The Department of Agriculture, consistent with its reputation as the "people's Department," will pursue regulations that enhance and protect the quality of American agriculture, assist and promote America's farmers and ranchers, and benefit the lives of all Americans. USDA will remain vigilant to ensure the safety of our Nation's food supply and to address the potential threats posed by bioterrorism.
¤ Farmers, ranchers, and other USDA customers will find significant changes in all aspects of regulations that govern their interaction with the Department and its programs. Farm credit, a mainstay of the Nation's rural economy, is being significantly streamlined by the merger of cumbersome loan-making regulations with forms and certifications simplified to facilitate the application process. Existing forms and procedures are also being reviewed for their applicability to electronic submission and collection. The Department is undertaking a number of actions in the regulation of commodities that will increase efficiency, improve customer service, and reduce intervention in markets.
¤ USDA will develop new regulations and review existing ones that address the potential threats posed by domestic outbreaks of exotic animal diseases such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
¤ In the area of food safety, the Department will continue to refine existing regulations to assist industry in implementing a consistent, science-based process control system while developing new regulations that address emerging and exotic threats to the safety of the Nation's meat, poultry, and egg products supply.
¤ The Department is also improving the regulations that serve rural communities. Regulations are being streamlined and simplified so that they will be more customer friendly while providing for more efficient and effective program management.
¤ Nutrition programs are being improved to strengthen dietary quality by providing a wider variety of food packages to children and low-income participants while also improving the efficiency and integrity of program operations.
Reducing Paperwork Burden on Farmers
The Department has made substantial progress in implementing the goal of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 to reduce the burden of information collection on the public. The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) is leading all agencies in the Department to evaluate how they conduct business and migrate toward electronically oriented methods. The Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Rural Development, and Risk Management Agency are also working to implement the Freedom to E-File Act. Freedom to E-File directs the agencies, to the maximum extent practicable, to modify forms into user-friendly formats with user instructions and permits those forms to be downloaded and submitted via facsimile, mail, or similar means. As a result, producers should have the capability to electronically file forms and all other documentation if they so desire. Underlying these efforts will be analyses to identify and eliminate redundant data collections and streamline collection instructions. The end result of implementing both of these pieces of legislation will be better service to our customers so that they can choose when and where to conduct business with USDA.
The Role of Regulations
The programs of the Department are diverse and far reaching, as are the regulations that attend their delivery. Regulations codify how the Department will conduct its business, including the specifics of access to, and eligibility for, USDA programs. Regulations also specify the behavior of State and local governments, private industry, businesses, and individuals that is necessary to comply with their provisions. The diversity in purpose and outreach of our programs contributes significantly to the USDA being near the top of the list of departments that produce the largest number of regulations annually. These regulations range from nutrition standards for the school lunch program, to natural resource and environmental measures governing national forest usage and soil conservation, to regulations protecting American agribusiness (the largest dollar value contributor to exports) from the ravages of domestic or foreign plant or animal pestilence, and they extend from farm to supermarket to ensure the safety, quality, and availability of the Nation's food supply. Many regulations function in a dynamic environment, which requires their periodic modification. The factors determining various entitlement, eligibility, and administrative criteria often change from year to year. Therefore, many significant regulations must be revised annually to reflect changes in economic and market benchmarks. Almost all legislation that affects departmental programs has accompanying regulatory needs, often with a significant impact. The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (the 1996 Act), the Farm Bill of 1996, Public Law 104-127, had considerable regulatory consequences. This key legislation affects most agencies of USDA and resulted in the addition of new programs, the deletion of others, and modification to still others. In addition, the "Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000," Public Law 106-224, provides further assurances that agricultural programs will continue to achieve long-term improvements, particularly in reforms to the crop insurance programs. This legislation also provides for improvements in market loss and conservation assistance, crop and livestock disease pest protection, marketing program enhancements, child nutrition program measures, pollution control, and research and development for biomass.
Major Regulatory Priorities
Five agencies are represented in this regulatory plan. They include the Farm Service Agency, the Food and Nutrition Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Agricultural Marketing Service. This document represents summary information on prospective significant regulations as called for in Executive Order 12866. A brief comment on each of the five agencies appears below, which summarizes the Agency mission and its key regulatory priorities. The Agency summaries are followed by the regulatory plan entries.
Farm Service Agency
Mission: The Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers contract commodity, conservation, farm loan, commodity purchase and emergency loan, and disaster programs as prescribed by various statutes. The Agency's objective is to support farming certainty and flexibility, ensure compliance with highly erodible land, farm conservation and wetland protection requirements, and to assist owners and operators of farms and ranches to conserve and enhance soil, water, and related natural resources.
Priorities: FSA's priority for 2002 will be to continue to emphasize service to our customers. As Administration initiatives and changes in law require revisions to the Agency's regulations, the Agency's focus will be to implement the changes in such a way as to provide benefits for, while minimizing program complexity and regulatory burden for, program participants. As regulations are revised for program changes, opportunities will be taken to clarify, simplify, and reduce confusion whenever possible. The FSA regulations that operate the contract commodity programs, such as production flexibility contracts and marketing assistance loans, were revised a few years ago to remove the link between income support payments and farm prices and provide for seven annual payments. More changes to the laws governing those programs and the related regulations changes are anticipated in 2002. However, the Agency's ability to promote new policy initiatives when implementing these regulations is limited, due to the need to adhere to legislative intent. Therefore, due to their economic magnitude, they are noted here to acknowledge their significance in the overall USDA regulatory plan but are not further listed in the body of the plan that appears below.
A primary mission of FSA is to administer commodity payment and commodity marketing assistance loan programs. Generally, these programs are authorized by the 1996 Act with respect to the 1996 through 2002 crop years. Accordingly, FSA envisions no major changes in the last year of the regulations used to administer these programs but anticipates major initiatives once legislation is enacted which would authorize such programs for the 2003 and subsequent crops.
FSA is committed to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995's goal of reducing the information collection burden on the public. FSA is streamlining its farm loan-making and servicing regulations and reducing the information collection burden associated with the programs. FSA plans to reduce the number of CFR parts containing its farm loan program regulations by approximately 70 percent. In addition, FSA hopes to achieve a significant reduction in the total number of CFR pages by removing administrative provisions and internal policy and eliminating duplicative material. Furthermore, FSA intends to improve the clarity of the farm loan program regulations by following the guidelines established in the Plain Language in Government Writing Initiative.
As part of this project, all farm program regulations and internal Agency directives will be completely rewritten. All application processes and information collections will be reviewed, and unnecessary or redundant requirements will be eliminated. All forms associated with the programs were reviewed and assigned to one of the following categories:
¤ Prepared by the public;
¤ Prepared by the Agency, reviewed by the public; or
¤ Internal agency use only.
FSA will concentrate on streamlining forms assigned to the first category to reduce public burden. In addition, a data base was developed listing each field contained on the forms. This information will be used to identify duplicate collections and ensure consistency in terminology.
FSA has completed the streamlining of the Guaranteed Loan Program, Indian Tribal Land Acquisition Loan Program, and portions of the direct loan program. The balance of the direct loan program will be published in three separate rulemaking packages. A final rule streamlining the loan-making process for emergency loans should be published by the end of the 2001 calendar year. A proposed rule streamlining the loan-making process for farm ownership and operating loans and servicing of direct loans will be published in the spring of 2002. A proposed rule streamlining special loan programs, including boll weevil eradication, drainage and irrigation, and grazing associations is planned for the fall of 2002.
Finally, FSA is a full participant in the USDA Electronic Access Initiative and is taking the lead on the implementation of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act. All FSA information collections, forms, and procedures are reviewed for their applicability to electronic submission and collection.
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' 2002 regulatory plan supports the broad goals and objectives in the Agency's strategic plan, which include:
¤ Improved nutrition of children and low-income people. This goal represents FNS' efforts to improve nutrition by providing access to program benefits (Food Stamps, WIC food vouchers, commodities, and State administrative funds), nutrition education, and quality meals and other benefits. It includes three major objectives: 1) improved food security, which reflects nutrition assistance benefits issued to program participants; 2) improved ability of FNS program participants to make healthy food choices, which represents our efforts to improve nutrition knowledge and behavior through nutrition education and breastfeeding promotion; and 3) improved nutritional quality of meals, food packages, commodities, and other program benefits, which represents our efforts to ensure that program benefits meet the appropriate nutrition standards to effectively improve nutrition for program participants.
In support of this goal, FNS plans to propose a rule mandated under Public Law 106-387 to increase food stamp benefits for household with high shelter costs and to make it easier for low-income working families to receive food stamps and own a reliable vehicle. The Agency also plans a proposed rule to amend regulations governing food packages provided in WIC to improve their variety and consistency with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and to increase the nutritional adequacy of food packages for those with special medical needs.
¤ Improved Stewardship of Federal Funds. This goal represents FNS' ongoing commitment to maximize the accuracy of benefits issued, maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of program operations, and minimize participant and vendor fraud. It includes two major objectives: 1) improved benefit accuracy and reduced fraud, which represents the Agency's effort to reduce participant and Agency errors and to control Food Stamp and WIC trafficking and participant, vendor, and administrative Agency fraud, and 2) improved efficiency of program administration, which represents our efforts to streamline program operations and improve program structures as necessary to maximize their effectiveness.
In support of this goal, FNS plans to publish a final rule making changes in Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) rules designed to improve management and financial integrity in this important program. FNS also plans to publish a final rule, mandated under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which is designed to provide State agencies that administer the Food Stamp Program greater flexibility to support personal responsibility and independence and encourage work.
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Mission: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for ensuring that meat, poultry, and egg products in commerce are safe and not adulterated or misbranded.
Priorities: Since the mid-1990's, FSIS has been reviewing its regulations to eliminate duplication of and inconsistency with its own and other agencies' regulations and to convert "command-and-control" regulations to performance standards. The review effort is directed, in particular, at improving the consistency of the regulations with the Agency's pathogen reduction and hazard analysis and critical control point (PR/HACCP) regulations. HACCP is a science-based process control system for producing safe food products. FSIS-inspected meat and poultry establishments are required to develop and implement HACCP plans incorporating the controls the establishments have determined are necessary and appropriate to produce safe products. Under the HACCP regulations, establishments assume the responsibility for producing meat and poultry products that are safe, but they are able to tailor their control systems to their particular needs and processes and to take advantage of the latest technological innovations.
FSIS is continuing to revise its numerous command-and-control regulations, which prescribe the exact means establishments must use to ensure the safety of their products. Some of these regulations specify precise time-and-temperature combinations for processing meat, poultry, or egg products. Others require the prior approval by FSIS of equipment and procedures, in effect assigning to the Agency the responsibility for determining the means used by establishments to comply with the regulations. As a general matter, such command-and-control regulations are incompatible with HACCP because they deprive plants of the flexibility to innovate, and they undercut the clear delineation of responsibility for food safety.
In addition to undertaking regulatory amendments based on the results of its review activities, FSIS has been developing regulations for emergency use. Such regulations are an outcome of the Agency's proactive, risk-based policy toward emerging and exotic threats to the safety of the Nation's meat, poultry, and egg product supply.
Following are some of the Agency's recent and planned initiatives to convert command-and-control regulations to performance standards, to streamline and simplify the regulations, and to make the meat, poultry products, and egg products inspection regulations more consistent with the pathogen reduction and HACCP systems final rule:
FSIS has proposed a rule clarifying requirements for meat produced using advanced recovery systems by replacing the compliance program parameters in the current regulations with non-compliance criteria for bone solids, bone marrow, and neural tissue. Establishments would have to have process control procedures in place before labeling or using the product derived by use of such systems.
FSIS has proposed a rule to establish food safety performance standards for all processed ready-to-eat meat and poultry products and partially heat-treated meat and poultry products that are not ready-to-eat.
FSIS plans to propose generic Eshcerichia coli process control criteria based on the sponge method of sampling, for cattle, wine, and geese slaughtering establishments and for turkey slaughtering establishments based on both the sponge and the whole-bird rinse sampling methods. The Agency also plans to propose updated Salmonella performance standards for all market classes of cattle and swine.
FSIS will propose removing from the poultry products inspection regulations the requirement for ready-to-cook poultry products to be chilled to 40 degrees or below within certain time periods according to the weight of the dressed carcasses.
In addition, FSIS will be proposing to require federally inspected egg product establishments to develop and implement HACCP systems and sanitation standard operating procedures. The Agency will be proposing pathogen reduction performance standards for pasteurized egg products. Further, the Agency will be proposing to remove requirements for approval by FSIS of egg-product plant drawings, specifications, and equipment prior to use and to end the system for pre-marketing approval of labels for egg products.
Besides the foregoing initiatives, FSIS has proposed requirements for the nutrition labeling of ground or chopped meat and poultry products and single-ingredient products. This proposed rule would require nutrition labeling, on the label or at the point-of-purchase, for themajor cuts of single-ingredient, rawproducts and will require nutrition information on the label of ground or chopped products.
Finally, FSIS is planning to propose stand-by emergency procedures for dealing with any occurrences of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad-cow disease, to prevent any meat or meat products of animals affected by BSE from entering commerce. To date, no cases of BSE have been found in the United States herd. Any final rule that may be developed after the proposal would become effective when and if a native case of BSE is detected in the United States.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Mission: The major part of the mission of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is to protect U.S. animal and plant resources from destructive pests and diseases. APHIS conducts programs to prevent the introduction of exotic pests and diseases into the United States and monitors and manages pests and diseases existing in this country. These activities enhance agricultural productivity and competitiveness and contribute to the national economy and the public health.
Priorities: APHIS is reviewing its existing regulations and developing new regulatory initiatives to ensure that a comprehensive framework is in place to address the threats posed by exotic and endemic animal diseases. Prompted in part by recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease elsewhere in the world, APHIS is developing a proposed rule to amend its regulations for the cooperative control and eradication of animal diseases to ensure their adequacy with regard to the valuation of animals and materials, as well as the payment of indemnity, should an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occur in the United States. APHIS has also published, or is developing, proposed and final rules pertaining to the group of neurological diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which includes scrapie (a disease of sheep and goats), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, which affects cattle), and chronic wasting disease (a disease of deer and elk). APHIS has recently established an expanded regulatory program incorporating interstate movement restrictions and compensation for scrapie, strengthened its restrictions on the importation of ruminant-derived animal products that present a risk of introducing BSE, and is in the early stages of developing a cooperative eradication program for chronic wasting disease. In addition, APHIS, in coordination with the Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, has begun developing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit public comment on BSE-related issues, including mandatory testing of down/dead/dying animals and requirements for the disposal of the carcasses of such animals.
APHIS documents published in the Federal Register and related information, including the names of organizations and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on the Internet at www.aphis.usda.gov /ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
Agricultural Marketing Service
Mission: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) facilitates the marketing of agricultural products in domestic and international markets, while ensuring fair trading practices and promoting a competitive and efficient marketplace to the benefit of producers, traders, and consumers of U.S. food and fiber products.
Priorities: (1) AMS is proposing to develop a Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order). The proposed Order, if implemented, would establish an industry-funded program that would be subject to a referendum within 3 years after assessments begin under the Order. The proposed Order provides for an assessment of one-half per pound of live lambs sold to be paid by producers, seedstock producers, feeders, and exporters and remitted to a 12-member industry board by the first handler or exporter. The program would generate an estimated $3 million annually, all from the domestic lamb industry. Importers of lamb would not be assessed.
(2) AMS plans to amend the National Organic Program (NOP) to add practice standards for Organic Certification of Wild Captured Aquatic Animals. The Organic Foods Production Act states that an organic certification program be established for producers and handlers of agricultural products that have been produced using organic methods. The NOP has been reviewing organic certification of fish including wild captured and aquaculture operations in response to a FY 2000 congressional mandate to develop regulations for the certification of seafood. The NOP has engaged in public meetings and workshops and conducted public comment proceedings on this subject. The NOP considers it advantageous to proceed with a proposed rule for wild capture operations prior to issuing a proposed rule for aquaculture systems because of the significant impact that wild capture standards will have on the production and use of fish meal confined systems.
(3) AMS published in the Federal Register on July 13, 2001, a proposed rule implementing the Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order) and a proposed rule containing referendum procedures for the program. Under the proposed Order, producers and importers would pay an assessment to the proposed Hass Avocado Board (Board). The Board would use the assessment collected to conduct a promotion, research, and information program to maintain, develop, and expand markets for Hass avocados in the United States. The comment period ended August 27, 2001. On August 28, 2001, AMS published a notice extending the comment period until September 12, 2001, due to several requests that were received. AMS plans to publish a final rule before the end of this calendar year.
AMS Program Rulemaking Pages. Most of AMS' rules as published in the Federal Register are available on the Internet at: www.ams.usda.gov/rulemaking. This site also includes commenting instructions and addresses, links to news releases and background material, and comments received so far on various rules.