Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service July 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are advising the public that we are withdrawing a final environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act relative to a national approach for the control of highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks within the United States. We are withdrawing the final environmental assessment and the associated finding of no significant impact pending further evaluation.

We are advising the public that we are proposing to exempt plants with additional modifications that could otherwise be achieved through conventional breeding from the regulations that govern the introduction (importation, interstate movement, or release into the environment) of certain organisms modified or produced through genetic engineering. The exempt plants would have distinct modifications on the paternal and maternal alleles of a single gene resulting from repair of a targeted DNA break; deletions generated using an externally provided repair template; or deletions resulting from repair of two targeted double strand breaks on a chromosome. This action would reduce the regulatory burden for developers of certain plants modified or produced through genetic engineering that are unlikely to pose plant pest risks while enabling the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to focus its regulatory resources on risk analyses of unfamiliar products and those more likely to pose a plant pest risk.

We are advising the public that we have prepared a final environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact relative to permitting the release of Ramularia crupinae for the biological control of common crupina (Crupina vulgaris) in the contiguous United States. Based on our finding of no significant impact, we have determined that an environmental impact statement need not be prepared.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared a supplemental environmental assessment (EA) relative to a 2019 EA of an oral rabies vaccination (ORV) program in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. This supplement analyzes the proposed expanded use of ONRAB vaccine-baits throughout the ORV distribution zone in Pennsylvania in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. We are making the supplemental EA available to the public for review and comment.

The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 amended the Lacey Act to provide, among other things, that importers submit a declaration at the time of importation for certain plants and plant products. Enforcement of the declaration requirement began on April 1, 2009, and products requiring a declaration are being phased-in. The purpose of this notice is to inform the public of a change in the date of implementation for Phase VI of the enforcement schedule.