This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains documents other than rules or

proposed rules that are applicable to the

public. Notices of hearings and investigations,

committee meetings, agency decisions and

rulings, delegations of authority, filing of

petitions and applications and agency

statements of organization and functions are

examples of documents appearing in this

section.

Notices Federal Register

48659 

Vol. 86, No. 166 

Tuesday, August 31, 2021 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

[Document No. AMS–CN–21–0064] 

2021/2022 Rates Charged for AMS 

Services: Revised Tobacco Grading 

Rates 

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) is announcing revisions 

to the 2021/2022 rates it will charge for 

voluntary grading services for tobacco. 

Revised rates are based on financial 

information obtained since the 2021/ 

2022 rates were announced on April 21, 

2021, and will be applied to all services 

provided since July 1, 2021, and 

thereafter. 

DATES: September 1, 2021. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Stephen Slinsky, Economist, Cotton and 

Tobacco Program, AMS, USDA, 3275 

Appling Road, Memphis, TN 38133; 

telephone (901) 384–3000, or email 

stephen.slinsky@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, as 

amended (AMA) (7 U.S.C. 1621–1627), 

provides for the collection of fees to 

cover costs of various inspection, 

grading, certification, or auditing 

services covering many agricultural 

commodities and products. More 

specifically, the Tobacco Inspection Act 

(7 U.S.C. 511–511s) provides for the 

recovery of costs associated with 

tobacco inspection and grading services. 

On November 13, 2014, the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (USDA) 

published in the Federal Register a final 

rule that established standardized 

formulas for calculating fee rates 

charged by AMS user-funded programs 

(79 FR 67313). Every year since then, 

USDA has published in the Federal 

Register a notice announcing rates for 

its user-funded programs. 

On April 21, 2021, the notice 

announcing the 2021/2022 fee rates was 

published in the Federal Register (86 

FR 20476). Since publication of this 

notice, per-unit rates necessary to cover 

direct and indirect costs associated with 

providing tobacco inspection and 

grading services and necessary to 

maintain mandated financial reserves 

have decreased. Therefore, AMS is 

announcing revisions to the 2021/2022 

rates it will charge for voluntary grading 

services for tobacco. Revised rates are 

based on updated financial information 

and will be applied to all services 

provided since July 1, 2021, and 

thereafter. 

Rates reflect direct and indirect costs 

of providing services. Direct costs 

include the cost of salaries, employee 

benefits, operating costs and, if 

applicable, travel costs. Indirect or 

overhead costs include the cost of 

Program and Agency activities 

supporting services provided to the 

industry. The formula used to calculate 

these rates also considers the need to 

maintain operating reserves. 

Services provided to the tobacco 

industry include the grading and 

certification of quality factors in 

accordance with established U.S. Grade 

Standards. The quality grades serve as a 

basis for market prices and reflect the 

value of agricultural commodities to 

both producers and consumers. AMS’s 

grading and certification services are 

voluntary tools paid for by the users on 

a fee-for-service basis. Industry 

participants may choose to use these 

tools to promote and communicate the 

quality of tobacco to consumers. AMS is 

required by statute to recover costs 

associated with providing these 

services. 

Rates Calculations 

AMS calculated rates for services, on 

a per-unit basis, by dividing total AMS 

operating cost associated with tobacco 

grading, inspection and certification by 

the total number of units graded, 

inspected and certified the previous 

year, which is then multiplied by the 

next year’s percentage of cost-of-living 

increase, plus an allowance for bad debt 

rate. If applicable, travel expenses may 

also be added to the cost of providing 

the service. 

2021/2022 RATES

Tobacco fees 

7 CFR Part 29—Tobacco Inspection: 

Subpart A—Policy Statement and Regulations Governing the Extension of Tobacco Inspection and Price Support Services to New Markets 

and to Additional Sales on Designated Markets; Subpart B—Regulations; 

§§ 29.123–29.129 Fees and Charges; § 29.500 Fees and charges for inspection and acceptance of imported tobacco 

Subpart F—Policy Statement and Regulations Governing the Identification and Certification of Non-quota Tobacco Produced and Marketed 

in Quota Area; 

§ 29.9251 Fees and Charges 

Regular Overtime Holiday Includes travel 

costs in rate Start date 

Domestic Permissive Inspection and Certification (regrading of domestic tobacco for processing plants, retesting of imported tobacco, and grading tobacco for 

research stations).

$55.00 $64.00 $72.00 ........................... July 1, 2021. 

Export Permissive Inspection and Certification (grading of 

domestic tobacco for manufacturers and dealers for 

duty drawback consideration).

$0.0025/pound X ....................... July 1, 2021. 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
48660 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 166 / Tuesday, August 31, 2021 / Notices 

1To view the notice, go to www.regulations.gov 

and enter APHIS–2019–0053 in the Search field. 

Regular Overtime Holiday Includes travel 

costs in rate Start date 

Grading for Risk Management Agency (for Tobacco Crop 

Insurance Quality Adjustment determinations).

$0.015/pound X ....................... July 1, 2021. 

Pesticide Test Sampling (collection of certified tobacco 

sample and shipment to AMS National Science Laboratory for testing).

$0.0065/kg or $0.0029/pound X ....................... July 1, 2021. 

Pesticide Retest Sampling (collection of certified tobacco 

sample from a previously sampled lot for re-testing at 

the AMS National Science Laboratory; fee includes 

shipping).

$115.00/sample and $55.00/hour X ....................... July 1, 2021. 

Standards Course (training by USDA-certified instructor 

on tobacco grading procedures).

$1,250.00/person ........................... July 1, 2021. 

Import Inspection and Certification (grading of imported 

tobacco for manufacturers and dealers).

$0.0170/kg or $0.0080/pound X ....................... July 1, 2021. 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 511, 511s; and 7 

U.S.C. 1621–1627. 

Erin Morris, 

Associate Administrator, Agricultural 

Marketing Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–18771 Filed 8–30–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

[Docket No. APHIS–2019–0053] 

Concurrence With OIE Risk 

Designations for Bovine Spongiform 

Encephalopathy 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: We are advising the public of 

our decision to concur with the World 

Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) 

bovine spongiform encephalopathy 

(BSE) risk designations for Ecuador and 

Serbia. The OIE recognizes Ecuador as 

being of controlled risk for BSE and 

Serbia as being of negligible risk for 

BSE. We are taking this action based on 

our review of information supporting 

the OIE’s risk designations for these 

regions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Kari Coulson, Senior Staff Veterinarian, 

Strategy and Policy, VS, APHIS, 920 

Main Campus Drive, Suite 200, Raleigh, 

NC 27606; (919) 480–9876; email: 

AskRegionalization@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

regulations in 9 CFR part 92 subpart B, 

‘‘Importation of Animals and Animal 

Products; Procedures for Requesting 

BSE Risk Status Classification With 

Regard To Bovines’’ (referred to below 

as the regulations), set forth the process 

by which the Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS) classifies 

regions for bovine spongiform 

encephalopathy (BSE) risk. Section 92.5 

of the regulations provides that all 

countries of the world are considered by 

APHIS to be in one of three BSE risk 

categories: Negligible risk, controlled 

risk, or undetermined risk. These risk 

categories are defined in § 92.1. Any 

region that is not classified by APHIS as 

presenting either negligible risk or 

controlled risk for BSE is considered to 

present an undetermined risk. The list 

of those regions classified by APHIS as 

having either negligible risk or 

controlled risk can be accessed on the 

APHIS website at https://www.aphis.

usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/ 

animal-and-animal-product-importinformation/animal-health-status-ofregions. The list can also be obtained by 

writing to APHIS at Regionalization 

Evaluation Services, 4700 River Road, 

Unit 38, Riverdale, MD 20737. 

Under the regulations, APHIS may 

classify a region for BSE in one of two 

ways. One way is for regions that have 

not received a risk classification from 

the World Organization for Animal 

Health (OIE) to request classification by 

APHIS. The other way is for APHIS to 

concur with the classification given to a 

country or region by the OIE. 

If the OIE has classified a region as 

either BSE negligible risk or BSE 

controlled risk, APHIS will seek 

information to support concurrence 

with the OIE classification. This 

information may be publicly available 

information, or APHIS may request that 

regions supply the same information 

given to the OIE. APHIS will announce 

in the Federal Register, subject to 

public comment, its intent to concur 

with an OIE classification. 

In accordance with this process, we 

published a notice 1 in the Federal 

Register on October 25, 2019 (84 FR 

57384–57385, Docket No. APHIS 2019– 

0053), in which we announced our 

intent to concur with the OIE risk 

classifications of the following regions: 

• Regions of negligible risk for BSE:

Serbia. 

• Regions of controlled risk for BSE:

Ecuador. 

We solicited comments on the notice 

for 60 days ending on December 24, 

2019. We did not receive any comments 

by this date. 

Therefore, in accordance with the 

regulations in § 92.5, we are announcing 

our decision to concur with the OIE risk 

classifications for Ecuador and Serbia. 

Pursuant to the Congressional Review 

Act (5 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), the Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs 

designated this action as not a major 

rule, as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2). 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1622 and 8301– 

8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 31 U.S.C. 

9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.4. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 25th day of 

August 2021. 

Michael Watson, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–18788 Filed 8–30–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Food and Nutrition Service 

National School Lunch, Special Milk, 

and School Breakfast Programs, 

National Average Payments/Maximum 

Reimbursement Rates; Correction 

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service 

(FNS), USDA. 

ACTION: Notice, correction. 

SUMMARY: The Food and Nutrition 

Service published a document on July 

16, 2021, concerning reimbursement 

rates for the National School Lunch, 

Special Milk, and School Breakfast 

Programs. The document contained an 

incorrect table entry. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mike Rizzo 703–305–4364. 


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