Final RP II/EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The Final RP II/EA describes the restoration project alternatives considered by the AL TIG to meet the Trustees' goals to restore and conserve habitat, replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources, restore water quality, and provide for monitoring and adaptive management. The AL TIG evaluated these alternatives under criteria set forth in the OPA natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) regulations and evaluated the environmental consequences of the restoration alternatives in accordance with NEPA. Monitoring and adaptive management activities to address information gaps necessary to inform future restoration are included in this Final RP II/EA. The purpose of this notice is to inform the public of the availability of the Final RP II/EA and FONSI.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Forest Service is seeking comments from all interested individuals and organizations on the renewal of a currently approved information collection, Understanding Value Trade-offs regarding Fire Hazard Reduction Programs in the Wildland-Urban Interface (OMB # 0596-0189), with a revision for the removal of in-depth phone interviews and minor changes in questionnaire.

The USDA Forest Service, Bridger-Teton National Forest is issuing this notice to advise the public that the public scoping period for the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement on the Snow King Mountain Resort On-mountain Improvements Project has been reopened.

Notice is hereby given of the intention of NRCS to issue a technical note on a group of recommended standard methods for soil health indicators selected by a collaborative multi-organizational effort, as described in the document. USDA/NRCS and partner efforts to assess soil health problems and impacts of management nationally, as part of conservation planning and implementation, will be facilitated if soil health indicators are measured using a standard set of methods. Soil health is defined as the capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem to sustain plants, animals, and humans. Six key soil physical and biological processes were identified that must function well in a healthy soil, and therefore would especially benefit from measurement methods standardization: (1) Organic matter dynamics and carbon sequestration, (2) soil structural stability, (3) general microbial activity, (4) C food source, (5) bioavailable N, and (6) microbial community diversity. The chosen methods met several criteria including indicator effectiveness with respect to management sensitivity and process interpretability, ease of use, cost effectiveness, measurement repeatability, and ability to be used for agricultural management decisions. The soil health indicator methods included are soil organic carbon (dry combustion), water-stable aggregation (Mikha and Rice, 2004), short-term mineralizable carbon (Schindelbeck et al., 2016), four enzymes: [beta]-glucosidase (Deng and Popova, 2011), N-acetyl-[beta]-D-glucosaminidase (Deng and Popova, 2011), acid or alkaline phosphatase (Acosta-Mart[iacute]nez and Tabatabai, 2011), and arylsulfatase (Klose et al., 2011), permanganate oxidizable carbon (Schindelbeck et al. 2016), autoclaved citrate extractable (ACE) protein (Schindelbeck et al. 2016), and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (Buyer and Sasser 2012). Standard operating procedures to be used in laboratories have been provided in the appendices.

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest will be implementing new fees at four cabin/lookout rentals, six campgrounds, two group campsites, and nine day use sites. Fees are assessed based on the level of amenities and services provided, cost of operation and maintenance, market assessment, and public comment. Fee receipts will be used to improve customer services, operate and maintain facilities and to make needed improvements. A complete list of the site fees can be found at: https:// www.fs.usda.gov/detail/rogue-siskiyou/home/?cid=FSEPRD571220.

The Huron-Manistee National Forests proposes to charge fees at several campsites and special recreation areas. Fees range from $5 per day to $60 per day based on the level of amenities and services provided, cost of operations and maintenance, and market assessment. A new day use fee of $5 per vehicle is proposed for Iargo Springs Interpretive Site, McKinley Horse Trailhead, Luzerne Horse Trailhead, and Eagle Run Cross Country Ski Trailhead. New camping fees of $10 per night are proposed for Red Bridge Access, Sulak Recreation Area, McKinley Horse Trail Campsites, Buttercup Backcountry Campsites, Cathedral Pines Backcountry Group Campsite, Meadow Springs Backcountry Campsites, Bear Island Backcountry Campsites, River Dune Backcountry Campsites, Luzerne Horse Trail Campground, and Government Landing Access Campsites. New group campground fees of $45 per night are proposed for the group sites at AuSable Loop Recreation Area Campground, Mack Lake ORV Campground, Kneff Lake Recreation Area, and Gabions Campground. New group campground fee of $60 per night is proposed for the group sites at McKinley Horse Trail Campground, Luzerne Horse Trail Campground, and River Road Horse Trail Camp. Fees will be determined upon further analysis and public comment. An analysis of nearby campsites with similar amenities shows that the proposed fees are reasonable and typical of similar sites in the area. Funds from fees would be used for the continued operation and maintenance and improvements of these sites.

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 collection is an extension, without change, of a currently approved collection to conduct various procedures to test questionnaires and survey procedures to improve the quality and usability of information collection instruments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing to amend the Guidelines for Designating Biobased Products for Federal Procurement (Guidelines) to add 30 sections that will designate the product categories within which biobased products would be afforded procurement preference by Federal agencies and their contractors. These 30 product categories contain finished products that are made, in large part, from intermediate ingredients that have been proposed for designation for Federal procurement preference. USDA is also proposing minimum biobased contents for each of these product categories. Additionally, USDA is proposing to amend the existing designated product categories of general purpose de-icers, firearm lubricants, laundry products, and water clarifying agents.

The Forest Service is requesting comments from the public regarding the need to clarify or to otherwise enhance its regulations that minimize adverse environmental impacts on National Forest System surface resources in connection with operations authorized by the United States mining laws. These rules and procedures govern prospecting, exploration, development, mining, and processing operations conducted on National Forest System lands authorized by the Mining Law of 1872, as amended, subsequent reclamation of the land, and any necessary long-term post-closure resource management. The goals of the regulatory revision are to expedite Forest Service review of certain proposed mineral operations authorized by the United States mining laws, and, where applicable, Forest Service approval of some of these proposals by clarifying the regulations, to increase consistency with the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) surface management regulations governing operations authorized by the United States mining laws to assist those who conduct these operations on lands managed by each agency, and to increase the Forest Service's nationwide consistency in regulating mineral operations authorized by the United States mining laws by clarifying its regulations .

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is extending the period for interested parties to submit an expression of interest for a proposed new headquarters location for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Economic Research Service (ERS). The Department is extending the period to submit an expression of interest for 30 days.