Department of Agriculture November 24, 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RB-CS) (Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is issuing a final rule to amend the interim rule published on May 22, 2020. The interim rule amended the Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program to allow flexibility to obligate Federal funds for guaranteed loans pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in response to the national COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. This final rule addresses public comments received on the interim rule and makes clarifying modifications identified by commenters and the Agency.

This rule revises the general regulations for Federal marketing orders covering fruits, vegetables, and specialty crops by updating the section regarding information collections. Further, this rule updates nomenclature in the general regulations, numerous Federal marketing orders, the import regulations, the domestic hemp program regulations, and the peanut handling regulations administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Finally, this rule corrects typographical errors found in the AMS marketing order and import regulations and removes regulations no longer in effect. These changes are necessary to provide more accurate information in the regulations moving forward.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published a notice in the Federal Register of November 20, 2023, concerning the availability of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Organic Market Development Grant Program (OMDG) for public review and comments. The notice contained an incorrect link to the Draft PEA.