DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)
Statement of Regulatory Priorities
In
FY 2014, USDA's focus will continue to be on programs that create or save jobs,
particularly in rural America, while identifying and taking action on those
programs that could be modified, streamlined, and simplified; or reporting
burdens reduced, particularly with the public's access to USDA programs. USDA
anticipates implementing a comprehensive Food, Farm and Jobs Bill (Farm Bill) covering major farm, trade, conservation, rural development,
nutrition assistance and other programs. It is anticipated that a number of
high priority regulations will be developed during 2014 to implement this
legislation should it be enacted. USDA's regulatory efforts in the
coming year will achieve the following goals identified in the Department's
Strategic Plan for 2010-2015:
Assist rural communities to create prosperity so they are
self-sustaining, re-populating, and economically thriving.
USDA is
the leading advocate for rural America. The Department supports rural
communities and enhances quality of life for rural residents by improving their
economic opportunities, community infrastructure, environmental health, and the
sustainability of agricultural production. The common goal is to help create
thriving rural communities with good jobs where people want to live and raise
families, and where children have economic opportunities and a bright future.
Ensure our national forests and private working lands are
conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing
our water resources. America's prosperity is
inextricably linked to the health of our lands and natural resources. Forests,
farms, ranches, and grasslands offer enormous environmental benefits as a
source of clean air, clean and abundant water, and wildlife habitat. These
lands generate economic value by supporting the vital agriculture and forestry
sectors, attracting tourism and recreational visitors, sustaining green jobs,
and producing ecosystem services, food, fiber, timber and non-timber products.
They are also of immense social importance, enhancing rural quality of life,
sustaining scenic and culturally important landscapes, and providing
opportunities to engage in outdoor activity and reconnect with the land.
Help America promote agricultural production and
biotechnology exports as America works to increase food security. A
productive agricultural sector is critical to increasing global food security.
For many crops, a substantial portion of domestic production is bound for
overseas markets. USDA helps American farmers and ranchers use efficient,
sustainable production, biotechnology, and other emergent technologies to
enhance food security around the world and find export markets for their
products.
Ensure that all of America's children have
access to safe, nutritious, and balanced meals. A
plentiful supply of safe and nutritious food is essential to the well-being of
every family and the healthy development of every child in America. USDA
provides nutrition assistance to children and low-income people who need it;
and works to improve the healthy eating habits of all
Americans, especially children. In addition, the
Department safeguards the quality and wholesomeness of meat, poultry, and egg
products; and addresses and prevents loss or damage from pests and disease
outbreaks.
Important
regulatory activities supporting the accomplishment of these goals in 2014 will
include the following:
Strengthening Food Safety Inspection.
USDA will continue to develop science-based regulations that improve the safety
of meat, poultry, and egg products in the least burdensome and most
cost-effective manner. Regulations will be revised to address emerging food
safety challenges, streamlined to remove excessively prescriptive regulations,
and updated to be made consistent with hazard analysis and critical control
point principles. In 2014, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) plans
to finalize regulations to establish new systems for poultry slaughter inspection,
which would improve food safety and save money for establishments and
taxpayers. Among other actions, USDA will provide export certificates through
the use of technology. To assist small entities to comply with food safety
requirements, FSIS will continue to collaborate with other USDA agencies and
State partners in its small business outreach program.
Improving Access to Nutrition Assistance and Dietary
Behaviors. As changes are made to the nutrition assistance
programs, USDA will work to ensure access to program benefits, improve program
integrity, improve diets and healthy eating, and promote physical activity
consistent with the national effort to reduce obesity. In support of these
activities in 2014, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) plans to publish the
proposed rule regarding meal pattern revisions for the Child and Adult Care
Food Program and finalize a rule updating the WIC food packages. FNS will
continue to work to implement rules that minimize participant and vendor fraud
in its nutrition assistance programs.
Collaborating with Partners to Conserve
Natural Resources. USDA
will allow the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) State
Conservationists to remove undue burdens on producers that have acted in good
faith on incorrect program information provided by NRCS.
The Forest Service will finalize guidance for implementation of the 2012
Planning Rule. This guidance will provide the detailed monitoring, assessment,
and documentation requirements that the managers of our national forests and
grasslands require to begin revising their land management plans under the 2012
Planning Rule. Currently 70 of the 120 Forest Service's Land Management Plans
are expired and in need of revision.
Making Marketing and Regulatory Programs More
Focused. The Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) plans to amend its veterinary biologics
regulations to provide for the use of a simpler, uniform label format to better
meet the needs of veterinary biologics consumers. APHIS
also plans to revise tuberculosis and brucellosis regulations to
better reflect the distribution of these diseases and thereby minimizing the
impacts on livestock producers while continuing to address these livestock
diseases.
In
the area of plant health, APHIS proposes to expand
the streamlined method of considering the importation and interstate movement
of fruits and vegetables. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
will support the organic sector by proposing that all existing and replacement
dairy animals from which milk or milk products are intended to be sold as
organic must be managed organically from the last third of gestation.
Promoting Biobased Products.
USDA will continue to promote sustainable economic opportunities to create jobs
in rural communities through the purchase and use of biobased products through the BioPreferred® program. USDA will
finalize regulations to revise the BioPreferred®
program guidelines to continue adding designated product categories to the
preferred procurement program, including intermediates and feedstocks and
finished products made of intermediates and feedstocks. The Federal preferred
procurement and the certified label parts of the program are voluntary; both
are designed to assist biobased businesses in securing additional sales.
Retrospective Review of Existing Regulations:
Pursuant to
section 6 of Executive Order 13563 "Improving Regulation and Regulatory
Review" (Jan. 18, 2011), the following initiatives are identified in
the Department's
Final
Plan for Retrospective Analysis.... The final agency plan, as well as periodic status updates for
each initiative, are available online at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/21stcenturygov/actions/21st-century-regulatory-system.
RIN
|
Title
|
Significantly Reduce Burdens on Small Businesses
|
0583-AC59
|
Prior
Labeling Approval System: Generic Label Approval
|
Yes.
|
0583-AD41
|
Electronic
Export Application and Certification Fee
|
Yes.
|
0583-AD32
|
Modernization
of Poultry Slaughter Inspection
|
Yes.
|
0570-AA76
|
Rural
Energy America Program
|
Yes.
|
0570-AA85
|
Business
and Industry Loan Guaranteed Program
|
Yes.
|
0575-AC91
|
Community
Facilities Loan and Grants
|
Yes.
|
0596-AD01
|
National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Efficiencies
|
Yes.
|
Subsequent to EO 13563, and
consistent with its goals as well as the importance of public participation, President
Obama issued EO 13610 on Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens in May
2012. EO 13610 directs agencies, in part, to give priority consideration
to those initiatives that will produce cost savings or significant reductions
in paperwork burdens. Accordingly, reducing the regulatory burden on the
American people and our trading partners is a priority for USDA and we will
continually work to improve the effectiveness of our existing regulations. As
a result of our ongoing regulatory review and burden reduction efforts, USDA has
identified the following burden reducing initiatives:
Increase Use of Generic Approval and Regulations
Consolidation. FSIS is finalizing a rule that will expand
the circumstances in which the labels of meat and poultry products will be
deemed to be generically approved by FSIS. The rule will reduce regulatory
burden and generate a discounted Agency cost savings of $3.3 million over 10
years (discounted at 7 percent).
Implement Electronic Export Application for Meat and
Poultry Products. FSIS is finalizing a rule to provide exporters
a fee-based option for transmitting U.S. certifications to foreign importers
and governments electronically. Automating the export application and
certification process will facilitate the export of U.S. meat, poultry, and egg
products by streamlining the processes that are used while ensuring that
foreign regulatory requirements are met.
Streamline Forest Service National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Compliance. The Forest Service, in
cooperation with the Council on Environmental Quality, completed rulemaking to
establish three new Categorical Exclusions for simple restoration activities.
These Categorical Exclusions will improve and streamline the NEPA process, and
reduce the paperwork burden, as it applies to Forest Service projects without
reducing environmental protection.
Increase Accessibility to the Rural
Energy for America Program (REAP). Under
REAP, Rural Development provides guaranteed loans and grants to support the purchase,
construction, or retrofitting of a renewable energy system. This rulemaking
will streamline the application process for grants, lessening the burden to the
customer.
Reduced Duplication in Farm Programs. The Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) mission area
will reduce the paperwork burden on program participants by consolidating the
information collections required to participate in farm programs administered
by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Federal crop insurance program
administered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA). As a result, producers will
be able to spend less time reporting information to USDA. Additionally, FSA
and RMA will be better able to share information, thus improving operational
efficiency. FFAS will evaluate methods to simplify and standardize, to the
extent practical, acreage reporting processes, program dates, and data
definitions across the various USDA programs and agencies. FFAS expects to
allow producers to use information from their farm-management and precision
agriculture systems for reporting production, planted and harvested acreage,
and other key information needed to participate in USDA programs. FFAS will
also streamline the collection of producer information by FSA and RMA with the
agricultural production information collected by the National Agricultural
Statistics Service. These process changes will allow for program data that is
common across agencies to be collected once and utilized or redistributed to
agency programs in which the producer chooses to participate. Full
implementation of the Acreage and Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative
(ACRSI) is planned for 2014. When specific changes are identified, FSA and RMA
will make any required conforming changes in their respective regulations.
Periodic status updates for these burden reducing initiatives can
be found online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/21stcenturygov/actions/21st-century-regulatory-system
In additional to regulatory review initiatives identified under EO
13563 and the paper work burden reduction initiatives identified under the EO
13610, USDA has plans to initiate the following additional streamlining
initiatives in 2014.
Simplify FSA NEPA Compliance. FSA will revise its regulations that implement NEPA to update,
improve, and clarify requirements. It will also add new
categorical exclusions and remove obsolete provisions. Annual cost savings to FSA as a
result of this rule could be $345,000 from conducting 314 fewer environmental
assessments per year, while retaining strong environmental protection.
Simplify Equipment Contracts for Rural Utilities Service
(RUS) Loans. RUS is proposing a rule that would result
in a new standard Equipment Contract Form for use by Telecommunications Program
borrowers. This new standardized contract would ensure that certain standards
and specifications are met and this new form would replace the current process
that requires each construction provider to use their own resources to develop
a contract for each project.
Consolidate Community Facilities Programs
Loan and Grant Requirements. The Rural Housing Service
(RHS) proposing to consolidate seven of the regulations used to service
Community Facilities direct loans and grants into one streamlined regulation.
This rule will reduce the time burden on RHS staff and provide the public with
a single document that clearly outlines the requirements for servicing
Community Facilities direct loans and grants.
Update Tuberculosis and
Brucellosis Programs. Given
the success USDA has had in nearly eradicating tuberculosis and brucellosis in
ruminants, APHIS will propose rulemaking to update and
consolidate its regulations regarding these diseases to better reflect the
current distribution of these diseases and the changes in which cattle, bison,
and captive cervid are produced in the United States.
Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation under EO 13609:
President Obama
issued EO 13609 on promoting international regulatory cooperation in May
2012. The EO charges the Regulatory Working Group, an interagency working
group chaired by the Administrator of Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA), with examining appropriate strategies and best practices for
international regulatory cooperation. The EO also directs agencies to
identify factors that should be taken into account when evaluating the
effectiveness of regulatory approaches used by trading partners with whom the
U.S. is engaged in regulatory cooperation. At this time, USDA is
identifying international regulatory cooperation activities that are reasonably
anticipated to lead to significant regulations, while working closely with the
Administration to refine the guidelines implementing the EO. Apart from
international regulatory cooperation, the Department has continued to identify
regulations with international impacts, as it has done in the past. Such
regulations are those that are expected to have international trade
and investment effects, or otherwise may be of interest to our international
trading partners.
USDA is diligently working
to carry out the President's EO mandate with regard to regulatory cooperation
as new regulations are developed. Several agencies within the Department
are also actively engaged in interagency and Departmental regulatory
cooperation initiatives being pursued as part of the U.S.-Mexico High Level
Regulatory Cooperation Council (HLRCC) and the U.S.-Canada Regulatory
Cooperation Council (RCC), as well as other fora. Specific projects are
being pursued by USDA agencies such as AMS, APHIS, and FSIS and address a
variety of regulatory oversight processes and requirements related to meat,
poultry, animal and plant health. Projects related to electronic
certification, equivalence, meat nomenclature, and the efficient and safe flow
of plant, animal and food across our shared borders are all regulatory
cooperation pursuits these agencies are undertaking in order to secure better
alignment between our countries without compromising the high standards of
safety we have in place in the U.S. relative to food safety and public health,
as well as plant and animal health, so critical to American agriculture.
Major Regulatory Priorities
This
following represents summary information on prospective priority regulations as
called for in EO's 12866 and 13563:
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 2014 regulatory plan supports USDA's
Strategic Goal to "ensure that all of America's children have access to safe,
nutritious and balanced meals," and its related objectives:
Increase Access to Nutritious Food.
This objective represents FNS's efforts to improve nutrition by providing
access to program benefits (food consumed at home, school meals, commodities)
and distributing State administrative funds to support program operations. To
advance this objective, FNS plans
to publish a final rule from the 2008 Farm Bill addressing SNAP eligibility,
certification, and employment and training issues. FNS will also publish a
final rule implementing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010's Community
Eligibility Provision, which eliminates the burden of household applications
and increases access to free school lunches and breakfasts for children in
eligible high poverty schools. In addition, FNS plans to publish a proposed
rule that would enhance the eligibility standards for SNAP retailers in order
to improve the availability of more healthful foods.
Improve Program Integrity.
FNS also plans to publish a number of rules to increase efficiency, reduce the
burden of program operations, and reduce improper payments. Program integrity
provisions will continue to be strengthened in the SNAP and Child Nutrition
programs to ensure Federal taxpayer dollars are spent effectively. To support
this objective, FNS plans to publish a final rule from the 2008 Farm Bill that
would provide FNS and OIG the authority to suspend payments to SNAP retailers
suspected of being egregious violators. For Child Nutrition, FNS plans to
publish a proposed rule to strengthen oversight requirements and institution
disqualification procedures, allow the imposition of fines by USDA or State
agencies for egregious and/or repeated program violations, and address several
deficiencies identified through program audits and reviews.
Promote Healthy Diet and
Physical Activity Behaviors.
This objective represents FNS's efforts to ensure that
program benefits meet appropriate standards to effectively improve nutrition
for program participants, to improve the diets of its clients through nutrition
education, and to support the national effort to reduce obesity by promoting healthy
eating and physical activity. In
support of this objective, FNS plans to publish proposed rules
updating the meal patterns for the Child and Adult Care Food Program to align
them with the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, establishing professional
standards for school food service and State child nutrition program directors. FNS also plans to finalize a rule updating food
packages in WIC. FNS's goal is by 2015 to reduce child obesity
from 16.9 percent to 15.5 percent, to double the proportion of adults consuming
five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily, and to increase
breastfeeding rates among WIC mothers.
Food
Safety and Inspection Service
Mission: FSIS
is responsible for ensuring that meat, poultry, and egg products in interstate
and foreign commerce are wholesome, not adulterated, and properly marked,
labeled, and packaged.
Priorities: FSIS
is committed to developing and issuing science-based regulations intended to
ensure that meat, poultry, and egg products are wholesome and not adulterated
or misbranded. FSIS regulatory actions support the objective to protect public health by ensuring that food
is safe
under USDA's goal to ensure access to safe food. To reduce the number of
foodborne illnesses and increase program efficiencies, FSIS will continue to
review its existing authorities and regulations to ensure that it can address
emerging food safety challenges, to streamline excessively prescriptive
regulations, and to revise or remove regulations that are inconsistent with the
FSIS' hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) regulations. FSIS is
also working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to improve
coordination and increase the effectiveness of inspection activities. FSIS's
priority initiatives are as follows:
Implement Poultry Slaughter Modernization.
FSIS plans to issue a final rule to implement a new inspection system for young
poultry slaughter establishments that would facilitate public health-based
inspection. The rule would help prevent thousands of illnesses by allowing
front-line inspectors to focus on public health threats such as Salmonella and
Campylobacter. The rule would allow for more effective inspection of carcasses
and allocation of agency resources, as well as encourage industry to more
readily use new technology.
Streamline Export Application Processes through the Public
Health Information System (PHIS). To
support its food safety inspection activities, FSIS is continuing to implement
PHIS), a user-friendly and Web-based system that automates many of the Agency's
business processes. PHIS also enables greater exchange of
information between FSIS and other Federal agencies, such as U. S. Customs and
Border Protection, involved in tracking cross-border movement of import and
export shipments of meat, poultry, and processed egg products. To
facilitate the implementation of some PHIS components, FSIS has proposed to
provide for electronic export application and certification processes and will
propose similar import processes as alternatives to current paper-based
systems.
Ensure Accurate Labeling of Meat and Poultry
Products that Contain Added Solutions.
FSIS is developing final regulations to establish a common or usual name for
raw meat and poultry products that contain added solutions, and that do not
meet a standard of identity. Without adequate labeling information, consumers
likely cannot distinguish between raw meat and poultry products that contain
added solutions and single-ingredient meat and poultry products. Added
solutions are a characterizing component of a product likely to affect
consumers' purchasing decisions. The rule will establish a common or usual
name for such products that include an accurate description of the raw meat or
poultry component, the percentage of added solution incorporated into the
product, and the individual ingredients or multi-ingredient components in the
solution.
Ensure Accurate Labeling of Mechanically
Tenderized Beef. FSIS has concluded that without
proper labeling, raw or partially cooked mechanically tenderized beef products
could be mistakenly perceived by consumers to be whole, intact muscle cuts.
The fact that a cut of beef has been needle or blade tenderized is a
characterizing feature of the product and, as such, a material fact that is
likely to affect consumers' purchase decisions and that should affect their
preparation of the product. The Agency will propose that raw, needle or blade,
mechanically tenderized beef products be labeled to indicate that they are
"mechanically tenderized." FSIS has also concluded that the addition
of validated cooking instruction is required to ensure that potential pathogens
throughout the product are destroyed. Without thorough cooking, pathogens that
may have been introduced to the interior of the product during the
tenderization process may remain in the product.
Improve the Efficiency of Product Recalls. FSIS
will propose to amend recordkeeping regulations to specify that all official
establishments and retail stores that grind or chop raw beef products for sale
in commerce must keep records that disclose the identity of the supplier of all
source materials that they use in the preparation of each lot of raw ground or
chopped product and identify the names of those source materials. FSIS
investigators and public health officials frequently use records kept by all
levels of the food distribution chain, including the retail level, to identify
and trace back product that is the source of the illness the suppliers that
produced the source material for the product. Access to this information will
improve FSIS's ability to conduct timely and effective consumer foodborne
illness investigations and other public health activities throughout the stream
of commerce.
FSIS Small Business Implications.
The great majority of businesses regulated by FSIS are small businesses. FSIS
conducts a small business outreach program that provides critical training,
access to food safety experts, and information resources, such as compliance
guidance and questions and answers on various topics, in forms that are
uniform, easily comprehended, and consistent. FSIS collaborates in this effort
with other USDA agencies and cooperating State partners. For example, FSIS
makes plant owners and operators aware of loan programs available through
USDA's Rural Business and Cooperative programs, to help them in upgrading their
facilities. FSIS employees will meet with small and very small plant operators
to learn more about their specific needs and explore how FSIS can tailor
regulations to better meet the needs of small and very small establishments,
while maintaining the highest level of food safety.
Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service
Mission: A major part of the mission of APHIS is to protect the
health and value of American agricultural and natural resources. APHIS
conducts programs to prevent the introduction of exotic pests and diseases into
the United States and conducts surveillance, monitoring, control, and
eradication programs for pests and diseases in this country. These activities
enhance agricultural productivity and competitiveness and contribute to the
national economy and the public health. APHIS also conducts programs to ensure
the humane handling, care, treatment, and transportation of animals under the
Animal Welfare Act.
Priorities: APHIS
continues to pursue initiatives to update our regulations to make them more
flexible and performance-based. For example, in the area of animal health,
APHIS has prepared a proposal to amend its veterinary biologics regulations to
provide for the use of a simpler, uniform label format that would allow
biologics licensees and permittees to more clearly communicate product
performance information to the end user. In addition, the rule would simplify
the evaluation of efficacy studies and reduce the amount of time required by
APHIS to evaluate study data, thus allowing manufacturers to market their
products sooner. APHIS is also preparing a proposed rule that would revise and
consolidate its regulations regarding bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis to
better reflect the distribution of these diseases and the current nature of
cattle, bison, and captive cervid production in the United States. In the area
of plant health, APHIS is preparing a proposed rule that would establish
performance standards and a notice-based process for approving the interstate
movement of fruits and vegetables from Hawaii and the U.S. Territories and the
importation of those articles from other countries. In addition, APHIS will
revise agricultural quarantine and inspection user fees so that fees collected
are commensurate with the cost of providing the activity.
Agricultural
Marketing Service
Mission:
The Agricultural Marketing
Service (AMS) provides marketing services to producers, manufacturers,
distributors, importers, exporters, and consumers of food products. AMS also
manages the government's food purchases, supervises food quality grading,
maintains food quality standards, supervises the Federal research and promotion
programs, and oversees the country of origin labeling program as well as the
National Organic Program (NOP).
Priorities:
AMS is committed to ensuring the integrity of USDA organic products in the U.S.
and throughout the world. The agency is moving forward with the following
rulemaking that affect the organic industry.
Transitioning Dairy
Animals into Organic Production.
Members of the organic community, including dairy producers, organic interest
groups, and the National Organic Standards Board have advocated for rulemaking
on the allowance for transitioning dairy animals into organic production.
Stakeholders have interpreted the current standard differently, creating
inconsistencies across dairy producers. AMS is developing a proposed rule to address
this issue by specifying that dairy farms have a one-time opportunity to
transition animals into organic production. This proposed change to the
organic standards will meet consumer expectations of organic dairy products and
level the playing for organic dairy producers.
Farm
Service Agency
Mission:
FSA's mission is to deliver timely, effective programs and services to
America's farmers and ranchers to support them in sustaining our Nation's vibrant
agricultural economy, as well as to provide first-rate support for domestic and
international food aid efforts. FSA supports USDA's strategic goals
by stabilizing
farm income, providing credit to new or existing farmers and ranchers who are
temporarily unable to obtain credit from commercial sources, and helping farm
operations recover from the effects of disaster. FSA administers several
conservation programs directed toward agricultural producers. The largest
program is the Conservation Reserve Program, which protects millions of acres
of environmentally sensitive land.
Priorities: FSA
is focused on providing the best possible service to producers while protecting
the environment by updating and streamlining environmental compliance. FSA is
also strengthening its ability to help the Nation respond to national defense
emergencies. FSA's priority initiatives are as follows:
Streamline Environmental Compliance (NEPA). FSA will revise its
regulations that implement NEPA. The changes improve the efficiency,
transparency, and consistency of NEPA implementation. Changes include aligning
the regulations to NEPA regulations and guidance from the President's Council
on Environmental Quality; providing a single set of regulations that reflect
the agency's current structure; clarifying the types of actions that require an
Environmental Assessment (EA); and adding to the list of actions that are
categorically excluded from further environmental review because they have no
significant effect on the human environment.
Establish Agriculture Priorities and Allocations Systems (APAS). USDA is developing APAS as part of a suite of rules that are
being modeled after the Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS).
Under APAS, USDA would secure food and agriculture-related resources as part of
preparing for, and responding to, national defense emergencies by placing
priorities on orders or by using resource allocation authority. APAS is
authorized by the Defense Production Act Reauthorization Act of 2009 (DPA). The
authorities under DPA have already been implemented by the Department of
Commerce (DOC) via memoranda of understanding with other Departments. The
suite of DPA rules relieves DOC from implementation responsibility for items
outside their jurisdiction and places these responsibilities with the relevant
Departments.
Forest Service
Mission: The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the
health, productivity, and diversity of the Nation's forests and rangelands to
meet the needs of present and future generations. This includes protecting and
managing National Forest System lands, providing technical and financial
assistance to States, communities, and private forest landowners, plus developing
and providing scientific and technical assistance, and the
exchange of scientific information to support international forest and range
conservation. Forest Service regulatory priorities
support the accomplishment of the Department's goal to ensure our National
forests are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change,
while enhancing our water resources.
Priorities: The
Forest
Service is committed to developing and issuing science-based regulations
intended to ensure public participation in the management of our Nation's national
forests and grasslands, while also moving forward the Agency's ability to plan
and conduct restoration projects on National Forest System lands. The Forest
Service will continue to review its existing authorities and regulations to
ensure that it can address emerging challenges, to streamline excessively burdensome
business practices, and to revise or remove regulations that are inconsistent
with the USDA's vision for restoring the health and function of the lands it is
charged with managing. FS' priority initiatives are as follows:
Implement Land Management Planning Framework. The Forest Service
promulgated a new Land Management Planning rule at 36 CFR part 219 in April
2012 that sets out the requirements for developing, amending, and revising land
management plans for units of the National Forest System. The planning
directives, once finalized, will be used to implement the planning framework
which fosters collaboration with the public during land management planning,
and is science-based, responsive to change, and promotes social, economic, and
ecological sustainability.
Strengthen Ecological Restoration Policies. This
policy would recognize the adaptive capacity of ecosystems, and includes the
role of natural disturbances and uncertainty related to climate and other
environmental change. The need for ecological restoration of National Forest
System lands is widely recognized, and the Forest Service has conducted
restoration-related activities across many programs for decades. "Restoration"
is a common way of describing much of the Agency's work and the concept is
threaded throughout existing authorities, program directives, and collaborative
efforts such as the National Fire Plan, a 10-year comprehensive strategy and implementation
plan, and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. However, the Agency did not
have a definition of restoration established in policy. That was identified as
a barrier to collaborating with the public and partners to plan and accomplish
restoration work.
Rural
Development
Mission:
Rural Development (RD) promotes a dynamic business environment in rural America
that creates jobs, community infrastructure, and housing opportunities in
partnership with the private sector and community-based organizations by
providing financial assistance and business planning services, and supporting
projects that create or preserve quality jobs and/or promote a clean rural
environment, while focusing on the development of single and multi-family
housing and community infrastructure. RD financial resources are often
leveraged with those of other public and private credit source lenders to meet
business and credit needs in under-served areas. Recipients of these programs
may include individuals, corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, public
bodies, nonprofit corporations, Indian tribes, and private companies.
Priorities:
RD
regulatory priorities will facilitate sustainable renewable energy development
and enhance the opportunities necessary for rural families to thrive
economically. RD's rules will minimize program complexity and the related
burden on the public while enhancing program delivery and RBS oversight.
Streamline the Business and Industry (B&I)
Guaranteed Loan Program. RD will enhance current operations of
the B&I program, streamline existing practices, and minimize program complexity
and the related burden on the public.
Increase Accessibility to the Rural
Energy for America Program (REAP). Under
REAP, Rural Development provides guaranteed loans and grants to support the
purchase, construction, or retrofitting of a renewable energy system. This
rulemaking will streamline the application process for grants, lessening the
burden to the customer. The rulemaking is expected to reduce the information
collection. REAP will also be revised to ensure a larger number of
applicants will be made available by issuing smaller grants. By doing so, funding
will be distributed evenly across the applicant pool and encourage greater
development of renewable energy.
Modify review of Single Family Housing Direct Loans. RD
will finalize the certified loan packager regulation to
streamline oversight of the agency's vast network of committed Agency-certified
packagers. This action will assist low- and very low-income people become
homeowners. It will also reduce burden on program staff enabling them to focus
on implementation and delivery or other and will ensure specialized support is
available to them to complete the application for assistance, and improving the
quality of loan application packages.
Update Civil Rights Protections:
RD will propose a comprehensive civil rights rule to update and consolidate
civil rights compliance regulations for Rural Housing Service, Rural Utilities
Service and Rural Business Service. This regulation will provide detailed
information on civil rights compliance and enforcement policies and procedures
for all Rural Development programs.
Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR)
Mission:
OASCR's
mission is to provide leadership and direction for the fair and equitable
treatment of all USDA customers and employees while ensuring the delivery of
quality programs and enforcement of civil rights. OASCR ensures compliance with
applicable laws, regulations, and policies for USDA customers and employees
regardless of race, color, national origin, sex ( including gender identity and
expression), religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital or familial
status, political beliefs, parental status, protected genetic information, or
because all or part of an individual's income is derived from any public
assistance program. (Not all bases apply to all programs.)
Priorities:
Strengthen Civil Rights Protections: USDA has made significant strides towards realizing the
Secretary's vision of a "New Era for Civil Rights." In this effort, USDA
plans to publish a proposed rule that will standardize the collection of race,
ethnicity and gender data across USDA's conducted programs (those where USDA
deals directly with the public; much of this data is already being
collected). USDA will also expand the protected categories under which
program participants may bring complaints of discrimination to the Department;
these new protected bases will be gender identity and political beliefs.
Departmental Management
Mission:
Departmental Management's mission is to provide management leadership to ensure
that USDA administrative programs, policies, advice and counsel meet the needs
of USDA programs, consistent with laws and mandates, and provide safe and
efficient facilities and services to customers.
Priorities:
Promote Biobased Products:
In support of the Department's goal to increase prosperity in rural areas,
USDA's Departmental Management will finalize regulations to revise the
BioPreferred® program guidelines to
continue adding designated product categories to the preferred procurement
program, including intermediates and feedstocks and finished products made of
intermediates and feedstocks.
Aggregate Costs and Benefits
USDA will ensure that its
regulations provide benefits that exceed costs, but are unable to provide an
estimate of the aggregated impacts of its regulations. Problems with
aggregation arise due to differing baselines, data gaps, and inconsistencies in
methodology and the type of regulatory costs and benefits considered. Some benefits
and costs associated with rules listed in the regulatory plan cannot currently
be quantified as the rules are still being formulated. For 2014, USDA's focus
will be to implement the changes to programs in such a way as to provide
benefits while minimizing program complexity and regulatory burden for program
participants.
BILLING CODE 3410-90-S