Department of Agriculture April 12, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) published a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and solicitation of applications in the Federal Register on Friday, December 14, 2018, announcing its general policy and application procedures for funding under the broadband pilot program (ReConnect) established pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 which provides loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations to facilitate broadband deployment in rural areas. Since the publication of the FOA, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 (2019 Appropriations Act) became law on February 15, 2019. The purpose of this notice is to inform the public of changes made to the ReConnect Program, specifically the updated service area eligibility policies, pursuant to the 2019 Appropriations Act, and other program updates.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to remove lists of foreign countries eligible to export meat, poultry, and egg products to the United States from its regulations and, instead, utilize lists posted on FSIS' website. A reference to the web address would be included in FSIS' regulations. This change would allow FSIS to more efficiently provide the public with more accurate and up-to-date information. The criteria FSIS uses to evaluate whether a foreign country is eligible to export meat, poultry, or egg products would remain in the regulations and would not change. FSIS would continue to provide an opportunity for public comment when proposing to list new countries as eligible to export these products to the United States.