Department of Agriculture April 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document makes nomenclature changes to subpart headings in the Agricultural Marketing Service's regulations to bring the language into conformance with the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) requirements.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request a revision to and extension of approval of an information collection associated with regulations for the importation of beef and ovine meat from Uruguay and beef from Argentina and Brazil.

We are proposing to amend the animal disease regulations to provide for a National List of Reportable Animal Diseases, along with reporting responsibilities for animal health professionals that encounter or suspect cases of communicable animal diseases and disease agents. These proposed changes are necessary to streamline State and Federal cooperative animal disease detection, response, and control efforts. This action would consolidate and enhance current disease reporting mechanisms, and would complement and supplement existing animal disease tracking and reporting at the State level.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), a Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), hereinafter referred to as RUS or the Agency, is issuing a final rule to establish the Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP) as authorized by Section 6407 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, as amended and the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to assist rural families and small businesses achieve cost savings by providing loans to eligible entities that agree to make loans to qualified consumers to implement durable cost-effective energy efficiency measures. This rule describes the eligibility requirements, the application process, the criteria that will be used by RUS to assess Applicants' creditworthiness and how to obtain application materials.

We are advising the public that we have prepared a commodity import evaluation document (CIED) relative to the importation into the United States of citrus (grapefruit, lemon, mandarin orange, sweet orange, tangelo, and Satsuma mandarin) fruit from South Africa. Based on the findings of the CIED, we are proposing to remove restrictions on the ports of entry into which citrus from South Africa may be imported into the United States. We are making the CIED available to the public for review and comment.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is issuing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) in response to recent changes to the United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA or Act). The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill) amended the USGSA to allow customers to obtain grain inspection services from other than the designated official inspection agency (OA) for the customer's geographic area if the customer has not been receiving services from the designated OA. AMS is seeking public comment on criteria to evaluate requests submitted under this provision, known as the ``nonuse of service'' exception. The Agency is also seeking input on criteria to evaluate requests submitted under another USGSA exception provision, ``timely service.''