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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 35 / Wednesday, February 24, 2021 / Rules and Regulations monetary reserve and expected future expenses. The budget, in its entirety, will provide for such operating expenses as are necessary during the termination process, including a final financial review and management compensation.

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Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Pursuant to requirements set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA 5
U.S.C. 601612, the Agricultural Marketing Service AMS has considered the economic impact of this final rule on small entities. Accordingly, AMS has prepared this final regulatory flexibility analysis.
The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the scale of businesses subject to such actions in order that small businesses will not be unduly or disproportionately burdened.
Marketing orders issued pursuant to the Act, and the rules issued thereunder, are unique in that they are brought about through group action of essentially small entities acting on their own behalf.
There are approximately 250
producers of Washington potatoes and approximately 26 fresh potato handlers in the production area subject to regulation by the Order.
Small agricultural service firms are defined by the Small Business Administration 13 CFR 121.201 as those having annual receipts of less than $30,000,000, and small agricultural producers are defined as those having annual receipts of less than $1,000,000.
According to USDA Market News, the average shipping point price for fresh Washington potatoes during the 2019
shipping season was approximately $15.79 per hundredweight. The Committee reported 20192020
marketing year fresh potato shipments were 9,687,170 hundredweight. Using the average price and shipment information along with the number of handlers, average annual receipts for a handler were significantly less than $30,000,000 $15.79 times 9,687,170
hundredweight equals $152,960,414, divided by 26 handlers equals $5,883,093 per handler.
In addition, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported an average producer price of $8.20 per hundredweight for the 2019 crop. Given the number of Washington potato producers, the average annual producer revenue is well below $1,000,000 $8.20
times 9,687,170 hundredweight equals $79,434,794, divided by 250 producers equals $317,739 per producer.
Therefore, most handlers and producers
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of fresh Washington potatoes may be classified as small agricultural businesses.
This final rule suspends the reporting and assessment requirements of the Order. The handler reporting requirement that is suspended is the monthly collection of Washington fresh potato shipment information. The assessment rate that is suspended is the $0.0025 per hundredweight rate that was established beginning July 1, 2013.
The Committee also recommended a budget of expenditures of $41,150 for the period beginning July 1, 2020 and ending with termination of the Order.
The budget was based on the Committees estimated financial resources on June 30, 2020. Budgeted expenditures include administrative expenses and a final financial review.
The Committee made the recommendation to suspend the reporting and assessment requirements as an adjunct to the recommendation to terminate the Order. As such, the only other alternative discussed by the Committee was to maintain the status quo, continue to assess handlers, and to require monthly handling reports. After consideration, the Committee determined that the Order is no longer beneficial to the industry and that the best recourse was to cease operations and terminate the Order.
This action suspends the Orders reporting and assessment obligations imposed on handlers. When in effect, assessments are applied uniformly on all handlers, and some of those costs may be passed on to producers.
Suspension of the reporting and assessment requirements reduces the regulatory burden on handlers and is also expected to reduce the burden on producers.
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35, the Orders information collection requirements have been previously approved by OMB and assigned OMB No. 05810178 Vegetable and Specialty Crops. This final rule suspends those information collection requirements, and any reporting and recordkeeping requirements under the Order.
As with all Federal marketing order programs, reports and forms are periodically reviewed to reduce information requirements and duplication by industry and public sector agencies. In addition, USDA has not identified any relevant Federal rules that duplicate, overlap or conflict with this final rule.

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AMS is committed to complying with the E-Government Act, to promote the use of the internet and other information technologies to provide increased opportunities for citizen access to Government information and services, and for other purposes.
The Committees meeting was widely publicized throughout the Washington potato industry, and all interested persons were invited to attend the meeting and participate in Committee deliberations on all issues. Like all Committee meetings, the June 11, 2020, meeting was a public meeting, and all entities, both large and small, were able to express their views on these issues.
A proposed rule concerning this action was published in the Federal Register on October 13, 2020 85 FR
64415. Copies of the proposal were provided by the Committee to members and handlers. Finally, the proposed rule was made available through the internet by USDA and the Office of the Federal Register. A 60-day comment period ending December 14, 2020, was provided to allow interested persons to respond to the proposal. No comments were submitted. Accordingly, no changes have been made to the rule as proposed.
A small business guide on complying with fruit, vegetable, and specialty crop marketing agreements and orders may be viewed at: http www.ams.usda.gov/
rules-regulations/moa/small-businesses.
Any questions about the compliance guide should be sent to Richard Lower at the previously mentioned address in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
section.
After consideration of all relevant material presented, including the information and recommendation submitted by the Committee and other available information, it is hereby found that this rule will tend to effectuate the declared policy of the Act.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 946
Marketing agreements, Potatoes, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, the Agriculture Marketing Service amends 7 CFR part 946 as follows:
PART 946IRISH POTATOES GROWN
IN WASHINGTON
1. The authority citation for 7 CFR
part 946 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 601674.

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