Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 217 / Monday, November 10, 1997 / Proposed Rules 60467

FMC’s documentation, supporting its

request for a capacity variance, is

available to the public and located in

the RCRA Information Center under

Docket Number F–97–2P4P–FFFFF.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 268

Environmental Protection, Hazardous

waste, Reporting and recordkeeping

requirements.

Dated: November 4, 1997.

David Bussard,

Acting Director, Office of Solid Waste.

[FR Doc. 97–29621 Filed 11–7–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

43 CFR Part 4700

[NV 960–1060–00–24–1A]

RIN 1004–AD28

Wild Horse and Burro Adoptions;

Power of Attorney

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management,

Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land

Management (BLM) proposes to amend

its regulations to disallow the use of a

power of attorney for the adoption of

wild horses and burros. BLM is

amending the regulations because it is

possible that some adopters have

misused the power of attorney to obtain

large numbers of horses and burros,

selling them for profit after receiving the

appropriate titles.

DATES:

Comments:

Send your comments to BLM at the

address below on or before January 9,

1998. BLM will not necessarily consider

any comments received after the above

date during its decision on the proposed

rule.

ADDRESSES:

Comments:

If you wish to comment, you may

submit your comments by any one of

several methods. You may mail

comments to Bureau of Land

Management, Administrative Record,

Room 401 LS, 1849 C Street, NW,

Washington, D.C. 20240. You may also

comment via the Internet to

WOComment@wo.blm.gov. Please

submit comments as an ASCII file

avoiding the use of special characters

and any form of encryption. Please also

include ‘‘attn: AD28’’ and your name

and return address in your Internet

message. If you do not receive a

confirmation from the system that we

have received your Internet message,

contact us directly at (202) 452–5030.

Finally, you may hand-deliver

comments to BLM at 1620 L Street,

N.W., Room 401, Washington, D.C.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bud

Cribley, Telephone (202) 452–5073; or

Lili Thomas, Telephone (702) 785–6457

(Commercial or FTS).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Public Comment Procedures

II. Background

III. Discussion of Proposed Rule

IV. Procedural Matters

I. Public Comment Procedures

Written Comments

Written comments on the proposed

rule should be specific, should be

confined to issues pertinent to the

proposed rule, and should explain the

reason for any recommended change.

Where possible, comments should

reference the specific section or

paragraph of the proposal which the

commenter is addressing. BLM may not

necessarily consider or include in the

Administrative Record for the final rule

comments which BLM receives after the

close of the comment period (see DATES)

or comments delivered to an address

other than those listed above (see

ADDRESSES).

Comments, including names and

street addresses of respondents, will be

available for public review at this

address during regular business hours

(7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.), Monday

through Friday, except holidays.

Individual respondents may request

confidentiality, which BLM will

consider on a case-by-case basis. If you

wish to request that BLM consider

withholding your name or street address

from public review or from disclosure

under the Freedom of Information Act,

you must state this prominently at the

beginning of your comment. All

submissions from organizations or

businesses, and from individuals

identifying themselves as

representatives or officials of

organizations or businesses, will be

made available for public inspection in

their entirety.

II. Background

BLM’s current regulations allow for

adoptions of wild horses and burros by

the use of a power of attorney. A power

of attorney is a written document that

authorizes an agent to do something on

behalf of another. One agent could get

powers of attorney from several people,

and adopt more horses and burros than

any one single person is allowed.

Several investigations have focused

on the misuse of powers of attorney to

adopt wild horses. It was alleged that

certain people abused BLM’s Adopt-AHorse and Burro program by obtaining

large numbers of horses in order to sell

them for profit after receiving the

appropriate titles. Because of these

investigations, several Assistant U.S.

Attorneys have suggested that BLM

eliminate this practice. The elimination

of power of attorney adoptions would

also decrease the time and money BLM

spends on inspections to ensure that the

adopters are in compliance with the

regulations.

It is rare that someone who wants to

adopt a wild horse or burro is unable to

select the animal and sign the Private

Maintenance and Care Agreement (BLM

estimates that this practice occurred

only 12 times in 1997). For this reason,

BLM feels that the benefits of preventing

abuses of the program outweigh any

inconvenience to persons that may want

to adopt an animal with a power of

attorney.

III. Discussion of Proposed Rule

In order to remove the provisions for

power of attorney adoptions, BLM

proposes to replace current sections

4750.3–3(b) and (c) with a short

statement that reads:

‘‘The Bureau of Land Management

will not allow the use of a power of

attorney for the adoption of wild horses

and burros.’’

IV. Procedural Matters

National Environmental Policy Act

BLM has determined that this

proposed rule would make a procedural

change related to the regulations on

adopting wild horse and burros. This

rule, which would disallow adoptions

by power of attorney, would make only

a minor change in existing practices.

The rule would not affect decisions that

BLM makes about numbers of horses on

the range or range conditions. It is

unlikely that environmental impacts

will occur as a result of the elimination

of the use of the power of attorney.

Therefore, this action is categorically

excluded from environmental review

under section 102(2)(C) of the National

Environmental Policy Act, pursuant to

516 Departmental Manual (DM),

Chapter 2, Appendix 1, Item 1.10. In

addition, the proposed rule does not

meet any of the 10 criteria for

exceptions to categorical exclusions

listed in 516 DM, Chapter 2, Appendix

2. Pursuant to Council on

Environmental Quality regulations (40
60468 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 217 / Monday, November 10, 1997 / Proposed Rules

CFR 1508.4) and the environmental

policies and procedures of the

Department of the Interior, the term

‘‘categorical exclusions’’ means a

category of actions which do not

individually or cumulatively have a

significant effect on the human

environment and that have been found

to have no such effect in procedures

adopted by a Federal agency and for

which neither an environmental

assessment nor an environmental

impact statement is required.

Paperwork Reduction Act

This rule contains no collections of

information that require approval by the

Office of Management and Budget under

the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,

44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Congress enacted The Regulatory

Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601 et

seq., (RFA) to ensure that Government

regulations do not unnecessarily or

disproportionately burden small

entities. The RFA requires a regulatory

flexibility analysis if a rule would have

a significant economic impact, either

detrimental or beneficial, on a

substantial number of small entities. As

discussed in the preamble above, BLM

is making a technical change to the wild

horse and burro adoption regulations to

disallow adoptions by powers of

attorney. The rule may prevent some

unmeasurable number of people from

adopting horses or burros, if they are

unable to select the animals themselves

and sign the Private Maintenance and

Care Agreement. The power of attorney

adoption was only used 12 times in

1997. Therefore, BLM certifies under the

RFA that this proposed rule would not

have a significant economic impact on

a substantial number of small entities.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

Revision of 43 CFR part 4700 will not

result in any unfunded mandate to

State, local, or tribal governments in the

aggregate, or to the private sector, of

$100 million or more in any one year.

Executive Order 12612

The proposed rule will not have a

substantial direct effect on the States, on

the relationship between the national

government and the States, or on the

distribution of power and

responsibilities among the various

levels of government. Therefore, in

accordance with Executive Order 12612,

BLM has determined that this proposed

rule does not have sufficient federalism

implications to warrant preparation of a

Federalism Assessment.

Executive Order 12630

The proposed rule does not represent

a government action capable of

interfering with constitutionally

protected property rights. Therefore, the

Department of the Interior has

determined that the rule would not

cause a taking of private property or

require further discussion of takings

implications under this Executive

Order.

Executive Order 12866

According to the criteria listed in

section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866,

BLM has determined that the proposed

rule is not a significant regulatory

action. As such, the proposed rule is not

subject to Office of Management and

Budget review under section 6(a)(3) of

the order.

Executive Order 12988

The Department of the Interior has

determined that this rule meets the

applicable standards provided in

sections 3(a) and 3(b)(2) of Executive

Order 12988.

Author

The authors of this rule are Lili

Thomas, National Wild Horse and Burro

Program, Bureau of Land Management,

P.O. Box 12000, Reno, Nevada 89520,

Telephone: 702–785–6459; and Erica

Petacchi, Regulatory Management

Group, Bureau of Land Management,

Room 401LS, 1849 C Street, NW.,

Washington, DC 20240; Telephone:

202–452–5084 (Commercial or FTS).

List of Subjects in 43 CFR Part 4700

Animal welfare, Horses, Penalties,

Public lands, Range management,

Reporting and recordkeeping

requirements, Wildlife.

Accordingly, BLM proposes to amend

part 4700, in group 4100, in subchapter

D, in chapter II, subtitle B of title 43 of

the Code of Federal Regulations as

follows:

1. The authority citation for part 4700

continues to read as follows:

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1331–1340; 18 U.S.C.

47; 43 U.S.C 315 and 1740.

2. Section 4750.3–3 is amended by

removing paragraph (c) and by revising

paragraph (b) to read as follows:

§ 4750.3–3 Supporting information and

certification for private maintenance of

more than 4 wild horses or burros.

* * * * *

(b) The Bureau of Land Management

will not allow the use of a power of

attorney for the adoption of wild horses

and burros.

Dated: November 4, 1997.

Sylvia V. Baca,

Deputy Assistant Secretary, Land and

Minerals Management.

[FR Doc. 97–29612 Filed 11–7–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–84–P