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

35151 

Vol. 83, No. 143 

Wednesday, July 25, 2018 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

7 CFR Part 953 

[Doc. No. AMS–SC–18–0037; SC18–953–1 

PR] 

Irish Potatoes Grown in Southeastern 

States; Termination of Marketing Order 

953 

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: This proposed rule invites 

comments on the termination of the 

Federal marketing order regulating the 

handling of Irish potatoes grown in 

Southeastern states (Order). The Order 

has been suspended, at the industry’s 

recommendation, since 2011. Because 

the industry has not petitioned to have 

the Order reactivated, in accordance 

with the terms of the suspension, the 

Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is 

proposing termination of the Order. 

DATES: Comments must be received by 

September 24, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit written comments 

concerning this rule. Comments must be 

sent to the Docket Clerk, Marketing 

Order and Agreement Division, 

Specialty Crops Program, AMS, USDA, 

1400 Independence Avenue SW, STOP 

0237, Washington, DC 20250–0237; Fax: 

(202) 720–8938; or internet: http://

www.regulations.gov. Comments should 

reference the document number and the 

date and page number of this issue of 

the Federal Register and will be 

available for public inspection in the 

Office of the Docket Clerk during regular 

business hours or can be viewed at: 

http://www.regulations.gov. All 

comments submitted in response to this 

proposal will be included in the record 

and will be made available to the 

public. Please be advised that the 

identity of the individuals or entities 

submitting the comments will be made 

public on the internet at the address 

provided above. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Debbie Wray, Marketing Specialist, or 

Julie H. Santoboni, Rulemaking Branch 

Chief, Marketing Order and Agreement 

Division, Specialty Crops Program, 

AMS, USDA; 1400 Independence 

Avenue SW, Stop 0237, Washington, DC 

20250–0237; Telephone: (202) 720– 

2491, Fax: (202) 720–8938, or Email: 

Debbie.Wray@ams.usda.gov or 

Julie.Santoboni@ams.usda.gov. 

Small businesses may request 

information on complying with this 

regulation by contacting Richard Lower, 

Marketing Order and Agreement 

Division, Specialty Crops Program, 

AMS, USDA, 1400 Independence 

Avenue SW, STOP 0237, Washington, 

DC 20250–0237; Telephone: (202) 720– 

2491, Fax: (202) 720–8938, or Email: 

Richard.Lower@ams.usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

proposal is governed by section 

608c(16)(A) of the Agricultural 

Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, as 

amended (7 U.S.C. 601–674), hereinafter 

referred to as the ‘‘Act,’’ and Marketing 

Agreement 104 and Marketing Order 

953 (7 CFR part 953), referred to as the 

‘‘Order,’’ effective under the Act. 

The Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) is issuing this rule in 

conformance with Executive Orders 

13563 and 13175. This proposed rule 

falls within a category of regulatory 

actions that the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) exempted from 

Executive Order 12866 review. 

Additionally, because this proposal 

does not meet the definition of a 

significant regulatory action, it does not 

trigger the requirements contained in 

Executive Order 13771. See OMB’s 

Memorandum titled ‘‘Interim Guidance 

Implementing Section 2 of the Executive 

Order of January 30, 2017, titled 

‘Reducing Regulation and Controlling 

Regulatory Costs’ ’’ (February 2, 2017). 

This proposal to terminate the Order 

has been reviewed under Executive 

Order 12988, Civil Justice Reform. This 

proposed rule is not intended to have 

retroactive effect. 

The Act provides that administrative 

proceedings must be exhausted before 

parties may file suit in court. Under 

section 608c(15)(A) of the Act, any 

handler subject to an order may file 

with USDA a petition stating that the 

order, any provision of the order, or any 

obligation imposed in connection with 

the order is not in accordance with law 

and request a modification of the order 

or to be exempted therefrom. A handler 

is afforded the opportunity for a hearing 

on the petition. After the hearing, USDA 

would rule on the petition. The Act 

provides that the district court of the 

United States in any district in which 

the handler is an inhabitant, or has his 

or her principal place of business, has 

jurisdiction to review USDA’s ruling on 

the petition, provided an action is filed 

not later than 20 days after the date of 

the entry of the ruling. 

This proposal invites comments on 

the termination of the Order. The Order 

authorizes regulation of the handling of 

Irish potatoes grown in designated 

counties of Virginia and North Carolina. 

The Order has been suspended for 

approximately seven years, at the 

industry’s recommendation, and the 

industry has not expressed interest in 

reactivating the Order. 

Section 953.66 provides, in pertinent 

part, that USDA terminate or suspend 

any or all provisions of the Order when 

a finding is made that the Order or any 

provision thereof does not tend to 

effectuate the declared policy of the Act. 

In addition, section 608c(16)(A) of the 

Act provides that USDA terminate or 

suspend the operation of any order or 

any provision thereof whenever the 

order or any provision thereof obstructs 

or does not tend to effectuate the 

declared policy of the Act. Additionally, 

USDA is required to notify Congress not 

later than 60 days before the date an 

order would be terminated. 

The Order has been in effect since 

1948 and provides for the establishment 

of grade, size, quality, maturity, and 

inspection requirements for Irish 

potatoes grown in Southeastern states. 

The Order also authorizes reporting and 

recordkeeping functions required for the 

operation of the Order. The Order, when 

in effect, is locally administered by the 

Southeastern Potato Committee 

(Committee) and is funded by 

assessments imposed on handlers. 

Based on the Committee’s unanimous 

recommendation in 2011, USDA 

suspended the Order for a three-year 

period ending March 1, 2014. The 

Committee recommended the 

suspension to eliminate the expense of 

administering the Order while 

determining the effects of not having the 

Order in place. When the Committee 


daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS
35152 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 143 / Wednesday, July 25, 2018 / Proposed Rules 

made the recommendation to suspend 

the Order, it wanted the industry to 

have the option of reactivating the 

Order, if deemed appropriate. The final 

rule adopting an interim rule that 

implemented that action was published 

in the Federal Register on October 21, 

2011 (76 FR 65360). Upon suspension of 

the Order in 2011, the Committee 

ceased to function. 

In anticipation of the expiration of the 

suspension on March 1, 2014, in late 

2013 USDA sent a letter to members of 

the industry, most of whom were former 

Committee members. The letter stated 

that suspension of the Order would 

soon be ending and that members of the 

industry would need to recommend an 

action to USDA. On December 18, 2013, 

representatives of the Virginia and 

North Carolina Irish potato industry met 

and requested that the suspension of all 

provisions of the Order be continued 

through March 1, 2017. The extension of 

the suspension would allow the 

industry further opportunity to study 

changes and evaluate new 

developments in the industry that could 

affect the need for the Order. The final 

rule adopting the interim rule that 

implemented that action was published 

in the Federal Register on August 19, 

2015 (80 FR 50191). 

Under the terms of the suspension, if 

the industry did not petition USDA to 

have the Order reactivated by the end of 

the suspension period, March 1, 2017, 

AMS would propose termination of the 

Order. To date, the industry has not 

filed a petition to have the Order 

reactivated. 

This proposed termination of the 

Order is intended to solicit input and 

any additional information available 

from interested parties regarding 

whether the Order should be 

terminated. USDA will evaluate all 

available information prior to making a 

final determination on this matter. 

Termination of the Order would become 

effective only after a 60-day notification 

to Congress, as required by law. 

Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis 

Pursuant to the requirements set forth 

in the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) 

(5 U.S.C. 601–612), AMS has considered 

the economic impact of this proposed 

rule on small entities. Accordingly, 

AMS has prepared this initial regulatory 

flexibility analysis. 

The purpose of the RFA is to fit 

regulatory actions to the scale of 

business subject to such actions in order 

that small businesses will not be unduly 

or disproportionately burdened. 

Marketing orders issued pursuant to the 

Act are unique in that they are brought 

about through group action of 

essentially small entities acting on their 

own behalf. 

There are approximately ten handlers 

of Irish potatoes grown in Southeastern 

states who are subject to regulation 

under the Order and approximately 20 

potato producers in the regulated area. 

Small agricultural service firms are 

defined by the Small Business 

Administration (SBA) as those having 

annual receipts of less than $7,500,000, 

and small agricultural producers are 

defined as those whose annual receipts 

are less than $750,000 (13 CFR 121.201). 

Using prices reported by AMS’ Market 

News Service, the average free on board 

(f.o.b.) price for Southeastern potatoes 

for the 2017 marketing season was about 

$50 per hundredweight. Based on 

information from the National 

Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), 

estimated total production in Virginia 

and North Carolina for the 2017 season 

was 4,666,000 hundredweight of 

potatoes. Multiplying the f.o.b. price by 

the estimated production results in an 

estimated handler value of 

$233,300,000. Dividing this figure by 

the number of handlers (ten) yields an 

estimated average annual handler 

receipt of $23,330,000. Using the 

average price and shipment information, 

the number of handlers, and assuming 

a normal distribution, the majority of 

handlers have average annual receipts of 

more than $7,500,000. 

Based on information from NASS, 

during the 2017 season, there were 

19,600 total acres harvested in Virginia 

and North Carolina with a total value of 

production at $59,038,000 for the 

season. The average producer prices for 

Virginia and North Carolina Irish 

potatoes in 2017 were $16.30 and 

$11.40 per hundredweight, respectively, 

for an average price of $13.85. Dividing 

the 2017 total production value by the 

average of the two states’ producer 

prices and using a normal distribution, 

the average gross annual revenue for 

each of the 20 producers would be about 

$213,134. 

Therefore, based on the above handler 

and producer revenue estimates, the 

majority of Southeastern potato 

handlers may be classified as large 

entities, while a majority of producers 

may be classified as small entities. 

This proposed rule would terminate 

the Order for Irish potatoes grown in 

Southeastern states and the rules and 

regulations issued thereunder. The 

Order authorizes regulation of the 

handling of Irish potatoes grown in 

designated counties of Virginia and 

North Carolina. The Order was initially 

suspended in 2011, at the 

recommendation of the Committee, to 

eliminate the expense of administering 

the Order while the industry 

determined the effects of not having 

regulations in place. In 2013, at the 

request of the industry, the suspension 

was extended through March 1, 2017, to 

provide the industry with more time to 

consider changes and evaluate new 

developments in the industry that could 

affect the future need for the Order. The 

final rule that extended the suspension 

through March 1, 2017, stated that AMS 

would proceed with a notice to propose 

termination absent an industry 

recommendation to reactivate the Order. 

The results of the suspension and the 

industry’s failure to petition USDA to 

have the Order reactivated by the end of 

the suspension period support the 

proposal to terminate the Order. 

Section 953.66 provides that USDA 

terminate or suspend any or all 

provisions of the Order when a finding 

is made that the Order does not tend to 

effectuate the declared policy of the Act. 

Furthermore, section 608c(16)(A) of the 

Act provides that USDA terminate or 

suspend the operation of any order 

whenever the order or any provision 

thereof obstructs or does not tend to 

effectuate the declared policy of the Act. 

An additional provision requires that 

Congress be notified not later than 60 

days before the date an order would be 

terminated. 

The proposed termination of the 

Order would reduce costs to both 

handlers and producers (while 

marketing order requirements are 

applied to handlers, the costs of such 

requirements are often passed on to 

producers). Furthermore, following a 

period of over seven years of regulatory 

suspension, it has been determined that 

termination of the Order would not 

adversely impact the Virginia and North 

Carolina Irish potato industry. 

As an alternative to this proposed 

rule, AMS considered not terminating 

the Order. In that case, the industry 

could have recommended further 

refinements to the Order and the 

handling regulations to better meet 

current marketing needs. However, the 

industry did not petition to have the 

Order reactivated by the end of the 

suspension period. Therefore, this 

alternative was rejected, and AMS 

proposes that the Order be terminated. 

This proposed rule is intended to 

solicit input and other available 

information from interested parties on 

whether the Order should be 

terminated. USDA will evaluate all 

available information prior to making a 

final determination on this matter. 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 

chapter 35), the information collection 

requirements that would be terminated 


daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 143 / Wednesday, July 25, 2018 / Proposed Rules 35153 

were previously approved by OMB and 

assigned OMB No. 0581–0178, 

Vegetable and Specialty Crops. 

Termination of the reporting 

requirements under the Order would 

reduce the reporting and recordkeeping 

burden on Irish potato handlers in 

Southeastern states and should further 

reduce industry expenses. 

Because handlers would no longer be 

required to file forms with the 

Committee, this proposed rule would 

not impose any additional reporting or 

recordkeeping requirements on either 

small or large entities. 

In addition, USDA has not identified 

any relevant Federal rules that 

duplicate, overlap, or conflict with this 

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, and for other purposes. 

Additionally, interested persons are 

invited to submit information on the 

regulatory and information collection 

impacts of this action on small 

businesses. 

A small business guide on complying 

with fruit, vegetable, and specialty crop 

marketing agreements and orders may 

be viewed at: https://

www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/ 

moa/small-businesses. Any questions 

about the compliance guide should be 

sent to Richard Lower at the previously 

mentioned address in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

This proposal invites comments on 

the termination of Marketing Order No. 

953, which regulates the handling of 

Irish potatoes grown in Southeastern 

states. All written comments received 

within the 60-day comment period will 

be considered before a final 

determination is made in this matter. 

Based on the foregoing, and pursuant 

to section 608c(16)(A) of the Act and 

§ 953.66 of the Order, USDA is 

considering termination of the Order. If 

USDA decides to terminate the Order, 

trustees would be appointed to 

conclude and liquidate the affairs of the 

Committee and would continue in that 

capacity until discharged by USDA. In 

addition, USDA would notify Congress 

60 days in advance of termination 

pursuant to section 608c(16)(A) of the 

Act. 

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 953 

Marketing agreements, Potatoes, 

Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements. 

PART 953—[REMOVED] 

■ For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, under the authority of 7 

U.S.C. 601–674, AMS proposes that 7 

CFR part 953 be removed. 

Dated: July 19, 2018. 

Bruce Summers, 

Administrator, Agricultural Marketing 

Service. 

[FR Doc. 2018–15890 Filed 7–24–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–02–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

7 CFR Part 1208 

[Document No. AMS–SC–18–0041] 

Processed Raspberry Promotion, 

Research and Information Order; 

Continuance Referendum 

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Notification of referendum 

order. 

SUMMARY: This document directs that a 

referendum be conducted among 

eligible producers of raspberries for 

processing and importers of processed 

raspberries to determine whether they 

favor continuance of the Agricultural 

Marketing Service’s (AMS) regulations 

regarding a national processed raspberry 

research and promotion program. 

DATES: The referendum will be 

conducted from September 10 through 

October 5, 2018. The Department will 

provide the option for ballots to be 

returned electronically. Further details 

will be provided in the ballot 

instructions. Mail ballots must be 

postmarked by October 5. Ballots 

delivered via express mail or email must 

show proof of delivery by no later than 

11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on 

October 5, 2018, to be counted. 

ADDRESSES: Copies of the processed 

raspberry program may be obtained 

from: Referendum Agent, Promotion 

and Economics Division, Specialty 

Crops Program, AMS, USDA, 1400 

Independence Avenue SW, Room 1406– 

S, Stop 0244, Washington, DC 20250– 

0244, telephone: (202) 720–9915; 

facsimile: (202) 205–2800; or contact 

Hakim Fobia at (202) 720–4835 or via 

electronic mail: Hakim.Fobia@

ams.usda.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Hakim Fobia, Marketing Specialist, 

Promotion and Economics Division, 

Specialty Crops Program, AMS, USDA, 

1400 Independence Avenue SW, Room 

1406–S, Stop 0244, Washington, DC 

20250–0244; telephone: (202) 720–9915, 

(202) 720–4835 (direct line); facsimile: 

(202) 205–2800; or electronic mail: 

Hakim.Fobia@ams.usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant 

to the Commodity Promotion, Research, 

and Information Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 

7411–7425) (1996 Act), it is hereby 

directed that a referendum be conducted 

to ascertain whether continuance of the 

Processed Raspberry Promotion, 

Research and Information Order (7 CFR 

part 1208) is favored by eligible 

producers of raspberries for processing 

and importers of processed raspberries. 

The program is authorized under the 

1996 Act. 

The representative period for 

establishing voter eligibility for the 

referendum shall be the period from 

January 1 through December 31, 2017. 

Persons who produced 20,000 pounds 

or more of raspberries for processing in 

the United States or imported 20,000 

pounds or more of processed raspberries 

into the United States during the 

representative period and were subject 

to assessment during that period are 

eligible to vote. Persons who received 

an exemption from assessments 

pursuant to § 1208.53 for the entire 

representative period are ineligible to 

vote. The referendum will be conducted 

from September 10 through October 5, 

2018. The Department will provide the 

option for ballots to be returned 

electronically. Further details will be 

provided in the ballot instructions. 

Section 518 of the 1996 Act (7 U.S.C. 

7417) authorizes continuance referenda. 

Under § 1208.71(b), the U.S. Department 

of Agriculture (USDA) must conduct a 

referendum every seven years to 

determine whether eligible producers of 

raspberries for processing and importers 

of processed raspberries favor 

continuance of the program. A 

referendum also may be held by a 

request of 10 percent or more of all the 

eligible producers and importers, by 

request of the National Processed 

Raspberry Council, which administers 

the program, or by the Secretary of 

Agriculture. In March 2018, USDA 

received a petition requesting a 

referendum from more than the required 

10 percent of eligible entities, thus 

USDA will hold a referendum. The 

program will continue if it is favored by 

a majority of eligible producers and 

importers voting in the referendum. 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 

chapter 35), the referendum ballot has 

been approved by the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) and 

assigned OMB No. 0581–0093. It has 


daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS