[Federal Register: March 2, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 39)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 9047-9049]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr02mr09-2]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Marketing Service
7 CFR Part 1220
[Doc. No. AMS-LS-08-0074]
Soybean Promotion, Research, and Information Program: Amend
Procedures To Request a Referendum
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: This final rule amends the procedures to request a referendum
under the Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information
program, commonly known as the soybean checkoff program, by updating
the number of soybean producers in the United States. The number of
soybean producers, based on information provided by the Department of
Agriculture (USDA), Farm Service Agency (FSA), is 589,182.
Additionally, this rule amends the regulations pursuant to
administrative changes to Web site addresses and office locations made
for the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
DATES: Effective Date: March 3, 2009.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kenneth R. Payne, Chief, Marketing
Programs Branch, Livestock and Seed Program, AMS, USDA, Room 2628-S,
STOP 0251, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-0251;
Telephone 202/720-1115; Fax 202/720-1125; or e-mail to
Kenneth.Payne@usda.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Executive Order 12866
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has waived the review
process required by Executive Order 12866 for this action.
Executive Order 12988
This final rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988,
Civil Justice Reform. This final rule is not intended to have a
retroactive effect. The final rule would not preempt any other Federal
or State laws, regulations, or policies.
The Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act (Act)
provides that administrative proceedings must be exhausted before
parties may file suit in court. Under section 1971 of the Act, a person
subject to the Soybean Promotion and Research Order (Order) may file a
petition with USDA stating that the Order, any provision of the Order,
or any obligation imposed in connection with the Order, is not in
accordance with the law and requesting a modification of the Order or
an exemption from the Order. The petitioner is afforded the opportunity
for a hearing on the petition. After a hearing, USDA would rule on the
petition. The Act provides that district courts of the United States in
any district in which such person is an inhabitant, or has their
principal place of business, has jurisdiction to review USDA's ruling
on the petition, if a complaint for this purpose is filed within 20
days after the date of the entry of the ruling.
Further, section 1974 of the Act provides, with certain exceptions,
that nothing in the Act may be construed to preempt or supersede any
other program relating to soybean promotion, research, consumer
information, or industry information organized under the laws of the
United States or any State. One exception in the Act concerns
assessments collected by Qualified State Soybean Boards (QSSBs). The
exception provides that to ensure adequate funding of the operations of
QSSBs under the Act, no State law or regulation may limit or have the
effect of limiting the full amount of assessments that a QSSB in that
State may collect, and which is authorized to be credited under the
Act. Another exception concerns certain referenda conducted during
specified periods by a State relating to the continuation of a QSSB or
State soybean assessment.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
AMS has determined that this final rule will not have a significant
impact on a substantial number of small entities, as defined by the
Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) (5 U.S.C. 601-612). 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.
For the purpose of the Request for Referendum, the Secretary will
use the most recent number of soybean producers identified by USDA's
FSA. The latest number of soybean producers identified by FSA is
589,182 and was obtained using information from 2006 and 2007 acreage
reports. The data were sorted in such a manner as to include all
producers that were engaged in the production of soybeans in at least
one
[[Page 9048]]
of the 2 years and exclude counting a producer more than once if that
producer engaged in production during both years. Therefore, the number
of soybean producers, as presented in the proposed rule, who would be
eligible to participate in the Request for Referendum will be changed
from 663,880 to 589,182. The majority of producers subject to the Order
are small businesses under the criteria established by the Small
Business Administration (SBA) [13 CFR 121.201]. SBA defines small
agricultural producers as those having annual receipts of less than
$750,000.
Further, the information collection requirements are minimal.
Requesting form LS-51-1 to participate in a Request for Referendum may
be done by mail, in-person, by facsimile, or via the Internet and would
not impose a significant economic burden on participants. Finally, this
final rule will amend, as described in the proposed rule, the
regulations pursuant to administrative changes to Web site addresses
and office locations for the AMS.
Paperwork Reduction Act
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35), the reporting and recordkeeping requirements included in 7
CFR part 1220 were previously approved by OMB and were assigned control
number 0581-0093.
Background
The Act (7 U.S.C. 6301-6311) provides for the establishment of a
coordinated program of promotion and research designed to strengthen
the soybean industry's position in the marketplace, and to maintain and
expand domestic and foreign markets and uses for soybeans and soybean
products. The program is financed by an assessment of 0.5 of 1 percent
of the net market price of soybeans sold by producers. The final rule
establishing a Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information
program was published in the July 9, 1991 issue of the Federal Register
(56 FR 31043) and assessments began on September 1, 1991.
The Act required that an initial referendum be conducted no earlier
than 18 months and not later than 36 months after the issuance of the
Order to determine whether the Order should be continued. The initial
referendum was conducted on February 9, 1994. On April 1, 1994, the
Secretary announced that of the 85,606 valid ballots cast, 46,060 (53.8
percent) were in favor of continuing the Order and the remaining 39,546
votes (46.2 percent) were against continuing the Order. The Act
required approval by a simple majority for the Order to continue.
The Act also required that within 18 months after the Secretary
announced the results of the initial referendum, the Secretary would
conduct a poll among producers to determine if producers favored a
referendum on the continuance of the payment of refunds under the
Order. On December 5, 2008, USDA published a proposed rule in the
Federal Register (73 FR 74080) to amend the procedures for soybean
producers to request a referendum on the Order.
A July 25, 1995, nationwide poll of soybean producers did not
generate sufficient support for a refund referendum to be held. A
refund referendum would have been held if at least 20 percent (not in
excess of one-fifth of which may be producers in any one State) of the
381,000 producers (76,200) nationwide requested it. Only 48,782 soybean
producers participated in the poll. Consequently, refunds were
discontinued on October 1, 1995.
The Act also specifies that the Secretary shall, 5 years after the
conduct of the initial referendum and every 5 years thereafter, provide
soybean producers an opportunity to request a referendum on the Order.
Additionally, the Act specifies that these subsequent polls require
that at least 10 percent (not in excess of one-fifth in any one State)
of all producers must request a referendum in order to trigger the
conduct of a referendum. If a referendum is requested, it will be held
within 1 year of that determination.
On October 1, 1999, through November 16, 1999, a nationwide Request
for Referendum was conducted to determine if there was sufficient
interest among soybean producers to vote on whether to continue the
soybean checkoff program. Ten percent of the 600,813 soybean producers
nationwide (not in excess of one-fifth of which may be producers in any
one State) needed to participate in the Request for Referendum to
trigger a referendum. Only 17,970 eligible soybean producers completed
valid requests.
Five years later, another Request for Referendum was conducted May
1, 2004, through May 28, 2004. As in the prior Request for Referendum,
the purpose was to determine if there was sufficient interest among
soybean producers to vote on whether to continue the soybean checkoff
Program. To be eligible to participate in the Request for Referendum,
producers or the producer entity that they are authorized to represent
had to certify and provide supporting documentation showing that they
or the producer entity they represent paid an assessment sometime
during the representative period between January 1, 2002 and December
31, 2003. Of the total 663,880 soybean producers eligible to
participate, 3,206 valid Requests for Referendum were completed. This
number did not meet the requisite number of 66,388; therefore, a
referendum was not conducted.
In accordance with the Act, another Request for Referendum will be
conducted in 2009. In the proposed rule, data provided by USDA's FSA
was presented that would amend the number of soybean producers in
preparation for this upcoming Request for Referendum. Presently,
section 1220.616 of the Order states that the number of soybean
producers in the United States is 663,880. This final rule amends the
number of eligible producers based on information from acreage reports
provided by FSA which identifies 589,182 soybean producers for crop
years 2006 and 2007. The data were sorted in such a manner as to
include all producers that were engaged in the production of soybeans
in at least one of the 2 years and exclude counting a producer more
than once if that producer engaged in production during both years.
Using the last two crop years for which complete data is available
ensures that all eligible producers are counted, as some producers use
soybeans in rotation with other crops and do not plant soybeans every
year or the market for some producers in a particular crop year may not
have been conducive to growing soybeans. This methodology is consistent
with that used during the last amendment to section 1220.616 in 2004.
In addition to the changes presented in the proposed rule relating
to the number of eligible soybean producers, AMS also proposed
amendments to sections 1220.622 and 1220.628 to update Web site
addresses and office locations as a result of internal changes within
the agency.
Discussion of Comments
In the December 5, 2008, proposed rule in the Federal Register (73
FR 74080), interested persons were provided the opportunity to comment
on the changes to section 1220.616 of the regulations. The comment
period ended December 22, 2008.
USDA received one comment raising a number of issues concerning the
2009 Request for Referendum, including the timing of the poll. The
comment, however, did not address the proposed changes to section
1220.616. The 2009
[[Page 9049]]
Request for Referendum will be conducted in accordance with the Act and
applicable regulations. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553, good cause is found
for not postponing the effective date of the action until 30 days after
publication in the Federal Register in order to conduct the Request for
Referendum within the timeframes that appear in the Act.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 1220
Administrative practice and procedure, Advertising, Agricultural
research, Marketing agreements, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, Soybeans and soybean products.
0
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, 7 CFR part 1220 is amended
as follows:
PART 1220--SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND CONSUMER INFORMATION
0
1. The authority citation for part 1220 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 6301-6311 and 7 U.S.C. 7401.
Subpart F--Procedures to Request a Referendum
0
2. In Sec. 1220.616, paragraph (d) is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 1220.616 General.
* * * * *
(d) For purposes of paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, the
number of soybean producers in the United States is determined to be
589,182.
Sec. 1220.622 [Amended]
0
3. In Sec. 1220.622, paragraph (b) the Web site ``http://
www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/mpb/rp-soy.htm'' is removed and a new Web site
``http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsmarketing programs'' is added in its place.
0
4. In Sec. 1220.628, paragraph (a) is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 1220.628 Results of the request for referendum.
(a) The Administrator, FSA, shall submit to the Administrator, AMS,
the reports from all State FSA offices. The Administrator, AMS shall
tabulate the results of the Request for Referendum. USDA will issue an
official press release announcing the results of the Request for
Referendum and publish the same results in the Federal Register. In
addition, USDA will post the official results at the following Web
site: ``http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsmarketingprograms''.
Subsequently, State reports and related papers shall be available
for public inspection upon request during normal business hours in the
Marketing Programs Branch office, Livestock and Seed Program, AMS,
USDA, Room 2628-S, STOP 0251, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC.
* * * * *
Dated: February 24, 2009.
Robert C. Keeney,
Acting Associate Administrator.
[FR Doc. E9-4292 Filed 2-27-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P