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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 39 / Tuesday, March 2, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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2016 that would gradually reduce the operating reserves to meet AMSs target of maintaining funds to cover 3 to 6
months expenses. Monthly costs to operate the supervision of official agencies in FY 2020 were $151,000.
Thus, AMS would consider an operating reserve of between $0.45 million and $0.91 million 3 and 6 times the monthly operating cost, respectively at the end of FY 2020 to be appropriate. At the end of FY 2020, the operating reserve balance was $1.73 million, enough to cover eleven and one half months of expenses.
To prevent accumulating a reserve balance beyond the targeted amount 3
to 6 times the monthly operating cost, AMS proposes to adopt a standardized formula for calculating user fees for each calendar year CY. AMS expects that reducing fees in the proposed manner would gradually reduce the balance in the reserve fund, while also allowing FGIS to continue making strategic operational expenditures to meet industry expectations and achieve United States Department of Agriculture USDA goals.
Calculations This proposal calculates the supervision tonnage fee using the prior years actual costs and average yearly tonnage of domestic U.S. grain shipments inspected and/or weighed, including land carrier shipments to Canada and Mexico during the previous 5 fiscal years.
As a result, we are proposing to add new 800.71b2i and ii to include the following formulas for calculating fee rates for CY 2021 and succeeding years.
Operating Reserve Adjustment. FGIS
would divide the total prior year supervision costs by 2 to determine the 6-months operating reserve goal. From that value, FGIS would subtract the FY
operating reserve ending balance to obtain the operating reserve adjustment for determining the supervision tonnage fee.
Supervision tonnage fee. FGIS would add the total prior year supervision costs and the operating reserve adjustment, then divide the result by the previous 5-year average tonnage. If the calculated fee is zero or a negative value, FGIS would suspend collection of supervision tonnage fees for the next calendar year.
In addition to implementing a new formula for calculating supervision tonnage fees, this proposal would also revise:
Section 801.71a2Schedule B
to remove the currently specified fee and provide that annual supervision
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fees would be as published on the AMS
website.
The introductory text of 801.71bAnnual review of feesto convey that weighing and inspection fees, as well as supervision fees, would be recalculated annually.
Section 801.71b1 to clarify that the tonnage fees calculated in that section pertain only to FGIS inspection and weighing Schedule A fees.
Section 801.71b by redesignating paragraph b2 as paragraph b3 and adding a new paragraph b2 that outlines the supervision fee calculations, as described earlier.
Miscellaneous Fees for Other Services In addition to the above changes related to supervision fees, AMS
proposes to make the following changes to other fee requirements in 801.71d.
The proposed rule would remove the introductory text of 801.71d1i Registration certificates and renewals, and would consolidate paragraphs d1iA and B of that section, which currently provide flat fees for registering business operations that buy, handle, weigh, or transport grain for sale in foreign commerce or for such businesses that are also in a control relationship with respect to a business that buys, handles, weighs, or transports grain for sale in interstate commerce.
Currently, the registration fee for the former is $135, and the registration fee for the latter is $270. The proposed rule would combine the two charges into one. AMS proposes to calculate the export registration fee using the following formula and adjust the fees annually, as necessary.
Registration certificates and renewals.
FGIS would multiply 800.71a Table 1 of Schedule A noncontract hourly rate by quantity of five. The fee covers FGIS
personnel costs to review applications, monitor annually, publication costs, and administrative expenses.
AMS would publish the annual rate in the Federal Register and on the AMS
website. The anticipated consolidated fee for calendar year 2021 is estimated to be $300 using current published fees.
The proposed rule would remove 800.71d1ii, which provides charges for providing extra copies of registration certificates, as the certificates are now provided electronically for printing by the applicant.
The proposed rule would revise 800.71d2 to remove the provision of a flat fee for applications to amend an official agency designation and would instead calculate the rate using the following formula. The rate will be
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adjusted annually and published on the AMS website.
Designation amendments. FGIS will calculate the rate using Federal Register publication rate for 3 columns, plus 1
hour of noncontract hourly rate from 800.71a Table 1 of Schedule A. The fee covers FGIS personnel costs, administrative expenses, and Federal Register publication costs.
The current rate is $75 per application; AMS estimates the fee would be $510 for calendar year 2021
using current published fees. AMS
typically receives only one or two requests each year, so the overall cost to official agencies is not expected to be significant. AMS proposes to review the costs to process and publish designation amendments and adjust the fees annually, as necessary.
Finally, the proposed rule would remove 800.71d3, which provides a flat application fee for operating a scale testing organization. FGIS hasnt approved such an organization in the past 5 years. Now States that operate as scale testing organizations, in addition to FGIS, provide service in areas that are not in reasonably close proximity to FGIS duty stations. Scale operators pay far less in travel costs by obtaining services provided by their local State scale testing organizations on behalf of FGIS. Additionally, this increases FGIS
efficiency by reducing staff travel and allowing their deployment to other mission duties.
Executive Orders 12866 and 13563
Executive Orders 12866Regulatory Planning and Review, and 13563
Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, direct agencies to assess all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity. Executive Order 13563
emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits of reducing costs, harmonizing rules, and promoting flexibility. This proposed rule does not meet the criteria of a significant regulatory action under Executive Order 12866 as supplemented by Executive Order 13563. Therefore, the Office of Management and Budget OMB has not reviewed this rule under those orders.
AMS considered several alternatives to the changes in this proposed rule, including reinstating the current fee or applying a standardized formula using 1
year of supervision tonnage versus the 5-year supervision tonnage average.

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