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

19674 

Vol. 72, No. 75 

Thursday, April 19, 2007 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

7 CFR Part 28 

[Docket No. CN–07–003] 

RIN 0581–AC68 

User Fees for 2007 Crop Cotton 

Classification Services to Growers 

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) is proposing to maintain 

user fees for cotton producers for 2007 

crop cotton classification services under 

the Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act 

at the same level as in 2006. This is in 

accordance with the formula provided 

in the Uniform Cotton Classing Fees Act 

of 1987. The 2006 user fee for this 

classification service was $1.85 per bale. 

This proposal would maintain the fee 

for the 2007 crop at $1.85 per bale. The 

proposed fee and the existing reserve 

are sufficient to cover the costs of 

providing classification services, 

including costs for administration and 

supervision. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before May 4, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit written comments 

concerning this proposed rule to Darryl 

Earnest, Deputy Administrator, Cotton 

Program, AMS, USDA, STOP 0224, 1400 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20250–0224. 

Comments should be submitted in 

triplicate. Comments may also be 

submitted electronically to: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. All comments 

should reference the docket number and 

the date and the page of this issue of the 

Federal Register. All comments 

received will be available for public 

inspection during regular business 

hours at the above office in Rm. 2639- 

South Building, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. A copy 

of this notice may be found at: http:// 

www.ams.usda.gov/cotton/ 

rulemaking.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Darryl Earnest, Deputy Administrator, 

Cotton Program, AMS, USDA, Room 

2639–S, STOP 0224, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250– 

0224. Telephone (202) 720–2145, 

facsimile (202) 690–1718, or e-mail 

darryl.earnest@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Executive Order 12866 

This proposed rule has been 

determined to be not significant for 

purposes of Executive Order 12866 and 

therefore has not been reviewed by the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB). 

Executive Order 12988 

This proposed rule has been reviewed 

under Executive Order 12988, Civil 

Justice Reform. It is not intended to 

have retroactive effect. This rule would 

not preempt any state or local laws, 

regulations, or policies unless they 

present an irreconcilable conflict with 

this rule. There are no administrative 

procedures that must be exhausted prior 

to any judicial challenge to the 

provisions of this rule. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act 

Pursuant to requirements set forth in 

the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) (5 

U.S.C. 601 et seq.) AMS has considered 

the economic impact of this action on 

small entities and has determined that 

its implementation will not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small businesses. 

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. There are 

an estimated 30,000 cotton growers in 

the U.S. who voluntarily use the AMS 

cotton classing services annually, and 

the majority of these cotton growers are 

small businesses under the criteria 

established by the Small Business 

Administration (13 CFR 121.201). 

Continuing the user fee at the 2006 crop 

level as stated will not significantly 

affect small businesses as defined in the 

RFA because: 

(1) The fee represents a very small 

portion of the cost-per-unit currently 

borne by those entities utilizing the 

services. (The 2006 user fee for 

classification services was $1.85 per 

bale; the fee for the 2007 crop would be 

maintained at $1.85 per bale; the 2007 

crop is estimated at 19,900,000 bales). 

(2) The fee for services will not affect 

competition in the marketplace; and 

(3) The use of classification services is 

voluntary. For the 2006 crop, 21,729,000 

bales were produced; and, almost all of 

these bales were voluntarily submitted 

by growers for the classification service. 

(4) Based on the average price paid to 

growers for cotton from the 2005 crop of 

46.9 cents per pound, 500 pound bales 

of cotton are worth an average of 

$234.50 each. The proposed user fee for 

classification services, $1.85 per bale, is 

less than one percent of the value of an 

average bale of cotton. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

In compliance with OMB regulations 

(5 CFR part 1320), which implement the 

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 

U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the information 

collection requirements contained in the 

provisions to be amended by this 

proposed rule have been previously 

approved by OMB and were assigned 

OMB control number 0581–AC43. 

It is anticipated that the proposed 

changes, if adopted, would be made 

effective July 1, 2007, as provided by the 

Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act. 

Fees for Classification Under the Cotton 

Statistics and Estimates Act of 1927 

The user fee charged to cotton 

producers for High Volume Instrument 

(HVI) classification services under the 

Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act (7 

U.S.C. 473a) was $1.85 per bale during 

the 2006 harvest season as determined 

by using the formula provided in the 

Uniform Cotton Classing Fees Act of 

1987, as amended by Public Law 102– 

237. The fees cover salaries, costs of 

equipment and supplies, and other 

overhead costs, including costs for 

administration, and supervision. 

This proposed rule establishes the 

user fee charged to producers for HVI 

classification at $1.85 per bale during 

the 2007 harvest season. 

Public Law 102–237 amended the 

formula in the Uniform Cotton Classing 

Fees Act of 1987 for establishing the 

producer’s classification fee so that the 

producer’s fee is based on the prevailing 

method of classification requested by 

producers during the previous year. HVI 

classing was the prevailing method of 


cprice-sewell on PROD1PC66 with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 75 / Thursday, April 19, 2007 / Proposed Rules 19675 

cotton classification requested by 

producers in 2006. Therefore, the 2007 

producer’s user fee for classification 

service is based on the 2006 base fee for 

HVI classification. 

The fee was calculated by applying 

the formula specified in the Uniform 

Cotton Classing Fees Act of 1987, as 

amended by Public Law 102–237. The 

2006 base fee for HVI classification 

exclusive of adjustments, as provided by 

the Act, was $2.45 per bale. An increase 

of 2.82 percent, or 7 cents per bale, due 

to the implicit price deflator of the gross 

domestic product added to the $2.45 

would result in a 2007 base fee of $2.52 

per bale. The formula in the Act 

provides for the use of the percentage 

change in the implicit price deflator of 

the gross national product (as indexed 

for the most recent 12-month period for 

which statistics are available). However, 

gross national product has been 

replaced by gross domestic product by 

the Department of Commerce as a more 

appropriate measure for the short-term 

monitoring and analysis of the U.S. 

economy. 

The number of bales to be classed by 

the United States Department of 

Agriculture from the 2007 crop is 

estimated at 19,900,000 bales. The 2007 

base fee was decreased 15 percent based 

on the estimated number of bales to be 

classed (1 percent for every 100,000 

bales or portion thereof above the base 

of 12,500,000, limited to a maximum 

decreased adjustment of 15 percent). 

This percentage factor amounts to a 38 

cents per bale reduction and was 

subtracted from the 2007 base fee of 

$2.52 per bale, resulting in a fee of $2.14 

per bale. 

However, with a fee of $2.14 per bale, 

the projected operating reserve would 

be 37.2 percent. The Act specifies that 

the Secretary shall not establish a fee 

which, when combined with other 

sources of revenue, will result in a 

projected operating reserve of more than 

25 percent. Accordingly, the fee of $2.14 

must be reduced by 29 cents per bale, 

to $1.85 per bale, to provide an ending 

accumulated operating reserve for the 

fiscal year of not more than 25 percent 

of the projected cost of operating the 

program. This would establish the 2007 

season fee at $1.85 per bale. 

Accordingly, § 28.909, paragraph (b) 

would reflect the continuation of the 

HVI classification fee at $1.85 per bale. 

As provided for in the Uniform Cotton 

Classing Fees Act of 1987, as amended, 

a 5 cent per bale discount would 

continue to be applied to voluntary 

centralized billing and collecting agents 

as specified in § 28.909 (c). 

Growers or their designated agents 

receiving classification data would 

continue to incur no additional fees if 

classification data is requested only 

once. The fee for each additional 

retrieval of classification data in 

§ 28.910 would remain at 5 cents per 

bale. The fee in § 28.910 (b) for an 

owner receiving classification data from 

the National database would remain at 

5 cents per bale, and the minimum 

charge of $5.00 for services provided per 

monthly billing period would remain 

the same. The provisions of § 28.910 (c) 

concerning the fee for new classification 

memoranda issued from the National 

database for the business convenience of 

an owner without reclassification of the 

cotton will remain the same at 15 cents 

per bale or a minimum of $5.00 per 

sheet. 

The fee for review classification in 

§ 28.911 would be maintained at $1.85 

per bale. 

The fee for returning samples after 

classification in § 28.911 would remain 

at 40 cents per sample. 

A 15-day comment period is provided 

for public comments. This period is 

appropriate because it is anticipated 

that the proposed changes, if adopted, 

would be made effective July 1, 2007, as 

provided by the Cotton Statistics and 

Estimates Act. 

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 28 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Cotton, Cotton samples, 

Grades, Market news, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements, Standards, 

Staples, Testing, Warehouses. 

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, 7 CFR part 28 is proposed to 

be amended to read as follows: 

PART 28—[AMENDED] 

1. The authority citation for 7 CFR 

part 28, subpart D, continues to read as 

follows: 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 471–476. 

2. In § 28.909, paragraph (b) is revised 

to read as follows: 

§ 28.909 Costs. 

* * * * * 

(b) The cost of High Volume 

Instrument (HVI) cotton classification 

service to producers is $1.85 per bale. 

* * * * * 

3. In § 28.911, the last sentence of 

paragraph (a) is revised to read as 

follows: 

§ 28.911 Review classification. 

(a) * * * The fee for review 

classification is $1.85 per bale. 

* * * * * 

Dated: April 13, 2007. 

Lloyd C. Day, 

Administrator, Agricultural Marketing 

Service. 

[FR Doc. E7–7401 Filed 4–18–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–02–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Part 165 

[CGD09–07–012] 

RIN 1625–AA00 

Safety Zone; Great Lakes Naval 

Training Center Harbor, North Chicago, 

IL 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The Coast Guard proposes to 

establish a temporary safety zone 

around Great Lakes Naval Training 

Center Harbor. This zone is intended to 

control the movement of vessels on 

portions of Lake Michigan and Great 

Lakes Naval Training Center Harbor 

during the Spill of National Significance 

(SONS) exercise on June 19 and 20, 

2007. This zone is necessary to protect 

the public from the hazards associated 

with ships and boats deploying oil 

containment equipment. 

DATES: Comments and related material 

must reach the Coast Guard on or before 

May 4, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: You may mail comments 

and related material to Commander, 

Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan 

(spw), 2420 South Lincoln Memorial 

Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53207. The Sector 

Lake Michigan Prevention Department 

maintains the public docket for this 

rulemaking. Comments and material 

received from the public, as well as 

documents indicated in this preamble as 

being available in the docket, will 

become part of this docket and will be 

available for inspection or copying at 

the Sector Lake Michigan Prevention 

Department between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

CWO Brad Hinken, Prevention 

Department, Coast Guard Sector Lake 

Michigan, Milwaukee, WI at (414) 747–

7154. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Request for Comments 

We encourage you to participate in 

this rulemaking by submitting 


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