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Proposed Rules
Federal Register Vol. 86, No. 39
Tuesday, March 2, 2021

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.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 800
Doc. No. AMSFGIS200001
RIN 0581AD94

Fees for Supervision of Official Inspection and Weighing Services Performed by Delegated States and/or Designated Agencies, Miscellaneous Fees for Other Services, and Removal of Specific Fee References Agricultural Marketing Service, Department of Agriculture USDA.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
AGENCY:

The Agricultural Marketing Service AMS invites comments on a proposal to implement a standardized formula model for calculating Federal Grain Inspection Service FGIS
supervision fees. The proposed change would enable FGIS to adjust supervision fees annually in order to maintain an appropriate operating reserve as required by the United States Grain Standards Act USGSA. As with other AMS fee-based programs, AMS would publish annual FGIS fee updates in the Federal Register and post updated fee schedules on its website. The proposed rule would also eliminate or revise
SUMMARY:

certain registration and duplication fees charged by FGIS.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 1, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments concerning this proposed rule. All comments must be submitted through the Federal e-rulemaking portal at http www.regulations.gov and should reference the document number and the date and page number of this issue of the Federal Register. All comments submitted in response to this proposed rule will be included in the record and will be made available to the public.
Please be advised that the identity of the individuals or entities submitting comments will be made public on the internet at the address provided above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Denise Ruggles, FGIS Executive Program Analyst, AMS, USDA; Telephone: 816
6598406; Email: Denise.M.Ruggles@
usda.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The USGSA 7 U.S.C. 71 et seq. authorizes FGIS, a program area within AMS, to supervise grain inspection and weighing services provided by official agencies and to charge and collect reasonable fees to cover the cost of such supervision. These fees are charged by official agencies to their customers grain industry as part of the overall fee charged for inspection and weighing services. Supervision fees collected by FGIS cover, as nearly as practicable, the program and administrative costs of supervising official agencies.
FGIS regularly reviews its user-fee financed programs under USGSA to determine whether the fees are adequate and appropriate operating reserve fund
levels are maintained. On July 1, 2016, following such a review 81 FR 41790;
June 28, 2016, FGIS suspended the assessment of fees for supervision of official inspection and weighing services performed by delegated States and/or designated agencies to reduce the operating reserve. This suspension ended on December 31, 2020. FGISs operating reserve at that time was adequate to cover 3 to 6 months operating expenses as required, but the program will need to resume assessment of tonnage fees to cover the ongoing costs of supervision.
Based on the review, FGIS proposes to move to a standardized formula model for annual fee adjustments to recover the costs associated with administering the official agency supervision program.
This action would maintain FGISs financial stability to assure continued inspection and weighing services to the grain industry, which would further facilitate the sound and orderly marketing of grain in domestic and export markets. FGIS believes this approach would be acceptable to the grain industry.
The fees for supervising official agencies were last revised in 2005 70
FR 50149; August 26, 2005. The fee schedule at 7 CFR 800.71a2
Schedule B has not been changed since then. Currently, the FGIS fee for supervision of official agencies is set at $0.011 per metric ton of domestic U.S.
grain shipments inspected and/or weighed, including land carrier shipments to Canada or Mexico.
Financial data for the supervision of official agencies program for fiscal years FY 2016 through 2020 is reviewed in Table 1.

TABLE 1SUPERVISION OF OFFICIAL AGENCIES FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
Millions of dollars
FY 16

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Revenue
Obligations
Annual Surplus or Deficit
Operating Reserverunning balance

FY 17

$1.91
1.43
0.47
8.73

FY 18

$0.00
1.78
1.78
6.95

$0.00
1.88
1.88
5.08

FY 19
$0.00
1.55
1.55
3.53

FY 20
$0.00
1.81
1.81
1.73

Figures may not sum due to rounding and adjustments of prior year obligations.

As illustrated by Table 1, while revenues have been suspended since July 2016, FGIS obligations have generally increased due to inflation and cost of living adjustments. The
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exception was in FY19, when the accounts of the former Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration GIPSA, which included FGIS, were merged with AMS, along with the close-

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out of obligations. As explained above, the current fee structure generated a recurring annual operating surplus for several years, resulting in a decision to suspend the collection of the fees in
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