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

20842 

Vol. 73, No. 75 

Thursday, April 17, 2008 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

7 CFR Part 28 

[AMS–CN–07–0092; CN–08–001] 

0581–AC80 

User Fees for 2008 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 2008 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 2007 user fee for this classification 

service was $1.85 per bale. This 

proposal would raise the fee for the 

2008 crop to $2 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 May 2, 2008. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit written comments 

concerning this proposed rule to Darryl 

Earnest, Deputy Administrator, Cotton 

and Tobacco Programs, 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: http:// 

www.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 Room 

2639—South Building, 1400 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC. 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 Programs, AMS, 

USDA, Room 2639–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 2007 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 2007 user fee for 

classification services was $1.85 per 

bale; the fee for the 2008 crop would be 

increased to $2.00 per bale; the 2008 

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

(2) The fee for services will not affect 

competition in the marketplace; and 

(3) The use of classification services is 

voluntary. For the 2007 crop, 19,033,000 

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 2006 crop of 

47.3 cents per pound, 500 pound bales 

of cotton are worth an average of 

$236.50 each. The proposed user fee 

increase for classification services, $2.00 

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. 

It is anticipated that the proposed 

changes, if adopted, would be made 

effective July 1, 2008. 

Fees for Classification Under the Cotton 

Statistics and Estimates Act of 1927 

The user fee charged to cotton 

producers for High Volume Instrument 

(HVI) classification services under the 

Cotton Statistics and Estimates Act (7 

U.S.C. 473a) was $1.85 per bale during 

the 2007 harvest season as determined 

by using the formula provided in the 

Uniform Cotton Classing Fees Act of 

1987, as amended by Public Law 102– 

237. The fees cover salaries, costs of 

equipment and supplies, and other 

overhead costs, including costs for 

administration and supervision. The fee 

structure for the 2007 crop year was 

incorporated under the authority of the 

Cotton Standards Act of 1923, by an 

interim final rule effective October 1, 

2007 (72 FR 56242). 

This proposed rule establishes the 

user fee charged to producers for HVI 

classification at $2.00 per bale during 

the 2008 harvest season. 

The classification fees are based on 

the prevailing method of classification 

requested by producers during the 

previous year. HVI classing was the 


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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 75 / Thursday, April 17, 2008 / Proposed Rules 20843 

prevailing method of cotton 

classification requested by producers in 

2007. Therefore, the 2008 producers’

user fee for classification service is 

based on the 2007 base fee for HVI 

classification. 

The fee was calculated by applying 

the formula specified in the Uniform 

Cotton Classing Fees Act of 1987, as 

amended by Public Law 102–237 which 

AMS also considers reasonable under 

the authority of the Cotton Standards 

Act of 1923. The 2007 base fee for HVI 

classification exclusive of adjustments, 

as provided by that Act, was $2.52 per 

bale. An increase of 3.06 percent, or 7 

cents per bale, due to the implicit price 

deflator of the gross domestic product 

added to the $2.52 would result in a 

2008 base fee of $2.59 per bale. The 

formula in the Act provides for the use 

of the percentage change in the implicit 

price deflator of the gross national 

product (as indexed for the most recent 

12-month period for which statistics are 

available). However, gross national 

product has been replaced by gross 

domestic product by the Department of 

Commerce as a more appropriate 

measure for the short-term monitoring 

and analysis of the U.S. economy. 

The number of bales to be classed by 

the United States Department of 

Agriculture from the 2008 crop is 

estimated at 14,000,000 bales. The 2008 

base fee was decreased 15 percent based 

on the estimated number of bales to be 

classed (1 percent for every 100,000 

bales or portion thereof above the base 

of 12,500,000, limited to a maximum 

decreased adjustment of 15 percent). 

This percentage factor amounts to a 39 

cents per bale reduction and was 

subtracted from the 2008 base fee of 

$2.59 per bale, resulting in a fee of $2.20 

per bale. 

However, with a fee of $2.20 per bale, 

the projected operating reserve would 

be 31.6 percent. The 1987 Act specifies 

that the Secretary shall not establish a 

fee which, when combined with other 

sources of revenue, will result in a 

projected operating reserve of more than 

25 percent. Accordingly, the fee of $2.20 

is reduced by 20 cents per bale, to $2.00 

per bale, to provide an ending 

accumulated operating reserve for the 

fiscal year of not more than 25 percent 

of the projected cost of operating the 

program. This would establish the 2008 

season fee at $2.00 per bale. 

Accordingly, § 28.909, paragraph (b) 

would reflect the increase of the HVI 

classification fee to $2.00 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 $2.00 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 2008 

cotton crop on July 1, 2008. 

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 $2.00 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 $2.00 per bale. 

* * * * * 

Dated: April 15, 2008. 

Lloyd C. Day, 

Administrator, Agricultural Marketing 

Service. 

[FR Doc. 08–1148 Filed 4–15–08; 12:36 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3410–02–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

14 CFR Part 71 

[Docket No. FAA 2008–0211; Airspace 

Docket No. 08–AWP–3] 

RIN 2120–AA66 

Proposed Establishment of Class D 

Airspace; San Bernardino International 

Airport, San Bernardino, CA 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; 

extension of comment period. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces an 

extension of the comment period on a 

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) 

which proposes to establish Class D 

airspace at San Bernardino International 

Airport, San Bernardino, CA. This 

action is being taken in response to 

interest by several pilot groups and local 

airspace users working groups in the 

Los Angeles basin. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before May 14, 2008. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments by 

any of the following methods: Federal 

eRulemaking Portal: Go to http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

Fax: 202–493–2251. Mail: U.S. 

Department of Transportation, Docket 

Operations, M–30, West Building 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 

DC 20590. Hand Delivery: U.S. 

Department of Transportation, Docket 

Operations, M–30, West Building 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 

DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. 

An informal docket may also be 

examined during normal business hours 

at the office of the Manager, System 

Support Group, Western Service Center, 

Federal Aviation Administration, 1601 

Lind Avenue, SW., Renton, WA 98057. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Larry Tonish, System Support Group, 

Western Service Center, Federal 

Aviation Administration, 1601 Lind 

Avenue, SW., Renton, WA 98057; 

telephone (425) 203–4532. 


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