United States Department of Agriculture 

Marketing and Regulatory Programs 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

 Directive AMS 3010.1 6/22/10 

AMS ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUANCE SYSTEM 

1. PURPOSE 

This Directive establishes the policy, authorities, and responsibilities for administering 

the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) administrative issuance system. 

2. REPLACEMENT HIGHLIGHTS 

This Directive replaces AMS Directive 130.1, dated 6/4/93. 

3. AUTHORITY 

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department Regulation 0100-001, 

Departmental Directives System, dated December 20, 2006. 

http://www.ocio.usda.gov/directives/doc/DR0100-001.pdf 

4. DEFINITIONS 

a. Administrative Issuances. Documents that communicate Agency administrative 

policies and procedures to employees. They initiate or govern actions, conduct, 

and procedures or explain benefits and how to obtain them. The three types of 

administrative issuances used in AMS are directives, notices, and 

manuals/handbooks. 

b. Directives. Permanent issuances that are in force until canceled. Directives are 

used to issue delegations of authority, basic policies, and operating instructions. 

Directives can be changed without reissuing the entire issuance if the change does 

not affect the current policy. 

c. Notices. Temporary (not to exceed 1 year), one-time issuances that normally 

address a single subject or action, establish short-term programs or interim 

procedures, or make announcements. If information contained in a notice is of a 

permanent nature, it must later be reissued as a directive or manual/handbook. 

Notices cannot be changed. 

d. Manuals/Handbooks. Permanent issuances that provide technical guidance and 

detailed procedures on a particular subject or function, generally of the type that 

must be referred to on a daily or frequent basis. Manuals/handbooks can be 

Distribution: AMS Originating Office: C&A 
 

 

changed without reissuing the entire issuance if the change does not affect the 

current policy. Desk Guides and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are types 

of Manuals/Handbooks. 

e. Administrative Issuance Changes. Replacement pages for procedural changes to 

a directive or manual/handbook. An entire directive or manual/handbook must be 

reissued when policy is changed. 

5. POLICY 

It is AMS policy to provide its employees with clear, concise, and timely administrative 

issuances in order to effectively implement the Agency’s responsibilities. The AMS 

administrative issuance system will be used to issue formalized statements of policy, 

procedure, and guidance. This Directive only covers policy and procedures for 

administrative issuances originated by management units and does not cover 

programmatic issuances. 

6. CLASSIFICATION NUMBERING SYSTEM 

a. AMS uses a modification of the USDA directives classification numbering system. 

Numbering consists of four digits in conformance with the Department’s numbering 

pattern and aligns with other Government regulations as much as possible. The 

system groups together all administrative issuances on a specific subject so that the 

information is easy to locate, use, and store. The classification codes are: 

(1) 1000 Series – Organization, authorities, and administration. 

(2) 2000 Series – Budget, accounting, financial management, travel and 

transportation, claims, and pay and allowances. 

(3) 3000 Series – Information technology, directives, forms, files, records 

disposition, public paperwork burden control, correspondence 

management, and mail. 

(4) 4000 Series – Human resources, safety and health, and civil rights. 

(5) 5000 Series – Property, realty, acquisition/procurement, and motor vehicle 

management. 

b. The index of current issuances is located at: 

http://www.ams.usda.gov/amsissuances 

7. RESPONSIBILITIES 

a. The Associate Administrator will: 

(1) Approve and sign all AMS administrative issuances. 

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(2) Sign the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Form 3, 

Request for Clearance/Approval of Issuance, certifying approval, which is 

available at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/library/forms/pdf/aphis3.pdf 

(3) Delegate signature authority to the Deputy Administrator, Compliance and 

Analysis Program (C&A), for AMS issuances pertaining to administrative 

policy not covered by APHIS, Marketing and Regulatory Programs Business 

Services. 

(4) Delegate signature authority to the Deputy Administrator, APHIS Marketing 

and Regulatory Programs Business Services (MRPBS), for AMS issuances 

pertaining to administrative policy under their area of responsibility. 

(5) Delegate signature authority to the Deputy Administrator, Information 

Technology Service (ITS)/AMS Chief Information Officer (AMS CIO), for 

AMS issuances pertaining to information technology policy. 

b. The Deputy Administrator, C&A, has oversight responsibility of the AMS 

Administrative Issuance System. The Deputy Administrator, C&A, will: 

(1) Approve all AMS issuances containing administrative policy not covered by 

APHIS, MRPBS. 

(2) Liaise with the APHIS Chief Information Office (CIO) Information 

Management and Compliance (IMC) staff, through the Planning and 

Accountability Division, to manage operational aspects of the AMS 

Administrative Issuance System. 

c. The Deputy Administrator, APHIS, MRPBS, will approve all AMS issuances 

containing administrative policy covered by their area of responsibility. 

d. The Deputy Administrator, ITS/AMS CIO is responsible for overall management of 

AMS information technology. The Deputy Administrator, ITS/AMS CIO, will: 

(1) Approve all AMS issuances containing information technology policy. 

(2) Through subordinate staff, disseminate new and updated administrative 

 issuances via AMSNEWS. 

e. Deputy Administrators/Staff Directors will review, comment on, and initial all 

proposed administrative policies prior to signature by the Associate Administrator; 

Deputy Administrator for C&A; Deputy Administrator, APHIS, MRPBS; or Deputy 

Administrator, ITS/AMS CIO. 

f. Originating Offices. 

(1) There are four originating offices for administrative issuances for AMS: 

(a) Office of the Administrator. 

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(b) Compliance and Analysis Program. 

(c) Information Technology Service. 

(d) Marketing and Regulatory Programs Business Services. 

(2) Originating Offices will: 

(a) Review directives issued by their office every 3 years and certify that 

they are still current or provide updates as needed. 

(b) Send all proposed notices, directives, and manuals/handbooks to the 

IMC staff for review and clearance prior to final posting on the Web. 

g. The APHIS CIO has operational management of the AMS Administrative Issuance 

System and, through the IMC staff: 

(1) Manages Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP), AMS, APHIS, and 

Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Issuance 

Systems. 

(2) Develops and maintains an effective administrative issuance system. 

(3) Develops administrative issuance standards, policies, and procedures. 

(4) Provides editing assistance to issuance originating offices and obtains 

necessary clearance for proposed issuances. 

(5) Converts the administrative issuance Microsoft Word file to the Adobe PDF 

format and works with the Public Affairs Staff to publish issuances on the 

AMS administrative issuance Web site with links to other pertinent Web 

sites. 

(6) Prepares an email summarizing the new or updated administrative issuance 

with links to the Web site and forwards to the Information Technology 

Service to disseminate to all employees via AMSNEWS. 

(7) Maintains historical files of all AMS issuances, including copies of current 

and canceled issuances, clearance forms, and other records. 

(8) Notifies originating offices when the 3-year review of directives is required 

and when revisions to directives are needed. 

(9) Prepares and issues: 

(a) Periodic checklists covering all administrative issuances published 

since the last checklist. 

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(b) Revisions to the index of current administrative issuances in the 

electronic library and Web site. 

(c) Emails to all employees announcing the posting of new administrative 

issuances. 

h. The Public Affairs Staff oversees posting administrative issuances to the electronic 

library/Web site at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/amsissuances. The Public Affairs 

Staff will receive direction from IMC on items to publish on the Internet. 

8. CONTENTS/FORMAT OF ISSUANCES 

a. Directives are to be formatted in the outline style, as used in this Directive. 

(1) Each Directive must contain the following elements: 

(a) A section stating the purpose of the Directive. 

(b) A replacement highlights section giving instructions for replacing a 

previous directive, cancellation, etc., unless the Directive is new. 

(c) A section summarizing the policy of the Agency. This section usually 

begins with “It is AMS policy to...” 

(d) A section stating responsibilities of supervisors, managers, and 

employees. 

(e) An inquiries section stating where more information about the 

Directive may be obtained and where the Directive is located. 

(2) Directives also may contain the following elements, if applicable: 

(a) A section citing authorities/references. 

(b) A section containing definitions, if needed. 

(c) A background section to provide a brief summary of the information 

or the circumstances that necessitate issuance of the directive. 

b. Notices may be written in the outline style of a Directive or in a letter style. The 

outline style usually is better when providing detailed procedures. The letter style is 

useful when providing general information or when the information provided is very 

brief. Notices must be cleared by the Deputy Administrators/Staff Directors if they 

contain policy information. 

9. FILING AND STOCKING OF ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUANCES 

a. All offices must establish procedures to ensure that up-to-date sets of 

administrative issuances are maintained. At their discretion, originating offices 

may maintain some or all of AMS administrative issuances as electronic files. 

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Electronic file copies may be stored on local or wide area networks or any other 

suitable computer storage medium that allows for easy retrieval by users. 

b. Unless otherwise directed, file all administrative issuances in numerical order 

according to the most current Index, as shown on the Web site: 

http://www.ams.usda.gov/amsissuances 

c. All administrative issuances are available online at 

http://www.ams.usda.gov/amsissuances 

10. INQUIRIES 

Direct questions concerning this Directive to IMC at 301-851-2908/2727. 

/s/ 

Ellen King 

Deputy Administrator 

Compliance and Analysis Program 

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