Department of Agriculture December 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the reconvening of the national public hearing which began on August 23, 2023, in Carmel, Indiana, to consider and take evidence on proposals to amend the pricing formulas in the 11 Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs).

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is correcting non- substantive errors in the regulatory text of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards (OLPS) final rule published on November 2, 2023. The corrections are intended to improve readability and clarity.

This proposed rule would implement a recommendation from the California Date Administrative Committee (Committee) to decrease the assessment rate established for the 2023-2024 and subsequent crop years. The proposed assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

The U.S. Codex Office is sponsoring a public meeting on February 5, 2024. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 54th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). CCFH54 will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from March 11-March 15, 2024. The U.S. Manager for Codex Alimentarius and the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 54th Session of the CCFH and to address items on the agenda.

Pursuant to section 135 of the Trade Act of 1974 and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, notice is hereby given that the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary), in coordination with the United States Trade Representative (Trade Representative or USTR), is soliciting nominations for the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee (APAC) and the related Agricultural Technical Advisory Committees (ATACs) for Trade to provide detailed policy and technical advice, information, and recommendations regarding trade barriers, negotiation of trade agreements, and implementation of existing trade agreements affecting food and agricultural products, including the performance of other advisory functions relevant to U.S. agricultural trade policy matters. The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) continues to welcome nominations for persons to serve on APAC and ATACs. The APAC and ATACs charters were renewed on June 13, 2023, and the committees are in the public interest in connection with the duties of USDA imposed by the Trade Act of 1974, as amended.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will hold a public meeting of the Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Advisory Committee (UAIPAC). UAIPAC will convene to discuss proposed recommendations for the Secretary of Agriculture on the development of policies and outreach relating to urban, indoor, and other emerging agriculture production practices. UAIPAC is authorized under the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) and operates in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended.

FSIS is announcing the 2024 rates it will charge meat, poultry, and egg products establishments, and importers and exporters for providing voluntary, overtime, and holiday inspection and identification, certification, and laboratory services. Additionally, FSIS is announcing that there will be no changes to the fee FSIS assesses to exporters that choose to apply for export certificates electronically through the export component of the Agency's Public Health Information System. The 2024 basetime, overtime, holiday, and laboratory services rates will be applied on January 14, 2024.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from all interested individuals and entities on an extension of a currently approved information collection associated with FSA county committee elections. The collection of information from FSA farmers and ranchers is used to receive nominations from eligible voters for the FSA county committee.

The United States Department of Agriculture (Department) is proposing to amend all land management plans for units of the National Forest System (128 plans in total) to include consistent direction to conserve and steward existing and recruit future old-growth forest conditions and to monitor their condition across planning areas of the National Forest System. The intent is to foster the long-term resilience of old-growth forest conditions and their contributions to ecological integrity across the National Forest System. This notice initiates a scoping period on a preliminary proposed action and advises the public that the Department is preparing an environmental impact statement to evaluate the effects of amending the 128 land management plans.

The Northwest Forest Plan Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting according to the details shown below. The Committee is authorized under the National Forest Management Act (the Act) and operates in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The purpose of the Committee is to provide advice and pragmatic recommendations regarding potential regional scale land management planning approaches and solutions within the Northwest Forest Plan Area within the context of the 2012 planning rule.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed to make changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's Quality Control (SNAP QC) system to strengthen and improve the integrity and accuracy of the system and to better align SNAP QC with requirements in the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA). When published, the proposed rule included an incorrect email address for comments; the reopening of the comment period is intended to allow additional time for the public to submit comments in the event the original comment submission was returned as undeliverable due to the incorrect email address.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting information on proposed revisions to the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act Report (FSA-153 form). The FSA-153 requires updating. Specifically, the FSA-153 form needs clarification and updating to ensure that foreign owners (or long-term lessees) who are required to file the FSA- 153 form have clear instructions and that USDA is collecting the most precise and meaningful data, so that the report to Congress is as accurate and insightful as possible. Foreign owners are investors who buy, sell, or hold a direct or indirect interest in U.S. agricultural land (or who hold long-term leases on agricultural land) and must report their holdings and transactions to USDA on the FSA-153 form. USDA uses the information on the submitted forms to generate the report that it submits to Congress. FSA is moving towards modernizing the collection of information process, clarifying and modernizing the FSA- 153 form, and if funding becomes available, creating an electronic submission system that will allow foreign owners to report by filing electronically. In addition, this document requests public input for our plan to revise not only the information request, but ultimately, the regulation (which will likely result in further modifications at a later date to the FSA-153 form).

The Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Regions of the Forest Service, USDA, are proposing to amend the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). The amendment would apply to those Forest Service units, or parts thereof, with land management plans amended in 1994 by the NWFP or with land management plans developed later to include provisions of the NWFP. Units in the Pacific Northwest Region (Region 6) include: Deschutes National Forest, Fremont-Winema National Forest, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Mt. Hood National Forest, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Olympic National Forest, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, Siuslaw National Forest, Umpqua National Forest, and Willamette National Forest. Units in the Pacific Southwest Region (Region 5) include: Klamath National Forest and Butte Valley National Grassland, Lassen National Forest, Mendocino National Forest, Modoc National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest, and Shasta-Trinity National Forest. This notice initiates a scoping period on a preliminary proposed action and advises the public that the Forest Service is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the effects of amending the Northwest Forest Plan.

In accordance with the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (RPA), the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA), the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA), and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), the United States Department of Agriculture announces its intent through its Secretary to reestablish the Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board. The Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board will advise the Secretary of Agriculture on programmatic forest issues and project level issues that have forest-wide implications. The Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board will be governed by the provisions of FACA. Duration of the Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board is for two years unless renewed by the Secretary, USDA. This notice also solicits nominations for membership on the Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board.

The Salmon-Challis National Forest is proposing to establish several new recreation fee sites. Recreation fee revenues collected at the new recreation fee sites would be used for operation, maintenance, and improvement of the sites. An analysis of nearby recreation fee sites with similar amenities shows the recreation fees that would be charged at the new recreation fee sites are reasonable and typical of similar recreation fee sites in the area.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, FSIS is announcing its intention to collect information using web surveys to test new labels for safe handling of raw and partially cooked meat and poultry products. This is a new information collection with 3,550 hours.

The Rural Business- Cooperative Service (RB-CS or Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is publishing a stay of effective date for the final rule published in the Federal Register on November 24, 2023. The stay of the effective date for 60-days as provided in this notification will bring the final rule into compliance with the Congressional Review Act. This notification also corrects the reference to Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review, which the final rule was determined to be significant.

This rule finalizes provisions of a proposed rule published on June 27, 2022. With this final rule, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is revising Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations that cover collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data by State agencies on persons receiving benefits from SNAP. This rule removes regulatory language that provides an example that State agencies might collect race and ethnicity data by observation (also referred to as ``visual observation'') when participants do not voluntarily provide the information on the application form. In addition, based on feedback from the commenters, this rule prohibits using visual observation as a data collection method for race and ethnicity. Through this rulemaking, FNS intends to improve the quality of data collected for purposes of Federal civil rights law and policy including title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service is committed to promoting equity and inclusion through its Federal nutrition assistance programs. This regulatory change is consistent with this Administration's priorities and furthers FNS' commitment to building equitable and inclusive systems for nutrition access.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) intention to request approval from the Office of Management and Budget, for an extension and revision to the currently approved information collection entitled Cotton Classing, Testing, and Standards.

The Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board will hold a public meeting according to the details shown below. The Board is authorized under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974, the National Forest Management Act of 1976, the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, and operates in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The purpose of the Board is to provide advice and recommendations on a broad range of forest issues such as forest plan revisions or amendments, forest health including fire, insect and disease, travel management, forest monitoring and evaluation, recreation fees, and site-specific projects having forest- wide implications.

As part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the process to seek feedback from the public on service delivery, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Farm Service Agency (FSA) has submitted a Generic Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' to OMB for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).