[Federal Register: May 31, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 103)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 30895-30896]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr31my05-1]
========================================================================
Rules and Regulations
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains regulatory documents
having general applicability and legal effect, most of which are keyed
to and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is published
under 50 titles pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 1510.
The Code of Federal Regulations is sold by the Superintendent of Documents.
Prices of new books are listed in the first FEDERAL REGISTER issue of each
week.
========================================================================
[[Page 30895]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Marketing Service
7 CFR Part 28
[CN-05-001]
RIN 0581-AC43
Revision of User Fees for 2005 Crop Cotton Classification
Services to Growers
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
ACTION: Final rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will raise user fees
for cotton producers for 2005 crop cotton classification services under
the Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act. The 2004 user fee for this
classification service was $1.65 per bale. This rule will raise the fee
for the 2005 crop to $1.85 per bale with the program. This fee and the
existing reserve are sufficient to cover the costs of providing
classification services, including costs for administration and
supervision.
DATES: Effective Date: July 1, 2005.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Darryl Earnest, Acting Deputy
Administrator, Cotton Program, AMS, USDA, Room 2641-S, STOP 0224, 1400
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-0224. Telephone (202)
720-2145, facsimile (202) 690-1718, or e-mail darryl.earnest@usda.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A proposed rule detailing the revisions was
published in the Federal Register on April 26, 2005 (70 FR 21342). A
15-day comment period was provided for interested persons to respond to
the proposed rule. No comments were received and no changes have been
made in the provisions of the final rule.
Executive Order 12866
This rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes of
Executive Order 12866; and, therefore has not been reviewed by the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Executive Order 12988
This final rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988,
Civil Justice Reform. It is not intended to have retroactive effect.
This rule would not preempt any state or local laws, regulations, or
policies unless they present an irreconcilable conflict with this rule.
There are no administrative procedures that must be exhausted prior to
any judicial challenge to the provisions of this rule.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
Pursuant to requirements set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility
Act (RFA) (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) AMS has considered the economic impact
of this action on small entities and has determined that its
implementation will not have a significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small businesses.
The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the scale of
businesses subject to such actions so that small businesses will not be
disproportionately burdened. There are an estimated 35,000 cotton
growers in the U.S. who voluntarily use the AMS cotton classing
services annually, and the majority of these cotton growers are small
businesses under the criteria established by the Small Business
Administration (13 CFR 121.201). The increase above the 2004 crop level
as stated will not significantly affect small businesses as defined in
the RFA because:
(1) The fee represents a very small portion of the cost-per-unit
(less than 0.4 cents per lb) currently borne by those entities
utilizing the services. (The 2004 user fee for classification services
was $1.65 per 500 pound bale; the fee for the 2005 crop will be
increased to $1.85 per 500 pound bale; the 2005 crop is estimated at
18,750,000 bales).
(2) The fee for services will not affect competition in the
marketplace; and
(3) The use of classification services is voluntary. For the 2004
crop, 22,815,000 bales were produced. Almost all of these bales were
voluntarily submitted by growers for the classification service.
(4) Based on the average price paid to growers for cotton from the
2003 crop of 61.8 cents per pound, 500 pound bales of cotton are worth
an average of $309 each. The user fee for classification services,
$1.85 per bale, is less than one percent of the value of an average
bale of cotton.
Paperwork Reduction Act
In compliance with OMB regulations (5 CFR part 1320), which
implement the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.),
the information collection requirements contained in the provisions to
be amended by this rule have been previously approved by OMB and were
assigned OMB control number 0581-AC34.
Fees for Classification Under the Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act
of 1927
The user fee charged to cotton producers for High Volume Instrument
(HVI) classification services under the Cotton Statistics and Estimates
Act (7 U.S.C. 473a) was $1.65 per bale during the 2004 harvest season,
as determined by using the formula provided in the Uniform Cotton
Classing Fees Act of 1987, as amended by Public Law 102-237. The fees
cover salaries, costs of equipment and supplies, and other overhead
costs, including costs for administration, and supervision.
This final rule establishes the user fee charged to producers for
HVI classification at $1.85 per bale during the 2005 harvest season.
Public Law 102-237 amended the formula in the Uniform Cotton
Classing Fees Act of 1987 for establishing the producer's
classification fee so that the producer's fee is based on the
prevailing method of classification requested by producers during the
previous year. HVI classing was the prevailing method of cotton
classification requested by producers in 2004. Therefore, the 2005
producer's user fee for classification service is based on the 2004
base fee for HVI classification.
The fee was calculated by applying the formula specified in the
Uniform Cotton Classing Fees Act of 1987, as amended by Public Law 102-
237. The 2004 base fee for HVI classification exclusive of adjustments,
as provided by the Act, was $2.32 per bale. An increase of 2.51
percent, or 5 cents per bale, due to the implicit price deflator of the
gross domestic product added to the $2.32 would result in a 2005 base
fee of $2.37
[[Page 30896]]
per bale. The formula in the Act provides for the use of the percentage
change in the implicit price deflator of the gross national product (as
indexed for the most recent 12-month period for which statistics are
available). However, gross national product has been replaced by gross
domestic product by the Department of Commerce as a more appropriate
measure for the short-term monitoring and analysis of the U.S. economy.
The number of bales to be classed by the United States Department
of Agriculture from the 2005 crop is estimated at 18,096,563 bales. The
2005 base fee was decreased 15 percent based on the estimated number of
bales to be classed (1 percent for every 100,000 bales or portion
thereof above the base of 12,500,000, limited to a maximum decreased
adjustment of 15 percent). This percentage factor amounts to a 35 cents
per bale reduction and was subtracted from the 2005 base fee of $2.37
per bale, resulting in a fee of $2.02 per bale.
With a fee of $2.02 per bale, the projected operating reserve would
be 32.45 percent. The Act specifies that the Secretary shall not
establish a fee which, when combined with other sources of revenue,
will result in a projected operating reserve of more than 25 percent.
Accordingly, the fee of $2.02 was required to be reduced by 17 cents
per bale, to $1.85 per bale, to provide an ending accumulated operating
reserve for the fiscal year of not more than 25 percent of the
projected cost of operating the program. This would establish the 2005
season fee at $1.85 per bale.
Accordingly, Sec. 28.909, paragraph (b) is revised to reflect the
increase of the HVI classification fee from $1.65 to $1.85 per bale.
As provided for in the Uniform Cotton Classing Fees Act of 1987, as
amended, a 5 cent per bale discount would continue to be applied to
voluntary centralized billing and collecting agents as specified in
Sec. 28.909(c).
Growers or their designated agents receiving classification data
would continue to incur no additional fees if classification data is
requested only once. The fee for each additional retrieval of
classification data in Sec. 28.910 will remain at 5 cents per bale.
The fee in Sec. 28.910(b) for an owner receiving classification data
from the National database will remain at 5 cents per bale, and the
minimum charge of $5.00 for services provided per monthly billing
period will remain the same. The provisions of Sec. 28.910(c)
concerning the fee for new classification memoranda issued from the
National database for the business convenience of an owner without
reclassification of the cotton will remain the same at 15 cents per
bale or a minimum of $5.00 per sheet.
The fee for review classification in Sec. 28.911 will be increased
from $1.65 to $1.85 per bale.
The fee for returning samples after classification in Sec. 28.911
will remain at 40 cents per sample.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 28
Administrative practice and procedure, Cotton, Cotton samples,
Grades, Market news, Reporting and record keeping requirements,
Standards, Staples, Testing, Warehouses.
0
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, 7 CFR part 28 is amended as
follows:
PART 28--[AMENDED]
0
1. The authority citation for 7 CFR part 28, subpart D, continues to
read as follows:
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 471-476.
0
2. In Sec. 28.909, paragraph (b) is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 28.909 Costs.
* * * * *
(b) The cost of High Volume Instrument (HVI) cotton classification
service to producers is $1.85 per bale.
* * * * *
0
3. In Sec. 28.911, the last sentence of paragraph (a) is revised to
read as follows:
Sec. 28.911 Review classification.
(a) * * * The fee for review classification is $1.85 per bale.
* * * * *
Dated: May 26, 2005.
Kenneth C. Clayton,
Acting Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.
[FR Doc. 05-10834 Filed 5-27-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P