National Institute of Food and Agriculture – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is soliciting topics from eligible commodity board entities (Federal and State-level commodity boards, as defined below), which they are willing to equally co-fund with NIFA. To be considered for inclusion in future Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (AFRI) Requests for Applications (RFAs), topics must relate to the established priority areas of AFRI.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is publishing as a final rule, a set of general and specific administrative requirements applicable to competitive and non- competitive non-formula programs. The purpose of this final rule is to implement sections of the Agriculture Act of 2014 (Pub. L. 113-79 or the 2014 Farm Bill), making it necessary to add a new section for centers of excellence by modifying Subparts A, B, C and D of the general administrative provisions. Although this final rule becomes effective on the date of publication, NIFA is requesting comments for a 30-day period as identified below.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, that implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to request approval to establish a new information collection and record keeping requirement for the National 4-H Conference (N4HC).

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is soliciting nominations of veterinary service shortage situations for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) for fiscal year (FY) 2017, as authorized under the National Veterinary Medical Services Act (NVMSA), 7 U.S.C. 3151a. This notice initiates the nomination period and prescribes the procedures and criteria to be used by States, Insular Areas, DC and Federal Lands to nominate veterinary shortage situations. Each year all eligible nominating entities may submit nominations, up to the maximum indicated for each entity in this notice. NIFA is conducting this solicitation of veterinary shortage situation nominations under a previously approved information collection (OMB Control Number 0524-0046).

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public to take this opportunity to comment on the ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). This collection was developed to create a vehicle for obtaining stakeholder feedback. This notice announces our intent to submit this collection to Office of Management and Budget for approval and solicits comments on specific aspects for the proposed information collection.

As part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) strategy to implement section 7404 of Public Law 113-79, the Agricultural Act of 2014, NIFA is soliciting topics from eligible commodity board entities (Federal and State-level commodity boards, as defined below) which they are willing to equally co-fund with NIFA. Such topics must relate to the established priority areas of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (AFRI) to be considered for inclusion in future AFRI Requests for Applications (RFAs). Commodity boards are those entities established under a commodity promotion law (as such term is defined under section 501(a) of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7401(a)) or a State commodity board (or other equivalent State entity). See the ``Supplementary Information'' section of this Notice under the heading ``Eligibility for Submitting Topics'' for further information. If proposed topics are accepted for inclusion in an AFRI RFA after evaluation by NIFA, they will be incorporated into AFRI competitive grants program RFAs. As a condition of funding grants in a topic, NIFA will require an agreement with the commodity board to provide funds that are equal to the amount NIFA is contributing under the agreed upon topic. This Notice invites topic submissions from commodity boards as defined above, outlines the process NIFA will use to evaluate the appropriateness of these topics for inclusion in AFRI RFAs, and describes the commitment commodity boards will be required to make in order for NIFA to jointly fund AFRI applications competitively selected for award within a topic area submitted by the commodity boards.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR part 1320 (60 FR 44977, August 29, 1995), this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to revise a currently approved information collection entitled, ``Research, Education, and Extension project online reporting tool (REEport).''

The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program and the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG), under the auspices of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), are initiating an Interagency Special Report entitled the 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (referred to as ``SOCCR-2'' or ``the Report'' throughout this notice). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has agreed to be lead agency for this report as it is relevant to USDA and USDA has experience in producing a similar highly successful report of Climate Change and Food Security. The focus of SOCCR-2 will be on U.S. and North American carbon cycle processes, stocks, and flows in the context of and interactions with global scale budgets and climate change impacts in managed and unmanaged systems. Carbon stocks and fluxes in soils, water (including oceans), vegetation, aquatic-terrestrial interfaces (e.g., coastal, estuaries, wetlands), human settlements, agriculture and forestry are included. The Report will consider relevant carbon management science perspectives and science-based tools for supporting and informing decisions, as addressed in and related to the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan (2011), and other documents such as the USGCRP Strategic Plan (2012) and the White House Climate Action Plan (2013). The status of, and emerging opportunities for, improving measurements, observations and projections of stocks and fluxes in the carbon cycle, including uncertainty identification, will be part of the Report. SOCCR-2 will be a product of the USGCRP, organized and led by the Agency members of the CCIWG. This request for public engagement presents opportunities to (1) submit comments on the Draft Report Prospectus, (2) submit scientific/technical information to inform the assessment, and (3) nominate technical contributors.

This rule updates the list of institutions that are granted HSACU certification by the Secretary and are eligible for HSACU programs for the period starting October 1, 2015, and ending September 30, 2016.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations that implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to request approval to establish a new information collection and record keeping requirement for the Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP).

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is publishing a final rule for the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grants Program. This final rule adds a subpart entitled ``Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grants Program'' to the part entitled ``Competitive and Noncompetitive Non-formula Federal Assistance ProgramsGeneral Award Administrative Provisions''.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations which implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to request approval to extend the currently approved information collection in support of authorizations to use the 4-H Club Name and/or Emblem.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at (5 CFR part 1320), this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) intention to request approval for an extension of the currently approved information collection for the NIFA proposal review process.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, that implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to request approval to establish a new information collection for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture published a document in the Federal Register on November 6, 2014 concerning a request to establish a new information collection for letter of intent. The document did not contain the burden hours.

In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intent to establish a new information collection of Letters of Intent (LOIs).

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) implementing regulations (5 CFR part 1320), this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) proposed collection of information for the application for Non-Land Grant College of Agriculture designation. NIFA intends to submit the following information collection request to OMB for review and approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is announcing the availability of a draft guidance entitled ``National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Federal Assistance Policy Guide.'' The draft guidance discusses the statutory and regulatory responsibilities of recipients of Federal funds administered by NIFA. This draft guidance compiles and updates the statutory, regulatory, policy guidance previously distributed to Capacity Grant recipients as Administrative Manuals. The draft NIFA Federal Assistance Policy Guide also addresses procedures and policies followed by NIFA in the administration of Federal assistance. NIFA intends to publish a final version of the Policy Guide to reflect any public comments, as well as the requirements of the Agricultural Act of 2014 and USDA's implementation of the Office of Management and Budget ``OMB Uniform Guidance: Cost Principles, Audit, and Administrative Requirements for Federal Awards''.

This rule updates the list of institutions that are granted HSACU certification by the Secretary and are eligible for HSACU programs for the period starting October 1, 2013 and ending September 30, 2014.

In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations (5 CFR part 1320), which implements the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to request an extension for the currently approved information collection for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). This notice initiates a 60-day comment period. The NIFA may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection of information displays a valid OMB control number.

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 revise a currently approved information collection entitled, ``Reporting Requirements for State Plans of Work for Agricultural Research and Extension Formula Funds.''