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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 177 / Thursday, September 16, 2021 / Proposed Rules
Assessment Payment Options Recommendation The Board also recommended to include electronic submission in the list of allowable methods of payment to remit assessments and to remove references to drafts and money orders.
The Board staff stated that allowing electronic submission e.g., bank transfer payments Automated Clearing House ACH or wire transfer payments of assessments would improve and streamline operations by lowering the cost of processing mailed checks. The Board recommended removing references to drafts and money orders as handlers no longer use these forms of payment.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule Table Recommendation Section 1207.510b3 of the Plan contains a table that reflects outdated HTS codes, assessment rates, and potato categories for imports.
Pursuant to Section 1207.327b of the Plan, the Board has the authority to recommend to the Secretary amendments to this Plan. To reduce Federal Register publication costs associated with amending the Plan to update HTS codes, the Board recommended removing the HTS chart from the Plan and replacing the HTS
chart with a reference to HTS codes, assessment rates and potato categories for imports.
The Secretary has chosen to adopt and propose an alternative approach that includes amending the Plan by updating the current HTS chart, and inserting new language to avoid future amendments to the Plan in the event that an HTS number subject to assessment reflected in the table is changed and such change is merely a replacement of a previous number. This proposed change will reduce future Federal Register publication costs associated with amending the Plan to remain consistent with future updated HTS numbers that have no impact on the description of potato involved.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Act Analysis In accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA 5 U.S.C. 601
612, AMS is required to examine the impact of the proposed rule on small entities. Accordingly, AMS has considered the economic impact of this action on small entities.
The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the scale of businesses subject to such actions so that small businesses will not be disproportionately burdened. The Small
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Business Administration SBA defines, in 13 CFR part 121, small agricultural producers as those having annual receipts of no more than $1 million and small agricultural service firms handlers as those having annual receipts of no more than $30 million.
According to the Board, there were 60
importers, 955 handlers, and approximately 2,500 producers and handlers in 2020.
Most producers would be classified as small agricultural production businesses under the criteria established by the SBA no more than $1 million in annual potato sales. According to the 2017
Census of Agriculture, published by NASS in 2019, there were 16,554 potato farms with bearing acreage. Of these 16,554 farms, 1,417 sold potatoes whose annual market value met or exceeded $1
million. Based on these figures, 91
percent of U.S. potato producers are considered to be small under the SBA
standards. USDA recognizes the potential inclusion in its count of small farms those farms whose sales of potatoes were exactly $1 million in market value; however, USDA lacks the data to remedy this, and the number of farms who meet this criterion is likely quite small.
This proposal would amend 1207.320, 1207.502, 1207.510 and 1207.513.
Regarding the economic impact of this proposed rule on affected entities, this action would impose no costs on producers, handlers, or importers.
Proposed changes are administrative in nature and would allow the Board to effectively carry out the requirements of the Plan.
In response to the discontinuation of NASS collection of potato production data for 10 States, USDA considered the following alternatives to the proposed amendment: Take no action and hold constant production level figures for the 10 States to the final year for which NASS published data; or, fund NASS
collection of data for the 10 States using Board resources. The first of these alternatives would result in the potential for Board representation that is inconsistent with domestic production.
Potato production fluctuates significantly from year to year.
Consequently, distribution of Board member seats based on a fixed production figure would prevent the Board from adequately reflecting changes that occur in the industry over time; therefore, this is not a viable alternative. The second alternative would result in an annual cost to the Board of approximately $80,000 to restore the collection of potato production data by NASS for the 10

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States which it has omitted. This amount exceeds the total value of assessments collected from these 10
States, making this alternative not viable.
In accordance with OMB regulation 5
CFR part 1320, which implements information collection requirements imposed by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., there are no new requirements contained in this rule.
As with all Federal promotion programs, reports and forms are periodically reviewed to reduce information requirements and duplication by industry and public sector agencies. USDA has not identified any relevant Federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or conflict with this proposed rule.
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.
Regarding outreach efforts, all Board meetings were open to the public and interested persons were invited to participate and express their views. No concerns were raised.
We have performed this initial RFA
regarding the impact of this proposed action on small entities and we invite comments concerning potential effects of this action on small businesses.
While this proposed rule as set forth below has not yet received the approval of USDA, it has been determined that it is consistent with and would effectuate the purposes of the Act.
A 30-day comment period is provided to allow interested persons to respond to this proposal. All written comments received in response to this proposed rule will be considered prior to finalizing this action.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 1207
Advertising, Agricultural research, Imports, Potatoes, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
For reasons set forth in the preamble, 7 CFR part 1207 is proposed to be amended as follows:
PART 1207POTATO RESEARCH
AND PROMOTION PLAN
1. The authority citation for 7 CFR
part 1207 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 26112627; 7 U.S.C.
7401.

2. Revise 1207.320b to read as follows:

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