[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 76 (Wednesday, April 20, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 22058-22059]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-9522]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 76 / Wednesday, April 20, 2011 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 22058]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
2 CFR Chapter IX
5 CFR Chapter LXXIII
7 CFR Subtitle A and Chapters I Through VII, XIV Through XVIII, XX,
XXVI Through XXXVIII, XLI, and XLII
9 CFR Chapters I Through III
36 CFR Chapter II
48 CFR Chapter 4
Reducing Regulatory Burden; Retrospective Review Under Executive
Order 13563
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, USDA.
ACTION: Request for Information (RFI).
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SUMMARY: In accordance with Executive Order 13563, ``Improving
Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' the Department of Agriculture
(USDA) is reviewing its existing regulations to evaluate their
continued effectiveness in addressing the circumstances for which they
were promulgated. As part of this review, USDA invites public comment
to assist in analyzing its existing significant regulations to
determine whether they should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or
repealed.
The focus of USDA's initial review is to identify areas where it
can simplify and reduce the reporting burden on the public for entry
and access to USDA programs, while simultaneously reducing its
administrative and operating costs by sharing similar data across
participating agencies.
DATES: Comments and information are requested on or before May 20,
2011.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding
this notice. All submissions must refer to ``Retrospective Review'' to
ensure proper delivery.
Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. USDA strongly encourages commenters to submit
comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments allows the
commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, and ensures
timely receipt by USDA. Commenters should follow the instructions
provided on that site to submit comments electronically.
E-mail Submission of Comments. Comments may be submitted by E-mail:
[email protected]. E-mail submission of comments must include
the term ``Retrospective Review'' in the subject line of the message.
Submission of Comments by Mail. Paper, disk, or CD-ROM submissions
should be submitted to Julie Hetrick, Office of Budget and Program
Analysis, USDA, Jamie L. Whitten Building, Room 101-A, 1400
Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20250.
Submission of Comments by Hand Delivery/Courier: Julie Hetrick,
Office of Budget and Program Analysis, USDA, Jamie L. Whitten Building,
Room 101-A, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20250.
Background: To read background information on Executive Order
13563, go to http://www.regulations.gov/exchange/topic/eo-13563.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julie Hetrick, Office of Budget and
Program Analysis, Jamie L. Whitten Building, Room 101-A, USDA, 1400
Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20250; Voice: (202) 720-1269.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Executive Order 13563
On January 18, 2011, the President issued Executive Order 13563,
``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' to ensure that Federal
regulations use the best available tools to promote innovation that
will reduce costs and burden while allowing public participation and an
open exchange of ideas. These principles will enhance and strengthen
Federal regulations to allow them to achieve their regulatory
objectives, most important among them, protecting public health,
welfare, safety, and the environment. In consideration of these
principles, and as directed by the Executive Order, Federal agencies
and departments need to periodically review and consider existing
regulations that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or
excessively burdensome and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal
them in accordance with what has been learned. As part of this
retrospective review of regulations, and as USDA develops a preliminary
plan to periodically review the regulatory programs of its mission
areas, USDA is seeking public comment on how best to remove obstacles
created by current regulations and ways to improve them to help USDA
agencies advance the mission of the Department.
II. Request for Information
USDA is contemplating focusing its initial retrospective review
under Executive Order 13563 in the following areas: Rural Development,
Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the
Food Safety and Inspection Service. Each area has identified potential
issues for review. USDA is particularly interested in public comments
that speak to these areas and the issues identified below.
A. Rural Development
To better serve its customers, Rural Development (RD) is
considering a review of its regulations in order to determine whether
certain application procedures can be streamlined. RD is particularly
interested in hearing from the public on how best to streamline certain
application procedures to reflect the size and risk of certain types of
loans and grants, including required audits, paperwork, and forms, and
other ways to reduce excessive burdens.
B. Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services
The Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) mission area is
considering a review of process improvements that could be achieved
through the consolidation of information required to participate in
farm programs administered by the Farm Service Agency and the Federal
Crop Insurance Program administered by the Risk Management Agency. FFAS
is interested in hearing from the public on how best to simplify and
standardize, to the extent practical, acreage reporting processes,
program dates, and data definitions across the various USDA programs
and agencies. FFAS also welcomes comments on how best to develop
procedures, processes, and standards that will allow producers to use
information from their farm-management and precision-ag systems
[[Page 22059]]
for reporting production, planted and harvested acreage, and other key
information needed to participate in USDA programs. These process
changes may 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. It also may provide a single
Web site for producers to report commodity information if they so
choose, or access their previously reported information.
C. Natural Resources Conservation Service
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is considering a
review of its regulations consistent with its other ongoing
streamlining efforts to improve the processes that deliver technical
and financial assistance to program users. To inform this process, NRCS
welcomes comments on approaches that will allow NRCS to enhance its
delivery of technical assistance and streamline the application process
and participation in financial assistance programs. NRCS is
specifically interested in comments on such approaches as allowing
customers to apply for programs or services online 24/7, reducing the
number of office visits required through the use of mobile
technologies, accelerating payments to clients after a practice is
applied, and simplifying conservation plan documents.
D. Food Safety and Inspection Service
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is considering a
review of its regulations to identify potential improvements in
information collection procedures to increase the quality of data
available to inform and support regulatory decision making. For
example, FSIS is considering collecting additional information about
establishment verification testing, such as testing for pathogens. FSIS
is also considering potential means to decrease the recordkeeping
burden on industry, by possibly reducing label submission requirements.
In addition, FSIS is also considering how its new Public Health
Information System could potentially be used to share data and reduce
data reporting requirements. To aid this effort, FSIS invites the
public to comment on how best to improve data quality and minimize the
recordkeeping burden on industry.
III. Questions for Commenters
In providing comments, the public is encouraged to respond to the
questions as they pertain to the four areas identified above:
(1) Are there regulations or reporting requirements that have
become outdated and, if so, how can they be modernized to accomplish
their regulatory objectives better?
(2) Do agencies currently collect information that they do not need
or use effectively to achieve regulatory objectives?
(3) Is there information that agencies should begin collecting to
achieve regulatory objectives?
(4) Are there regulations, reporting requirements, or regulatory
submission or application processes that are unnecessarily complicated,
or that could be streamlined to achieve regulatory objectives in ways
that are more efficient?
(5) Are there regulations, submission and application processes, or
reporting requirements that have been overtaken by technological
developments? Can new technologies be used to modify, streamline, or do
away with existing regulatory or reporting requirements?
This is a non-exhaustive list that is meant to assist in the
formulation of comments and is not intended to limit the issues that
commenters may choose to address. Although we are contemplating on
focusing our initial review on the four areas identified above, we
welcome comments from the public on any of USDA's regulations and ways
to improve them to help USDA agencies advance the mission of the
Department consistent with the Executive Order. We encourage the public
to comment on those rules that have been in effect for a sufficient
amount of time to warrant meaningful evaluation. USDA notes that this
RFI is issued solely for information and program-planning purposes.
While responses to this RFI do not bind USDA to any further actions
related to the response, all submissions will be made publicly
available on http://www.regulations.gov.
Signed in Washington, DC, on April 12, 2011.
Thomas J. Vilsack,
Secretary of Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2011-9522 Filed 4-19-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-90-P