Department of Agriculture July 12, 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, Rural Housing Service, and the Rural Utilities Service, agencies of the Rural Development mission area within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), hereinafter collectively referred to as the Agency to request approval for a new information collection in support of compliance with applicable acts for planning and performing construction and other development work.

The draft interagency report entitled, Federal Strategy to Advance Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring for the Agriculture and Forest Sectors (Strategy), has been published on the USDA website and is available at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/ documents/Draft-Federal-Ag-and-Forest-MMRV-Strategy.pdf and is also available on https://www.regulations.gov. This is a Request for Information (RFI) issued on behalf of the Administration's Greenhouse Gas Monitoring and Measurement Interagency Working Group (GHG IWG), USDA's Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) requests public comment broadly from individuals, U.S. industry, universities, non-profit organizations, Federal Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), and other U.S. Federal, State, local, Tribal government agencies. This RFI does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that USDA or other agencies of the U.S. Government will take action in this matter. Comments received will inform the GHG IWG, and agencies planning and implementation of an agriculture and forestry monitoring, measurement, reporting, and verification framework and near-term activities, including discussions on potential partnerships.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS or Agency), a Rural Development (RD) mission area of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in the Federal Register on June 22, 2023, to announce the acceptance of applications under the Calendar Year (CY) 2022 Disaster Water Grants Program for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. The NOFO also announced the availability of at least $247,250,000 in grant funding through the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023. Grant funds will be made available to qualified, rural applicants to pay for necessary expenses related to water infrastructure systems damaged by events that occurred during CY 2022 and were recognized through Presidentially Declared Disasters. This correction notice is amending the list of states that were identified as containing areas that have been impacted by qualifying events during CY 2022.