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

13128 

Vol. 74, No. 57 

Thursday, March 26, 2009 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

7 CFR Part 28 

[Doc. # AMS–CN–09–0011; CN–09–001] 

User Fees for 2009 Crop Cotton 

Classification Services to Growers 

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) is proposing to raise user 

fees for cotton producers for 2009 crop 

cotton classification services under the 

Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act. 

These user fees also are authorized 

under the Cotton Standards Act of 1923. 

The 2008 user fee for this classification 

service was $2.00 per bale. This 

proposal would raise the fee for the 

2009 crop to $2.20 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 April 10, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit written comments 

concerning this proposed rule to Darryl 

Earnest, Deputy Administrator, Cotton 

and Tobacco 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: 

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. 2637— 

South Building, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. 

Comments can also be viewed on: 

regulations.gov. 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 and Tobacco Program, AMS, 

USDA, Room 2637–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. 601–612) 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 25,000 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). The 

increase above the 2008 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 2008 user fee for 

classification services was $2.00 per 

bale; the fee for the 2009 crop would be 

increased to $2.20 per bale; the 2009 

crop is estimated at 14,500,000 bales). 

(2) The fee for services will not affect 

competition in the marketplace; and 

(3) The use of classification services is 

voluntary. For the 2008 crop, 12,740,000 

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 2007 crop of 

53.50 cents per pound, 500 pound bales 

of cotton are worth an average of 

$267.50 each. The proposed user fee 

increase for classification services, $.20 

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. 3501–3520), 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. 

Fees for Classification Under the Cotton 

Statistics and Estimates Act of 1927 

This proposed rule would establish 

the user fee charged to producers for 

HVI classification at $2.20 per bale for 

the 2009 cotton crop. The 2009 user fee 

charged to cotton producers for High 

Volume Instrument (HVI) classification 

was calculated using new methodology, 

as was authorized by section 14201 of 

the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act 

of 2008 (Pub. L. 110–234) (2008 Farm 

Bill). In previous years, the fee was 

determined using a user-fee formula 

mandated in the Uniform Cotton 

Classing Fees Act of 1987 (Pub. L. 100– 

108, 101 Stat. 728) (1987 Act), as 

amended. This formula used the 

previous year’s base fee that was 

adjusted for inflation and economies of 

size (1 percent decrease/increase for 

every 100,000 bales above/below 12.5 

million bales with maximum 

adjustment being ±15 percent). The user 

fee was then further adjusted to comply 

with operating reserve constraints 

(between 10 and 25 percent of projected 

operating costs) specified by the 1987 

Act. 

The 2008 user fee charged to cotton 

producers for High Volume Instrument 

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 57 / Thursday, March 26, 2009 / Proposed Rules 13129 

(HVI) classification services under the 

Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act of 

1927 (7 U.S.C. 471–476) was $2.00 per 

bale during the 2008 harvest season as 

determined by using the formula 

provided in the 1987 Act. The fee 

covered salaries, costs of equipment and 

supplies, and other overhead costs, 

including costs for administration and 

supervision. Also, the fee structure for 

the 2007 crop year was incorporated 

under the authority of the Cotton 

Standards Act of 1923 (7 U.S.C 51–65), 

by an interim final rule effective 

October 1, 2007 (72 FR 56242). 

Section 14201 of the 2008 Farm Bill 

provides that: (1) The Secretary shall 

make available cotton classification 

services to producers of cotton, and 

provide for the collection of 

classification fees from participating 

producers or agents that voluntarily 

agree to collect and remit the fees on 

behalf of the producers; (2) 

classification fees collected and the 

proceeds from the sales of samples 

submitted for classification shall, to the 

extent practicable, be used to pay the 

cost of the services provided, including 

administrative and supervisory costs; (3) 

the Secretary shall announce a uniform 

classification fee and any applicable 

surcharge for classification services not 

later than June 1 of the year in which 

the fee applies; and (4) in establishing 

the amount of fees under this section, 

the Secretary shall consult with 

representatives of the United States 

cotton industry. At pages 313–314, the 

Joint Explanatory Statement of the 

committee of conference for section 

14201 stated the expectation that the 

cotton classification fee would be 

established in the same manner as was 

applied during the 1992 through 2007 

fiscal years. The classification fee 

should continue to be a basic, uniform 

fee per bale fee as determined necessary 

to maintain cost-effective cotton 

classification service. Further, in 

consulting with the cotton industry, the 

Secretary should demonstrate the level 

of fees necessary to maintain effective 

cotton classification services and 

provide the Department of Agriculture 

with an adequate operating reserve, 

while also working to limit adjustments 

in the year-to-year fee. 

Under the provisions of section 

14201, a user fee (dollar per bale 

classed) is established that, when 

combined with other sources of 

revenue, will result in projected 

revenues sufficient to reasonably cover 

budgeted costs—adjusted for inflation— 

and allow for adequate operating 

reserves to be maintained. Costs 

considered in this method include 

salaries, costs of equipment and 

supplies, and other overhead costs, such 

as facility costs and costs for 

administration and supervision. In 

addition to covering expected costs, the 

user fee is set such that projected 

revenues will generate an operating 

reserve adequate to effectively manage 

uncertainties related to crop size and 

cash-flow timing while meeting 

minimum reserve requirements set by 

the Agricultural Marketing Service, 

which require maintenance of a reserve 

fund amount equal to four months of 

projected operating costs. 

Extensive consultations regarding the 

establishment of the classification fee 

with U.S. cotton industry 

representatives were held during the 

period from September 2008 through 

January 2009 during numerous publicly 

held meetings. Representatives of all 

segments of the cotton industry, 

including producers, ginners, bale 

storage facility operators, merchants, 

cooperatives, and textile manufacturers 

were addressed in various industrysponsored forums. 

The user fee established to be charged 

cotton producers for High Volume 

Instrument (HVI) classification in 2009 

is $2.20 per bale. This fee is based on 

the pre-season projection that 14.5 

million bales will be classed by the 

United States Department of Agriculture 

during the 2009 crop year. 

Accordingly § 28.909, paragraph (b) 

would reflect the increase of the HVI 

classification fee to $2.20 per bale. 

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 increase to $2.20 per 

bale. 

The fee for returning samples after 

classification in § 28.911 would remain 

at 50 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 for the 2009 

cotton crop on July 1, 2009. 

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. 51–65; 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 $2.20 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 $2.20 per bale. 

* * * * * 

Dated: March 23, 2009. 

Craig Morris, 

Acting Associate Administrator. 

[FR Doc. E9–6805 Filed 3–23–09; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 

NATIONAL CREDIT UNION 

ADMINISTRATION 

12 CFR Part 707 

RIN 3133–AD57 

Truth in Savings Act Disclosures 

AGENCY: National Credit Union 

Administration (NCUA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: As required by the Truth in 

Savings Act (TISA), NCUA is proposing 

to amend its TISA rule and official staff 

interpretation to align it with the 

Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation DD. 

Specifically, the rule would amend the 

provisions and provide guidance on the 

electronic delivery of disclosures.