Agricultural Marketing Service January 11, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposes supplemental fees for the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Office covering a variety of administrative services that are not currently charged by the program. These include administrative service requests for: replenishment of seed low in germination or seed number; submission of new application data after notice of allowance, but prior to certificate issuance; recording any revision, withdrawal, or revocation of an assignment; and protest to the issuance of a certificate. The allowance and issuance fee will be increased also to recover the costs of enhancing the PVP program's electronic archiving capabilities. Also, technical amendments are proposed which would revise or remove obsolete language.

This rule would increase the assessment rate established for the California Desert Grape Administrative Committee (committee) for the 2005 and subsequent fiscal periods from $0.015 to $0.0175 per 18- pound lug of grapes handled. The committee locally administers the marketing order which regulates the handling of grapes grown in a designated area of southeastern California. Authorization to assess grape handlers enables the committee to incur expenses that are reasonable and necessary to administer the program. The fiscal period begins January 1 and ends December 31. The assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.