[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 7, Parts 700 to 899]
[Revised as of January 1, 2001]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR799.1]

[Page 501]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
                            CHAPTER VII--FARM
                SERVICE AGENCY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 799--ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS--COMPLIANCE WITH THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 799.1  Background.

    The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 
et seq.) establishes national policies and goals for the protection of 
the environment. Section 102(2) of NEPA contains certain procedural 
requirements directed toward the attainment of such goals. Section 
(102)(2) also requires all Federal agencies to give appropriate 
consideration to the environmental effects of their proposed actions in 
their decisionmaking and to prepare detailed environmental statements on 
recommendations or reports on proposals for legislation and other major 
Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human 
environment. Executive Order 11991 of May 24, 1977 (42 FR 26967), 
directed the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to issue regulations 
to implement the procedural provisions of NEPA. Accordingly, CEQ issued 
final NEPA regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 through 1508) on November 29, 
1978, which are binding on all Federal agencies as of July 30, 1979. 
These regulations provide that each Federal agency shall as necessary 
adopt implementing procedures to supplement the regulations. The U.S. 
Department of Agriculture adopted such procedures in a final rule (7 CFR 
part 3100) published on July 30, 1979. The CEQ regulations at 40 CFR 
1507.3 (b) identify those items which must be addressed in agency 
procedures.