Department of Agriculture – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), the Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is requesting comments from all interested individuals and organizations on an extension of a currently approved Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Customer Feedback on the Service Delivery (0560-0286). The Farm Service Agency (FSA) initially received the PRA approval for this information collection request and has expanded it to cover all four of the agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) mission area. FPAC uses the approval to cover the surveys, window pop-up surveys, focus groups, beta testing new or revised electronic systems, comment cards, and other information collection instruments or methods, which are designed to get customer feedback on service delivery for various programs administered by any of the FPAC agencies. This request for approval broadly addresses the need for information about what our customers think of our services so that we can improve service delivery; specific information collection activities will be incorporated into the approval as the need for the information is identified. For example, when we implement a new program and provide information about the services for the program on our website, we may provide a voluntary customer service questionnaire about how well the program is working for our customers, specifically within the area of customer service.

The Food and Nutrition Service is correcting a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on August 23, 2023. The document implements statutory requirements and policy improvements to strengthen administrative oversight and operational performance of the Child Nutrition Programs.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing a meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee (FVIAC). This meeting is being convened to examine the full spectrum of fruit and vegetable industry issues and provide recommendations and ideas on how USDA can tailor programs and services to better meet the needs of the U.S. produce industry. Agenda items may include, but are not limited to, administrative matters; presentations by subject matter experts as requested by the FVIAC; and consideration of recommendations pertaining to labor and production, food safety, infrastructure and sustainability, consumption and nutrition, and data reporting and analysis.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS or Agency), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development (RD), is making an initial announcement to invite applications for loans and grants under the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP) for fiscal year (FY) 2024, subject to the availability of funding. This notice is being issued prior to the passage of a FY 2024 Appropriations Act, which may or may not provide funding for this program, in order to allow applicants sufficient time to leverage financing, prepare and submit their applications, and give the Agency time to process applications within FY 2024. Based on FY 2023 appropriated funding, the Agency estimates that approximately $29,000,000 will be available for FY 2024. Successful applications will be selected by the Agency for funding and subsequently awarded to the extent that funding may ultimately be made available through appropriations. All applicants are responsible for any expenses incurred in developing their applications or any costs incurred prior to the obligation date.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS or Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), invites applications for loans and grants under the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Programs (REDLG or Programs) for fiscal year (FY) 2024, subject to the availability of funding. This notice is being issued prior to the passage of a FY 24 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which may or may not provide funding for this program, to allow applicants sufficient time to leverage financing, prepare and submit their applications, and give the Agency time to process applications within FY 2024. Based on FY 2023 appropriated funding, the Agency estimates that approximately $90,000,000 will be available for FY 2024. Successful applications will be selected by the Agency for funding and subsequently awarded to the extent that funding may ultimately be made available through appropriations. All applicants are responsible for any expenses incurred in developing their applications.

We are amending the regulations for the importation of equines. These changes include increasing the number of days horses exported from regions free from contagious equine metritis (CEM) are allowed to spend in a CEM-affected region and enter the United States without testing from 60 days to 90 days; requiring an import permit for horses transiting through CEM-affected regions; adding requirements for health certifications to ensure health certifications properly attest to the health of the imported horse; requiring that horses transiting Central America or the West Indies comply with the same regulations that apply to horses directly imported from these regions; and adding requirements for shipping containers used in transporting horses. We are also adding a number of miscellaneous changes to the regulations such as clarifications of existing policy or intent, and corrections of inconsistencies or outdated information. Many of these changes will better align our regulations with international standards and allow us and the equine industry more flexibility. The changes will also add further safeguards that protect against introducing or disseminating pests or diseases of livestock into the United States.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection, the Agricultural Surveys Program. Revision to burden hours will be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, sampling design, and/or questionnaire length.

Cooperative agreement recipients of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) plan to collect additional information from sub-grantee applicants associated with the Healthy Meals Incentive Initiative (HMI 2) related to School Food System Transformation. FNS already has approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the collection of information associated with the original cooperative agreement under the Uniform Grant Application for Non-Entitlement Discretionary Grants, as approved under OMB Control Number: 0584-0512 (Expiration Date: July 31, 2025). This notice solicits public comment on the additional information proposed for collection.

The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is reopening the comment period for 30 days to allow the public additional time to provide comments on the prevented planting provisions of the Common Crop Insurance Policy (CCIP), Basic Provisions published on May 23, 2023. Prevented planting is a feature of many crop insurance plans that provides a payment to cover certain pre-plant costs for a crop that was prevented from being planted due to an insurable cause of loss. FCIC is interested in public input on the following: additional prevented planting coverage based on harvest prices in situations when harvest prices are higher than established prices initially set by FCIC prior to planting; the requirement that acreage must have been planted to a crop, insured, and harvested, in at least 1 of the 4 most recent crop years; additional levels of prevented planting coverage; prevented planting coverage on contracted crops; and other general prevented planting questions.

This rule establishes provisions for providing agricultural disaster assistance as authorized by the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act of 2021 and the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023. The assistance will be for 2020, 2021, and 2022 milk losses. The Milk Loss Program will provide payments to eligible dairy operations for milk that was dumped or removed without compensation from the commercial milk market due to disaster events including droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), and smoke exposure that occurred in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 calendar years. Additionally, the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, also authorizes assistance for eligible milk losses due to tornadoes that occurred in 2022. This rule specifies the administrative provisions, eligibility requirements, application procedures, and payment calculations for the Milk Loss Program. This rule also makes corrections to Phase 2 of the Emergency Relief Program (ERP).

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request feedback from the general public on the ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Programs''. This collection was developed as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the process for seeking feedback from the public on service delivery. This notice announces our intent to submit this collection to OMB for approval and solicits comments on specific aspects for the proposed information collection.

We are giving notice that the National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee will be holding a public meeting.

This proposed rule would implement recommendations from the National Potato Promotion Board (Board) to change its membership and organization by revising the formula used to determine the number of producer and importer seats on the Board, reducing the maximum number of importer seats on the Board, and indefinitely suspending the Administrative Committee. In addition to these Board-recommended changes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would make several non-substantive changes to clarify the start of the term of office for Board members and modernize the Board's procedures. The Board administers the Potato Research and Promotion Plan (Plan) with oversight by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

In accordance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill Final Programmatic Damage Assessment Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision, and the Consent Decree, the Federal and State natural resource trustee agencies for the Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group (MS TIG) have prepared the ``Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group Draft Restoration Plan 4 and Environmental Assessment: Restoration of Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats; Nutrient Reduction (Nonpoint Source), and Provide and Enhance Recreational Opportunities'' (Draft RP4 and EA). In the Draft RP4 and EA, MS TIG proposes projects to partially restore wetlands, coastal, and nearshore habitats; reduce nutrient pollution (nonpoint source); and provide and enhance recreational opportunities to compensate for lost recreational use in the Mississippi Restoration Area as a result of the DWH oil spill. The Draft RP4 and EA, a No Action alternative is also evaluated for each of the restoration types. The approximate cost to implement the MS TIG's proposed action (seven preferred alternatives) is $26.4 million. We invite public comments on the Draft RP4 and EA.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS or the Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces that it is accepting applications under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, for the Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training Disaster Repair Grant Program to provide technical assistance for repairing essential community facilities damaged by Presidentially declared disasters in calendar year 2022. The funding amount is up to $2,500,000 and will remain available until expended. The grant funds will be administered in accordance with this notice of funding availability and all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements of the Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training (CF TAT) Grant Program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to extend and revise a currently approved information collection entitled, ``Reporting Requirements for State Plans of Work for Agricultural Research and Extension Formula Funds.'' NIFA is proposing to change the collection title to ``NIFA Reporting System (NRS)'', include a new financial reporting module, modify existing reports in order to request digital persistent identifiers, and allow respondents to provide information on Co-Project Director(s) when applicable.

This notice announces a fee of $350 to be charged for the 2024 tariff-rate quota (TRQ) year for each license issued to a person or firm by the Department of Agriculture authorizing the importation of certain dairy articles, which are subject to tariff-rate quotas set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) of the United States.

On June 29, 2023, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation revised the Area Risk Protection Insurance (ARPI) Regulations, Common Crop Insurance Policy (CCIP) Basic Provisions, and the General Administrative Regulations. In reviewing the changes made, FCIC found some incorrect references and conflicting provisions that were not updated to accurately incorporate the changes, and a grammatical error was included in the amendatory instructions. This document makes the corrections.

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 (OMB) for an extension of the currently approved information collection, ``Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News'' (OMB 0581-0033).

We are reopening the comment period for our proposed rule that would amend disease regulations to provide a National List of Reportable Animal Diseases (NLRAD). Our proposed rule would have required animal health professionals suspecting or diagnosing incidences of animal diseases or disease agents classified as ``notifiable'' in the NLRAD to immediately report to both State and Federal officials. During the comment period for the proposed rule, however, several commenters raised concerns regarding the confidentiality of information reported under NLRAD, and that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service does not have the ability to provide Federal assurances of such confidentiality for information reported to States. In light of the validity of this concern, we are proposing a possible modification to our proposed rule to no longer require reporting to State officials; other existing Federal, State, and local disease reporting requirements would be unaffected, however. We are reopening the comment period for our proposed rule to provide interested persons with an opportunity to prepare and submit comments regarding this possible modification to the proposed rule.