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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 169 / Friday, September 3, 2021 / Rules and Regulations DATES:

Effective date: October 4, 2021.
Applicability date: October 1, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Denise Ruggles, FGIS Executive Program Analyst, AMS, USDA; Telephone: 816
7023897; Email: Denise.M.Ruggles@
usda.gov.
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 costs 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, all operating and administrative costs associated with supervising official agencies.
FGIS regularly reviews user-fees to determine whether fees are adequate and would likely maintain appropriate
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

operating reserve funds. 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 designated agencies to reduce the operating reserve. This suspension ended on December 31, 2020. FGISs operating reserve at that time was adequate to cover six months operating expenses as required, but FGIS resumed the assessment of tonnage fees to cover operating costs of supervision.
FGIS is implementing the use of a standardized formula model to determine if user-fee adjustments are necessary to recover costs associated with administering the official agency supervision program. This action is intended to assure FGIS maintains the financial stability necessary to provide inspection and weighing services to the grain industry, which facilitates the sound and orderly marketing of grain in domestic and export markets.
AMS invited comments on the proposed rule identifying changes to the
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methodology for establishing FGIS user fees for supervision of official inspection and weighing services performed by delegated agencies and the removal of specific references to user fees 86 FR 12119; March 2, 2021.
AMS received two comments in response to the proposed rule that were supportive. Comments indicated that this approach would moderate fee changes and provide for predictable time intervals.
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 or weighed, or both, 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
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

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

As illustrated by Table 1, though revenues have been suspended since July 2016, FGIS obligations have generally increased due to inflation and cost of living adjustments. The exception was in FY19, when accounts of the former Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration GIPSA, which included FGIS, were merged with AMS, along with the close-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 2016 to gradually reduce operating reserves to meet AMSs target of maintaining funds to cover between three to six months expenses. Monthly costs to operate the supervision of official agencies in FY 2020 were $151,000. Thus, AMS would consider an operating reserve 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

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million, enough to cover 1112 months of expenses.
To prevent accumulating a reserve balance beyond the targeted amount 3
to 6 times the monthly operating cost, AMS is adopting a standardized formula for calculating user fees for each calendar year CY. AMS expects that reducing fees in this manner will gradually reduce the reserve fund balance, while allowing FGIS to continue making strategic operational expenditures to meet industry expectations and achieve United States Department of Agriculture USDA
goals.
Calculations AMS will calculate the supervision tonnage fee using prior years actual costs and average yearly tonnage of domestic U.S. grain shipments inspected or weighed, or both, including land carrier shipments to Canada and Mexico during the previous 5 fiscal years.
AMS adds new 800.71b2i and ii to include the following formulas for
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calculating fee rates for CY 2021 and succeeding years:
Operating Reserve Adjustment. FGIS
will divide the total prior year supervision costs by 2 to determine the 6-months operating reserve goal. From that value, FGIS will subtract the FY
operating reserve ending balance to obtain the operating reserve adjustment for determining the supervision tonnage fee.
The operating reserve adjustment for calendar year 2021 is $821,925. The calculation, using FY 2020 supervision costs of $1,807,633, is: $1,807,633
divided by 2, which equals $903,817.
Subtract the FY 2020 operating reserve ending balance of $1,725,742 to equal $821,925.
Supervision tonnage fee. FGIS will add total prior-year supervision costs and the operating reserve adjustment, then divide the result by the average tonnage for the previous 5-years. If the calculated fee is zero or a negative value, FGIS will suspend collection of supervision tonnage fees for the next calendar year.

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