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.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

58524 

Vol. 88, No. 165 

Monday, August 28, 2023 

1To view the proposed rule, go to 

www.regulations.gov. Enter APHIS–2017–0002 in 

the Search field. 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

9 CFR Parts 57 and 161 

[Docket No. APHIS–2017–0002] 

RIN 0579–AE39 

National List of Reportable Animal 

Diseases; Revising Proposed Rule, 

and Reopening of Comment Period 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; revisions and 

reopening of comment period. 

SUMMARY: We are reopening the 

comment period for our proposed rule 

that would amend disease regulations to 

provide a National List of Reportable 

Animal Diseases (NLRAD). Our 

proposed rule would have required 

animal health professionals suspecting 

or diagnosing incidences of animal 

diseases or disease agents classified as 

‘‘notifiable’’ in the NLRAD to 

immediately report to both State and 

Federal officials. During the comment 

period for the proposed rule, however, 

several commenters raised concerns 

regarding the confidentiality of 

information reported under NLRAD, 

and that the Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service does not have the 

ability to provide Federal assurances of 

such confidentiality for information 

reported to States. In light of the validity 

of this concern, we are proposing a 

possible modification to our proposed 

rule to no longer require reporting to 

State officials; other existing Federal, 

State, and local disease reporting 

requirements would be unaffected, 

however. We are reopening the 

comment period for our proposed rule 

to provide interested persons with an 

opportunity to prepare and submit 

comments regarding this possible 

modification to the proposed rule. 

DATES: The comment period for the 

proposed rule published on April 2, 

2020 (85 FR 18471–18477) is reopened. 

We will consider all comments that we 

receive on or before September 27, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by either of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and enter 

APHIS–2017–0002 in the Search field. 

Select the Documents tab, then select 

the Comment button in the list of 

documents. 

• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: 

Send your comment to Docket No. 

APHIS–2017–0002, Regulatory Analysis 

and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 

3A–03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1238. 

The proposed rule and any comments 

we receive on this docket may be 

viewed at www.regulations.gov or in our 

reading room, which is located in Room 

1620 of the USDA South Building, 14th 

Street and Independence Avenue SW, 

Washington, DC. Normal reading room 

hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST, 

Monday through Friday, except 

holidays. To be sure someone is there to 

help you, please call (202) 799–7039 

before coming. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Jane Rooney, NLRAD Coordinator, 

Center for Epidemiology and Animal 

Health, Strategy and Policy, VS, APHIS, 

USDA 2150 Centre Ave., Building B, 

Mail Stop 2E6, Fort Collins, CO 80526– 

8117; 301–789–3064; NLRAD.NAHRS@

usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 

2, 2020, we published in the Federal 

Register (85 FR 18471–18477, Docket 

No. APHIS–2017–0002) 1 a proposed 

rule to amend the animal disease 

regulations to provide for a national list 

of reportable animal diseases (NLRAD), 

as well as disease reporting 

requirements for animal health 

professionals identifying or suspecting 

NLRAD-listed diseases or conditions. 

In our proposed rule, we proposed to 

classify reportable diseases as either 

monitored or notifiable. We proposed to 

define notifiable disease as ‘‘a disease or 

condition that requires immediate 

notification to Federal and State 

veterinary authorities,’’ and proposed to 

require any animal health professional 

with knowledge of occurrence or 

suspected occurrence of an animal 

disease, disease agent, or condition 

listed as notifiable in the NLRAD to 

immediately report such identification 

or suspicion to both the Animal and 

Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 

and the State where the livestock is 

located. 

Commenters on the proposed rule 

noted that some of the information 

reported could be personally 

identifiable or confidential, and they 

requested assurances from APHIS that 

the data would remain protected from 

third-party distribution. 

While processes and procedures exist 

at the Federal level to protect 

confidential information to the extent 

allowable under Federal law, APHIS, as 

a Federal agency, cannot control the 

release of information reported under 

NLRAD to a State. Instead, State and 

local laws and regulations regarding the 

release of the information would be 

operative. 

Accordingly, we are proposing to 

modify our proposed rule to no longer 

require reporting to States under 

NLRAD. Other Federal, State, and local 

disease reporting requirements would 

be unaffected. 

Lists of Subjects 

9 CFR Part 57 

Animal diseases, Reporting, and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

9 CFR Part 161 

Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements, Veterinarians. 

Proposed Regulation Promulgation 

Accordingly, we propose to further 

amend 9 CFR part 57, as proposed to be 

amended at 85 FR 18476 (April 2, 2020) 

as set forth below: 

PART 57—ANIMAL HEALTH 

DIAGNOSTICS AND TESTING 

■ 1. The authority for part 57 continues 

to read as follows: 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 8301–8317; 7 CFR 

2.22, 2.80, and 371.4. 

§ 57.1 [Amended] 

■ 2. Amend § 57.1, as proposed to be 

amended at 85 FR 18476, in the 

proposed definition of ‘‘Notifiable 

disease,’’ by removing the words ‘‘and 

State’’. 

■ 3. Amend § 57.2, as proposed to be 

amended at 85 FR 18476, by revising 

paragraph (d)(1) to read as follows: 


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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 165 / Monday, August 28, 2023 / Proposed Rules 58525 

§ 57.2 National List of Reportable Animal 

Diseases. 

* * * * * 

(d) * * * 

(1) Notifiable diseases. Any animal 

health professional with knowledge of 

occurrence or suspected occurrence of 

an animal disease, disease agent, or 

condition listed as notifiable in the 

NLRAD must immediately report such 

identification or suspicion to APHIS. 

Reporting to APHIS may be 

accomplished as described on the 

NLRAD website available at: https://

www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/ 

animalhealth/monitoring-andsurveillance/nlrad/ct_national_list_

reportable_animal_diseases, or by 

contacting a local APHIS office.1

1Contact information for APHIS offices can 

be found on the APHIS website at https://

www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/banner/ 

contactus, or in the local phone directory 

(listed under Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary 

Services). 

* * * * * 

Done in Washington, DC, this 18th day of 

August 2023. 

Michael Watson, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–18379 Filed 8–25–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Bureau of Industry and Security 

15 CFR Part 705 

[Docket No. 230810–0188] 

RIN 0694–AJ27 

Revisions of the Section 232 Steel and 

Aluminum Tariff Exclusions Process 

AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and 

Security, U.S. Department of Commerce. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: This proposed rule revises 

aspects of the process for requesting 

exclusions from the duties and 

quantitative limitations on imports of 

aluminum and steel discussed in five 

previous Bureau of Industry and 

Security (‘‘BIS’’) interim final rules 

implementing the exclusion process 

authorized by the President under 

section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act 

of 1962, as amended (‘‘Section 232’’). 

The changes in this proposed rule are 

also informed by a notice of request for 

public comments on the Section 232 

exclusions process that was published 

by BIS on February 10, 2022 (February 

Notice). The February Notice was 

directed by Proclamation 10328 of 

December 27, 2021, that directed BIS to 

review the Section 232 exclusions 

process to make improvements, 

including soliciting public comments as 

part of the review process. Based on a 

BIS review of the existing Section 232 

exclusion process for areas of 

improvement and public comments on 

the current process for submissions to 

BIS, BIS is publishing this proposed 

rule to propose revisions to the Section 

232 exclusions process, including to the 

Section 232 Exclusions Portal. As part 

of this proposed rule, BIS requests 

public comments on the proposed 

changes. 

DATES: Comments on this proposed rule 

must be received by BIS no later than 

October 12, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: See SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section for information on 

submitting exclusion requests, 

objections thereto, rebuttals, and 

surrebuttals. 

You may submit comments, identified 

by docket number BIS–2023–0021 or 

RIN 0694–AJ27, through the Federal 

eRulemaking website: http://

www.regulations.gov. No other 

submission methods are being used for 

submitting comments on this proposed 

rule. Follow the instructions for 

submitting comments. 

All filers using the portal should use 

the name of the person or entity 

submitting comments as the name of 

their files, in accordance with the 

instructions below. Anyone submitting 

business confidential information 

should clearly identify the business 

confidential portion at the time of 

submission, file a statement justifying 

nondisclosure and referring to the 

specific legal authority claimed, and 

provide a non-confidential version of 

the submission. 

For comments submitted 

electronically containing business 

confidential information, the file name 

of the business confidential version 

should begin with the characters ‘‘BC.’’ 

Any page containing business 

confidential information must be clearly 

marked ‘‘BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL’’ 

on the top of that page. The 

corresponding non-confidential version 

of those comments must be clearly 

marked ‘‘PUBLIC.’’ The file name of the 

non-confidential version should begin 

with the character ‘‘P.’’ The ‘‘BC’’ and 

‘‘P’’ should be followed by the name of 

the person or entity submitting the 

comments or rebuttal comments. Any 

submissions with file names that do not 

begin with a ‘‘BC’’ or ‘‘P’’ will be 

assumed to be public and will be made 

publicly available through http://

www.regulations.gov. Commenters 

submitting business confidential 

information are encouraged to scan a 

hard copy of the non-confidential 

version to create an image of the file, 

rather than submitting a digital copy 

with redactions applied, to avoid 

inadvertent redaction errors which 

could enable the public to read business 

confidential information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

questions regarding this proposed rule, 

contact Erika Maynard at 202–482–5572 

or via email Erika.Maynard@

bis.doc.gov, or email Steel232@

bis.doc.gov regarding provisions in this 

proposed rule specific to steel exclusion 

requests and Aluminum232@bis.doc.gov 

regarding provisions in this proposed 

rule specific to aluminum exclusion 

requests. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On March 8, 2018, Presidential 

Proclamations 9704, Adjusting Imports 

of Aluminum Into the United States (83 

FR 13267), and 9705, Adjusting Imports 

of Steel Into the United States (83 FR 

11625), imposed duties on imports of 

aluminum and steel. The Proclamations 

also authorized the Secretary of 

Commerce to grant exclusions from the 

duties if the Secretary determines the 

steel or aluminum article for which the 

exclusion is requested is not ‘‘produced 

in the United States in a sufficient and 

reasonably available amount or of a 

satisfactory quality’’ or should be 

excluded ‘‘based upon specific national 

security considerations,’’ and provided 

authority for the Secretary to issue 

procedures for exclusion requests. On 

April 30, 2018, Proclamations 9739 and 

9740, and on May 31, 2018, 

Proclamations 9758 and 9759, set 

quantitative limitations on the import of 

steel and aluminum from certain 

countries in lieu of the duties. On 

August 29, 2018, Proclamations 9776 

and 9777 also authorized the Secretary 

to grant exclusions from quantitative 

limitations based on the same standards 

applicable to exclusions from the tariffs. 

The Section 232 Exclusions Process 

Since March 19, 2018, BIS has 

published five interim final rules (IFRs) 

that established and made various 

revisions to the Section 232 exclusions 

process, as well as a Notice of Inquiry 

seeking public comment on certain 

aspects of the Section 232 exclusions 

process. 

On March 19, 2018, BIS issued an 

IFR, Requirements for Submissions 

Requesting Exclusions from the 

Remedies Instituted in Presidential 


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