Farm Service Agency – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is implementing the HFIL Loan Program to provide revolving loan funds to eligible intermediary lenders familiar with Indian Lands. The intermediary lenders will provide loan funds to qualified individuals, entities, and tribes to purchase highly fractionated Indian land consistent with the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill). FSA is also requesting public comments on the rule.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension of a currently approved information collection associated with the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978.

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) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et. seq.).

On May 20, 2015, USDA published an interim rule establishing a priority for projects that support the implementation of strategic economic and community development plans across multi-jurisdictional areas. This priority applies to several specific programs with the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, the Rural Housing Service, and the Rural Utilities Service. The effective date was listed as June 19, 2015 and is being delayed to July 17, 2015.

This notice announces that the Farm Service Agency (FSA), on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), intends to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The PEIS will assess the potential environmental consequences associated with proposed discretionary changes to the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). This notice informs the public of FSA's intent to seek public comment on potential changes being considered for BCAP and on any environmental concerns related to the proposed changes. The input we receive as a result of this notice will enable us to develop alternatives for implementing the proposed changes to BCAP and begin to evaluate the impacts of those alternatives, as required by NEPA.

On May 6, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), published a joint notice of final determination regarding adoption of the 2009 edition of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for single family homes and the 2007 edition of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 90.1 for multifamily buildings. A clerical error in production resulted in the wrong CFR attribution for USDA in the document's heading. This correction carries the proper CFR citation in its heading.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is seeking comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension of a currently approved information collection associated with FSA Aerial Photography Program. The FSA Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO) uses the information from the form to collect the customer and photography information needed to produce and ship the various photographic products ordered.

This Interim Final Rule is needed to ensure that the Agency will have a regulation in place to meet the Congressional mandate established in Congress in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill). This mandate requires the Agency to establish a new program called the Rural Business Development Grant Program which combines the former Rural Business Enterprise Grant and Rural Business Opportunity Grant programs. The Agency has made no substantive changes to either the Rural Business Enterprise Grant or Rural Business Opportunity Grant programs when combining these regulations into the Rural Business Development Grant program. Rural Development, Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) is establishing a new regulation for the Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) program. The program was established by the 2014 Farm Bill. The RBDG Program will combine the Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) and the Rural Business Opportunity Grant (RBOG) programs. There are no substantive programmatic changes to RBEG and RBOG with this consolidation.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) are requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension of a currently approved information collection that supports the FSA and CCC Debt Settlement Policies and Procedure regulations.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on a new information collection that will be used to determine the applicant's citizenship.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is revising regulations on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) as required by the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill) to update the Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL) and Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP) Programs for wheat, feed grains, soybeans, oilseeds, peanuts, pulse crops, cotton, honey, wool and mohair. In general, the 2014 Farm Bill extends the existing programs with the minor changes that are implemented in this rule, including a revised formula for upland cotton loan rates. This rule also amends the regulations for the Economic Adjustment Assistance for Users of Upland Cotton Program, the Extra Long Staple (ELS) Cotton Competitiveness Payment Program, and the Sugar Program to reflect that the programs were extended by the 2014 Farm Bill. Most of the provisions in this rule have already been implemented, beginning with the 2014 crop year.

This joint interim final rule implements for all Federal award-making agencies the final guidance Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 26, 2013. This rule is necessary in order to incorporate into regulation and thus bring into effect the Uniform Guidance as required by OMB. Implementation of this guidance will reduce administrative burden and risk of waste, fraud, and abuse for the approximately $600 billion per year awarded in Federal financial assistance. The result will be more Federal dollars reprogrammed to support the mission, new entities able to compete and win awards, and ultimately a stronger framework to provide key services to American citizens and support the basic research that underpins the United States economy.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension of a currently approved information collection that supports 7 CFR part 766, Direct Loan ServicingSpecial programs. The information is used in eligibility and feasibility determinations on borrower requests for disaster set-aside, primary loan servicing, buyout at market value, and homestead protection, as well as liquidation of security.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency and the Commodity Credit Corporation are requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on a revision of a currently approved information collection in support of the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). The information collected is needed from producers to determine eligibility for NAP assistance.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is amending the Farm Loan Programs (FLP) regulations for loan making and servicing on eligibility conditions for certain legal entities, allowing additional flexibility for loan applicants to meet the required farming experience, and increasing the maximum total indebtedness on Microloans (ML) to $50,000. The changes implement provisions of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill). The changes will help increase the number of entities eligible to participate in certain FLP loans and adjust to better reflect the changes in the way farms are owned and operated by legal entities. The changes will allow FSA to extend credit and servicing to family farm operations that may have been ineligible under existing regulations.

This rule implements the new Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) Programs authorized by the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill). It also includes conforming changes to certain Farm Service Agency (FSA) regulations that apply to multiple programs. ARC and PLC provide producers a choice between a program that provides counter-cyclical type of payment supportPLC, and a revenue support type of programARC. During a defined election period, current producers can elect different programs for different covered commodities on a farm, for example, choosing PLC for corn and ARC county option for soybeans on the same farm. ARC offers the additional choice of a revenue guarantee based on average revenue for a county or on actual historical revenue for an individual farm. If a producer elects ARC individual coverage based on historical revenue for that specific farm, however, all the farm's covered commodities are elected with that option, with no option for PLC on that farm. This rule specifies the eligibility requirements, enrollment procedures, and payment calculations for ARC and PLC.

Rural Development (RD) is amending the regulations so that an obligation date for all guaranteed loans, direct loans, and grants will no longer be 6 working days from the date of request for reservation of authority. This action is necessary as the 6-day reservation period will be permanently removed from the Commercial Loan Servicing System (CLSS), Guaranteed Loan System (GLS), and Program Loan Accounting System (PLAS). The effect of this action will reduce system or manual intervention when legislative mandates direct cutoff for obligations and/or funding; eliminate program waivers on obligation date; increase consistency with other RD programs; reduce risks with new system implementations, such as the Financial Modernization Management Initiative; and eliminate numerous reconciliation issues between processed obligations and actual obligations for internal RD reports and USDA reporting requirements.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) proposes to consolidate, update, and amend its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA). FSA's NEPA regulations have been in place since 1980. Significant changes to the structure of FSA and the scope of FSA's programs require changes in FSA's NEPA regulations. The proposed changes would also better align FSA's NEPA regulations with the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA regulations and guidance and meet the FSA responsibilities for periodic review of their categorical exclusions. One component of the changes proposed to improve the clarity and consistency of the regulations, is the proposed additions to the existing list of categorical exclusions (CatExs). CatExs involve actions that typically do not result in individual or cumulative significant environmental effects or impacts and therefore do not merit further environmental review in an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This proposed rule would also propose to expand and clarify the list of actions that require an EA. In addition, this rule proposes conforming changes to existing references to FSA NEPA regulations in other current USDA regulations. The revisions to the FSA NEPA implementing regulations are intended to improve transparency and clarity of the FSA NEPA process for FSA program participants and to provide for a more efficient environmental review that will lead to better decisions and outcomes for stakeholders and the environment.

This notice announces that the Farm Service Agency (FSA), on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), completed a Draft Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft SPEIS) to examine the potential environmental consequences associated with implementing changes to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) specified in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill), and assist in developing new regulations. FSA is requesting comments on the Draft SPEIS.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) amends its regulations for the Intermediary Relending Program (IRP). This action is critical to immediately address three major items. First, the Agricultural Act of 2014 incorporates the IRP into the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Con Act). Therefore the IRP will now be subject to the Con Act, Section 343(a)(13) ``rural and rural area'' definition. Second, the Agency is making the following changes based on an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit: Removing part of the definition of revolved funds to eliminate public confusion on its applicability; providing stronger guidance on items that should be taken into consideration when approving subsequent loans; defining what is meant by promptly relending collections from loans made from the revolving loan fund account; and providing clarification when prior Agency concurrence is needed to make loans. Finally, the Agency is removing provisions for Rural Development Loan Fund (RDLF) servicing as there are no longer any active RDLF accounts.

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 the FSA County Committee Elections. The collection of information from FSA Farmers and Ranchers is used to receive nominations from eligible voters for the County Committee.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension with a revision of a currently approved information collection associated with the Volunteer Program.

Through this action, the Rural Housing Service, Rural Business-Cooperative Service, Rural Utilities Service, and Farm Service Agency is extending the comment period for the proposed rule, ``Environmental Policies and Procedures'' by 30 days from April 7, 2014 to May 7, 2014.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is seeking comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension with a revision of currently approved information collection associated with the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). This information is collected in support of, respectively, Section 401 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978, as amended, and Section 9011 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, as amended.