The Department of Agriculture continues to implement an ongoing program to eliminate unnecessary regulations and improve those remaining by making them easier to understand and more user friendly. Positive changes resulting from this regulatory reform initiative will reach into every corner of the country and, both directly and indirectly, touch the lives of most Americans. Those programs that offer support to specific rural and urban segments of the economy are being simplified so that persons who qualify for assistance, or some other form of participation, will find less burdensome rules. Yet high standards are in place to ensure efficient and effective program management that makes the best use of taxpayer dollars. Farmers, ranchers, and other USDA customers will find significant changes in all aspects of regulations that govern their interaction with the Department and its programs. Farm credit, a mainstay of the Nation's rural economy, is being significantly streamlined by the merger of cumbersome loan-making regulations with forms and certifications simplified to facilitate the application process. The Department is undertaking a number of actions in the regulation of commodities that will increase efficiency, improve customer service, reduce intervention in markets, and allow States to assume greater responsibility in controlling the spread of plant and animal pests or disease. The Department is also improving the regulations that serve rural communities. Several changes are being made in rural housing programs that will facilitate access and simplify the application process. Nutrition programs are also being strengthened, their efficiency improved, and their integrity enhanced through regulatory actions. In the area of food safety, the Department has undertaken significant revisions to all policies and steps to improve relationships with industry and the public. There are also several important initiatives under development in the natural resources and conservation area.
Reducing Paperwork Burden on Farmers
The Department has made substantial progress under the guidance of the Chief Information Officer in implementing the goal of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 to reduce the burden of information collection on the public. USDA continues to work toward full compliance with the law and to continue reducing burden by an additional 5 percent during fiscal year 2001. Further reductions will result from program changes, improved efficiency in the collection and management of information, and adjustments in the collection burden.
The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) is leading all agencies in the Department to evaluate how they conduct business and migrate toward electronically oriented methods. The Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Rural Development, and Risk Management Agency are also working to implement the recently passed Freedom to E-File Act. Freedom to E-File directs the agencies, to the maximum extent practicable within 180 days, to modify forms into user-friendly formats with user instructions and permits those forms to be downloaded and submitted via facsimile, mail, or similar means. Within 2 years producers should have the capability to electronically file forms and all other documentation if they so desire. Underlying these efforts will be analyses to identify and eliminate redundant data collections and streamline collection instructions. The end result of implementing both of these pieces of legislation will be to better service to our customers so that they can choose when and where to conduct business with USDA.
The Role of Regulations
The programs of the Department are diverse and far reaching, as are the regulations that attend their delivery. Regulations codify how the Department will conduct its business, including the specifics of access to, and eligibility for, USDA programs. Regulations also specify the behavior of State and local governments, private industry, businesses, and individuals that is necessary to comply with their provisions. The diversity in purpose and outreach of our programs contributes significantly to the USDA being at or near the top of the list of departments that produce the largest number of regulations annually. These regulations range from nutrition standards for the school lunch program, to natural resource and environmental measures governing national forest usage and soil conservation, to regulations protecting American agribusiness (the largest dollar value contributor to exports) from the ravages of domestic or foreign plant or animal pestilence, and they extend from farm to supermarket to ensure the safety, quality, and availability of the Nation's food supply. Many regulations function in a dynamic environment, which requires their periodic modification. The factors determining various entitlement, eligibility, and administrative criteria often change from year to year. Therefore, many significant regulations must be revised annually to reflect changes in economic and market benchmarks. Almost all legislation that affects departmental programs has accompanying regulatory needs, often with a significant impact. The Farm Bill of 1996, Public Law 104-127, has considerable regulatory consequences. This key legislation affects most agencies of USDA and will result in the addition of new programs, the deletion of others, and modification to still others. In addition, the most recently enacted Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000, Public Law 106-224, provides further assurances that agricultural programs will continue to achieve long-term improvements, particularly in reforms to the crop insurance programs. This legislation also provides for improvements in market loss and conservation assistance, crop and livestock disease pest protection, marketing program enhancements, child nutrition program measures, pollution control, and research and development for biomass.
Administration Guidance--USDA Response
In developing and implementing regulations, the Department has been guided by the regulatory principles and philosophy set forth by the President in Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review.'' As prescribed in the Order, the USDA is committed to ``promulgate only those regulations that are required by law, are necessary to interpret the law, or are made necessary by compelling public need.'' When considering a rulemaking action, the Department will assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives, including the alternative of not regulating. Our analysis will consider the costs and benefits of both quantifiable and qualitative measures and opt for approaches that maximize net benefits.
Major Regulatory Priorities
Seven agencies are represented in this regulatory plan. They include the Farm Service Agency, the Food and Nutrition Service, the Forest Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Agricultural Marketing Service, and the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration. This document represents summary information on prospective significant regulations as called for in Executive Order 12866. A brief comment on each of the six agencies appears below, which summarizes the Agency mission and its key regulatory priorities. The Agency summaries are followed by the regulatory plan entries.
Farm Service Agency
Mission: The Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers contract commodity, conservation, farm loan, commodity purchase, and emergency loan and disaster programs, as prescribed by various statutes, in order to support farming certainty and flexibility while ensuring compliance with farm conservation and wetland protection requirements and to assist owners and operators of farms and ranches to conserve and enhance soil, water, and related natural resources.
Priorities: FSA's priority for 2001 will be to continue to implement these programs with emphasis on enhanced service to our customers. The most significant FSA regulations are those that operate the contract commodity programs and farm loans. The farm programs were significantly changed by the 1996 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill instituted the contract commodity programs, which utilize production flexibility contracts and marketing assistance loans in place of the deficiency payments and production adjustment of past programs. The contracts removed the link between income support payments and farm prices by providing for seven annual fixed but declining payments. FSA's farm loan programs make and guarantee loans to family farmers and ranchers to purchase farmland and finance agricultural production. While the contract commodity and farm loan programs have significant economic impact, they are driven by specific statutory requirements. Therefore, they are noted here to acknowledge their significance in the overall USDA regulatory plan but are not further listed in the body of the plan, which appears below.
In addition to its normal program operations, FSA is committed to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995's goal of reducing the information collection burden on the public. FSA is streamlining its farm loan-making and servicing regulations and reducing the information collection burden associated with the programs. FSA plans to reduce the number of CFR parts containing its farm loan program regulations by approximately 70 percent. In addition, FSA hopes to achieve a significant reduction in the total number of CFR pages by removing administrative provisions and internal policy and eliminating duplicative material. Furthermore, FSA intends to improve the clarity of the farm loan program regulations by following the guidelines established in the President's Plain Language in Government Writing Initiative.
As part of this project, all farm loan program regulations and internal Agency directives will be completely rewritten. All application processes and information collections will be reviewed, and unnecessary or redundant requirements will be eliminated. All forms associated with the program were reviewed and assigned to one of the following categories:
Prepared by the public
Prepared by the Agency, reviewed by the public, or
Internal Agency use only.
FLP will concentrate on streamlining forms assigned to the first category to reduce public burden. In addition, a data base was developed listing each field contained on the forms. This information will be used to identify duplicate collections and ensure consistency in terminology.
FSA plans to publish regulations for direct loan program and administrative regulations as a proposed rule in December 2000 and as a final rule in September 2001. While rewriting of the regulations has begun, it will be a lengthy process because approximately 37 CFR parts are being consolidated into 3 parts and more than 750 CFR pages must be rewritten. Revised regulations for special loan programs (including Indian land acquisition, boll weevil eradication, drainage and irrigation, and grazing association loans) are planned for publication as a proposed rule in August 2001 and as a final rule in April 2002. These programs will be completed last because there are only about 850 borrowers with outstanding special loans in comparison to almost 110,000 borrowers with outstanding direct loans.
Food and Nutrition Service
Mission: FNS increases food security and reduces hunger in partnership with cooperating organizations by providing children and low-income people access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education in a manner that supports American agriculture and inspires public confidence.
Priorities: In addition to responding to provisions of legislation authorizing and modifying Federal nutrition assistance programs, FNS's 2001 regulatory plan supports broad goals and objectives in the Agency's strategic plan, which was extensively revised in fiscal year 2000. The goals are:
Improved nutrition of children and low-income people. This goal represents FNS's efforts to improve diet quality as measured by scores on the Healthy Eating Index by providing access to program benefits (Food Stamps, WIC food vouchers, commodities and State administrative funds), nutrition education, and quality meals and other benefits. It includes three major objectives: 1) Improved food security, which reflects nutrition assistance benefits issued to program participants; 2) FNS program participants make healthy food choices, which represents our efforts to improve nutrition knowledge and behavior through nutrition education and breastfeeding promotion; and 3) improved nutritional quality of meals, food packages, commodities, and other program benefits, which represents our efforts to ensure that program benefits meet the appropriate nutrition standards to effectively improve nutrition for program participants.
Improved Stewardship of Federal Funds. This goal represents FNS's ongoing commitment to maximize the accuracy of benefits issued, maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of program operations, and minimize participant and vendor fraud. It includes two major objectives: 1) Improved benefit accuracy and reduced fraud, which represents the Agency's effort to reduce participant and Agency errors and to control Food Stamp and WIC trafficking and participant, vendor, and administrative Agency fraud; and 2) improved efficiency of program administration, which represents our efforts to streamline program operations and improve program structures as necessary to maximize their effectiveness.
Forest Service
Mission: The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, productivity, and diversity of the Nation's forest and rangelands to meet the needs of present and future generations. This includes protecting and managing the National Forest and Grasslands; providing technical and financial assistance to States, communities, and private forest landowners; and developing and providing scientific and technical assistance and scientific exchanges in support of forest and range conservation.
Priorities: On October 13, 1999, the President issued a memorandum directing the Forest Service to develop and propose for public comment regulations to provide appropriate long-term protection for most or all of the currently inventoried ``roadless'' areas and to determine whether such protection is warranted for any smaller ``roadless'' areas not yet inventoried. A notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement to analyze and disclose various alternatives for meeting the President's directive was published in the Federal Register on October 19, 1999. The Agency received approximately 500,000 written responses to the notice of intent.
On May 10, 2000 (65 FR 30276), the Agency published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking for Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation. The Agency proposes to prohibit road construction and reconstruction in most inventoried roadless areas of the National Forest System and require evaluation of roadless area characteristics in the context of overall multiple-use objectives during land and resource management plan revisions. The Agency conducted over 440 public meetings and is maintaining a web page with additional information. The final rule, Special Areas, Roadless Areas Conservation, is expected to be published in early winter.
Another Agency priority is to revise its road management rules and policy to better inventory and analyze the need for existing forest roads, and to shift the emphasis from building new roads to better maintaining and managing those already in use. The final rule and final policy, Administration of the Forest Development Transportation System, are expected to be published in the fall.
Finally, the last of three Agency priorities is to revise the land management planning regulations to make sustainability the foundation for national forest system planning and management and establish requirements for implementation, monitoring, evaluation, amendment, and revision of land management plans. A proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on October 5, 1999 (Part II, 64 FR 54074-54112). Guided by recommendations of a Committee of Scientists, the proposed rule provides for science-based planning, ecosystem sustainability, use of ecoregional and watershed-level assessments, and strengthened collaboration with individuals or organizations, State, local, tribal governments, and other Federal agencies. The final rule, National Forest System Land and Resource Management Planning, is expected to be published this fall.
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Mission: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for ensuring the Nation's meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, wholesome, and properly marked, labeled, and packaged.
Priorities: FSIS is continuing to review its regulations to eliminate duplication of and inconsistency with its own and other agencies' regulations. The review effort is directed, in particular, at improving the consistency of the regulations with the July 25, 1996, final rule ``Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Systems.'' HACCP is a science-based process control system for producing safe food products. The final rule requires official meat and poultry establishments to develop and implement HACCP plans incorporating the controls they have determined are necessary and appropriate to produce safe products. HACCP places the responsibility for food safety firmly on meat and poultry establishments but enables them to tailor their control systems to their particular needs and processes and to take advantage of the latest technological innovations.
In addition, FSIS must revise its numerous ``command-and-control'' regulations, which prescribe the exact means establishments must use to ensure the safety of their products, in effect assigning to the Agency the responsibility for the means used by establishments to comply with the regulations. As a general matter, command-and-control regulations are incompatible with HACCP because they deprive plants of the flexibility to innovate and undercut the clear delineation of responsibility for food safety. Therefore, FSIS is conducting a thorough review of its current regulations and, to the maximum extent possible, converting its command-and-control regulations to performance standards.
Following are some of the Agency's recent and planned initiatives to convert command-and-control regulations to performance standards, to streamline and simplify the regulations and to make the meat, poultry products, and egg products inspection regulations more consistent with the pathogen reduction and HACCP systems final rule:
FSIS has proposed new regulations limiting the amount of processing water that can be retained by raw, single-ingredient, meat or poultry products and requiring labeling to indicate the amount of water retention.
FSIS has proposed to clarify and supplement the requirements that apply to meat products produced by advanced separation machinery and recovery systems. The proposed rule would replace the compliance program parameters prescribed in 1994 with a requirement that as a prerequisite to labeling or using the product as meat, an establishment must implement and document procedures that ensure the establishments production process is in control.
FSIS will be proposing generic Escherichia coli process control criteria, based on the sponge method of sampling, for cattle, swine, and geese slaughtering establishments, and for turkey slaughtering establishments based on both the sponge and the whole-bird rinse sampling methods. The Agency also will be proposing updated Salmonella performance standards for all market classes of cattle and swine.
FSIS also will be proposing a rule to establish food safety performance standards for all processed ready-to-eat and partially heat-treated meat and poultry products.
In addition, FSIS will be proposing to require federally inspected egg product establishments to develop and implement HACCP systems and sanitation standards operating procedures. The Agency will be proposing pathogen reduction performance standards for pasteurizing egg products. Further, the Agency will be proposing to remove current requirements for approval by FSIS of egg-product plant drawings, specifications, and equipment prior to use and to end the system for premarketing approval of labels for egg products. The Agency also is planning to propose requiring safe-handling labels on shell eggs and egg products.
Finally, besides the foregoing initiatives, FSIS will be proposing requirements for the nutrition labeling of ground or chopped meat and poultry products and single-ingredient products. This proposed rule would require nutrition labeling, on the label or at the point-of-purchase, for the major cuts of single-ingredient, raw products and will require nutrition information on the label of ground or chopped products.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Mission: A major part of the mission of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is to protect U.S. animal and plant resources from destructive pests and diseases. APHIS conducts programs to control and eradicate exotic pests and diseases in the United States. These activities enhance agricultural productivity and competitiveness and contribute to the national economy and the public health.
Priority: APHIS is developing a proposal to strengthen restrictions on the importation of solid wood packing material (e.g., crates, dunnage, wooden spools, pallets, packing blocks) into the United States. Imported solid wood packing material (SWPM) has been linked to introductions of exotic plant pests such as the pine shoot beetle and the Asian longhorned beetle. These and other plant pests that could be carried by imported SWPM pose a serious threat to U.S. agriculture and to natural, cultivated, and urban forests. SWPM accompanies nearly all types of imported commodities, from fruits and vegetables to machinery and electrical equipment.
Agricultural Marketing Service
Mission: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) facilitates the marketing of agricultural products in domestic and international markets, while ensuring fair trading practices, and promoting a competitive and efficient marketplace, to the benefit of producers, traders, and consumers of U.S. food and fiber products.
Priorities: AMS' top regulatory priority is to establish the National Organic Program (NOP). The NOP will establish national standards for the production and handling of organically produced products, including a National List of substances approved and prohibited for use in organic production and handling.
On March 17, 2000, AMS published in the Federal Register the procedures for Mandatory Market News Reporting of Livestock and Meat. These proposed regulations establish a program that will provide livestock producers, packers, and other market participants with information on pricing, contracting for purchase, numbers and quality marketed for cattle, swine, lambs, and production of livestock products.
On March 24, 2000, AMS published final regulations updating the Federal Seed Act to incorporate current seed testing and seed certification procedures. These regulations will keep the Federal Seed Act consistent with present technology and prevent conflicts between Federal and State regulations that could inhibit the free movement of seed.
On June 6, 2000, AMS published a proposed rule to develop a voluntary, user-fee-funded program to inspect and certify equipment and utensils used to process livestock and poultry products. This service will provide buyers of equipment inspected and certified by this program with a third-party assurance that the equipment meets minimum requirements for cleanability, suitability of materials used in construction, durability, and inspectability. A 60-day comment period was provided for interested persons to comment on the proposed rule before issuing a final rule.
AMS Program Rulemaking Pages. Most of AMS' rules as published in the Federal Register are available on the Internet at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/rulemaking. This site also includes commenting instructions and addresses, links to news releases and background material, and comments received so far on various rules.
Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration
Mission: The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) facilitates the marketing of livestock, poultry, meat, cereals, oilseeds, and related agricultural products and promotes fair and competitive trading practices for the overall benefit of consumers and American agriculture. The mission of this Agency is carried out in two different segments of American agriculture. GIPSA's Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) provides the U.S. grain market with Federal quality standards and a uniform system for applying them. The Packers and Stockyards Programs (P&S) ensures open and competitive markets for livestock, meat, and poultry.
Priorities: GIPSA proposes adding five provisions to regulations under the Packers and Stockyards Act to address certain trade and anti-competitive practices in the livestock and poultry sectors. This series of regulations is intended to increase transparency of market transactions and allow market participants to compete more effectively and fairly. The provisions will: (1) Clarify recordkeeping requirements for packers; (2) mandate disclosure of specific production contract terms in plain language; (3) prohibit restrictions on the disclosure of contract terms; (4) require that livestock owned by different people be purchased or offered for purchase on its own merits; and (5) specify conditions under which packers may offer premiums and discounts in carcass merit transactions.
GIPSA will issue an ANPRM in response to an Administration initiative to strengthen the science-based regulations for biotechnology and to improve consumer access to information on biotechnology. The ANPRM will provide a 60-day comment period for input from consumers, industry, and scientists on how USDA can best facilitate the marketing of grains, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, and nuts in today's evolving markets.
GIPSA is proposing regulations under the P&S Act to implement the Swine Packer Marketing Contracts subtitle of the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999. The proposal is intended to establish a swine marketing contract library and provide information on the contracting practices of swine packers.
GIPSA is proposing a regulation that would make purchasing or selling livestock with the condition that the price not be reported a violation of the P&S Act.
GIPSA's rulemaking activities as published in the Federal Register are available on the Internet at: http://www.usda.gov/gipsa/strulreg/ fedreg/fedreg.htm.