Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service July 17, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are proposing to amend our Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Services user fee regulations to update an address that appears in several places. We are also proposing to make several nonsubstantive changes to the Veterinary Services user fees regulations to correct errors and to clarify the services covered by certain existing user fees. These proposed changes, which do not affect any existing fees, are necessary to ensure that the user fee regulations are up-to-date and ensure their clarity.

We are evaluating our regulatory program to determine whether we should revise our regulations regarding the importation, interstate movement, and environmental release of genetically engineered organisms. We are seeking public comment on the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) we have prepared relative to the regulatory revisions we are considering. The DEIS evaluates the alternatives we have identified in terms of their potential effects on the human environment compared to the effects of our current regulatory program. We believe our ongoing evaluation of these alternatives would benefit from the submission of additional views and data from the public, and we are especially interested in receiving comments on the subset of DEIS alternatives described in this notice.