50928 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 169 / Friday, August 29, 2008 / Notices 

Done at Washington, DC, this 26th day of 

August 2008. 

Colien Hefferan, 

Administrator, Cooperative State Research, 

Education, and Extension Service. 

[FR Doc. E8–20146 Filed 8–28–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Cooperative State Research, 

Education, and Extension Service 

Solicitation of Input From Stakeholders 

Regarding Implementation of the 

Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment 

Program (VMLRP) 

AGENCY: Cooperative State Research, 

Education, and Extension Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and 

request for stakeholder input. 

SUMMARY: The Cooperative State 

Research, Education, and Extension 

Service (CSREES) is soliciting 

stakeholder input on the 

implementation of the Veterinary 

Medicine Loan Repayment Program 

(VMLRP), which is authorized under 

section 1415A of the National 

Agricultural Research, Extension, and 

Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 

3151a). The purpose of this program is 

for the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) to enter into agreements with 

veterinarians under which the 

veterinarians agree to provide, for a 

specific period of time as identified in 

the agreement, veterinary services in 

veterinarian shortage situations. As part 

of the stakeholder input process, 

CSREES is conducting a public meeting 

to solicit comments regarding the 

implementing regulations to be 

developed for this program. 

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

Monday, September 15, 2008, from 9 

a.m. to 3:30 p.m. All comments must be 

received by close of business Tuesday, 

September 30, 2008, to be considered. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held in 

room 1410B–C–D of the Waterfront 

Centre Building, Cooperative State 

Research, Education, and Extension 

Service, United States Department of 

Agriculture, 800 9th St., SW., 

Washington, DC 20024. Meeting 

participants will need to provide photo 

identification to be admitted to the 

building. Please allow sufficient time to 

go through security. You may submit 

comments, identified by CSREES–2008–

0001, by any of the following methods: 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

E-mail: vmlrp@csrees.usda.gov. 

Include CSREES–2008–0001 in the 

subject line of the message. 

Fax: 202–401–6156. 

Mail: Paper, disk or CD–ROM 

submissions should be submitted to 

VMLRP, Plant and Animal Systems 

(PAS) Unit, Cooperative State Research, 

Education, and Extension Service, U.S. 

Department of Agriculture; STOP 2220, 

1400 Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20250–2220. 

Hand Delivery/Courier: VMLRP; Plant 

and Animal Systems (PAS) Unit, 

Cooperative State Research, Education, 

and Extension Service, U.S. Department 

of Agriculture, Room 3153, Waterfront 

Centre, 800 9th Street, SW., 

Washington, DC 20024. 

Instructions: All submissions received 

must include the agency name and 

CSREES–2008–0001. All comments 

received will be posted to http:// 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Lisa Stephens, (202) 401–6438, or 

lstephens@csrees.usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Additional Meeting and Comment 

Procedures 

Because of the diversity of subjects, 

and to aid participants in scheduling 

their attendance, the following schedule 

is anticipated for the September 15, 

2008, meeting: 

9–9:30 a.m.—Introduction to VMLRP. 

9:30–12 p.m.—Identification and 

prioritization of veterinarian shortage 

situations (e.g., geographically and by 

expertise). 

1–3:30 p.m.—Administration of the 

VMLRP including eligible applicant 

criteria; number, size, and length of 

VMLRP agreements; solicitation for 

VMLRP applications; application 

prioritization and review; execution of 

VMLRP agreements, including service to 

the Federal government in emergency 

situations; agreement terms and 

conditions; reimbursement for tax 

liability; and monitoring and oversight 

of VMLRP agreements. 

Persons wishing to present oral 

comments at this meeting are requested 

to pre-register by contacting Ms. Lisa 

Stephens at (202) 401–6438, by fax at 

(202) 401–6156 or by e-mail to 

lstephens@csrees.usda.gov. Participants 

may reserve one 5-minute comment 

period per topic area, and should 

indicate the topic area(s) for which they 

are registering (i.e., identification of 

veterinarian shortage situations and/or 

administration of the VMLRP). For any 

participant who may require only one 5- 

minute period to fully present testimony 

regarding both topic areas, the 

participant should indicate this 

intention and may reserve their 5- 

minute comment period under one of 

the two topic areas. More time may be 

available, depending on the number of 

people wishing to make a presentation 

and the time needed for questions 

following presentations. Reservations 

will be confirmed on a first-come, firstserved basis. All other attendees may 

register at the meeting. Written 

comments may also be submitted for the 

record at the meeting. All comments 

must be received by close of business 

Tuesday, September 30, 2008, to be 

considered. All comments and the 

official transcript of the meeting, when 

they become available, may be reviewed 

on the CSREES Web page for six 

months. Participants who require a sign 

language interpreter or other special 

accommodations should contact Ms. 

Stephens as directed above. 

Background and Purpose 

In December, 2003, the National 

Veterinary Medical Service Act 

(NVMSA) was passed into law adding 

section 1415a to the National 

Agricultural Research, Extension, and 

Teaching Policy Act of 1977 

(NARETPA). This law established a new 

Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment 

Program (7 U.S.C. 3151a) authorizing 

the Secretary of Agriculture (secretary) 

to carry out a program of entering into 

agreements with veterinarians under 

which they agree to provide veterinary 

services in veterinarian shortage 

situations. In November 2005, the 

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food 

and Drug Administration, and Related 

Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 

(Pub. L. 109–97), appropriated $495,000 

(after the 1 percent rescission) for 

CSREES to implement the Veterinary 

Medicine Loan Repayment Program and 

represented the first time funds had 

been appropriated for this program. In 

February 2007, the Revised Continuing 

Appropriations Resolution, 2007 (Pub. 

L. 110–5), appropriated an additional 

$495,000 to CSREES for support of the 

program, and in December 2007, the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 

(Pub. L. 110–161), appropriated an 

additional $868,875 (after the .7 percent 

rescission) to CSREES for support of this 

program. Consequently, there is 

approximately $1.8 million available for 

CSREES to administer this program. 

As enacted on June 18, 2008, section 

7105 of the Food, Conservation, and 

Energy Act of 2008 (FCEA) amended 

section 1415A to revise the 

determination of veterinarian shortage 

situations to consider (1) geographical 

areas that the Secretary determines have 

mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES

Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 169 / Friday, August 29, 2008 / Notices 50929 

a shortage of veterinarians; and (2) areas 

of veterinary practice that the Secretary 

determines have a shortage of 

veterinarians, such as food animal 

medicine, public health, epidemiology, 

and food safety. This section also added 

that priority should be given to 

agreements with veterinarians for the 

practice of food animal medicine in 

veterinarian shortage situations. 

Section 1415A of the NARETPA 

requires the Secretary, when 

determining the amount of repayment 

for a year of service by a veterinarian, 

to consider the extent to which such 

determination affects the ability of 

USDA to maximize the number of 

agreements from the amounts 

appropriated and provides an incentive 

to serve in veterinary service shortage 

areas with the greatest need. This 

section also provides that loan 

repayments may consist of payments of 

the principal and interest on 

government and commercial loans 

received by the individual for the 

attendance of the individual at an 

accredited college of veterinary 

medicine resulting in a degree of Doctor 

of Veterinary Medicine or the 

equivalent. Loans eligible for repayment 

include loans for tuition expenses; other 

reasonable educational expenses, 

including fees, books, and laboratory 

expenses, incurred by the individual; or 

reasonable living expenses as 

determined by the Secretary. In 

addition, the Secretary is directed to 

make such additional payments to 

participants as the Secretary determines 

appropriate for the purpose of providing 

reimbursements to participants for 

individual tax liability resulting from 

participation in this program. Finally, 

this section requires USDA to 

promulgate regulations within 270 days 

of the enactment of FCEA. The Secretary 

delegated the authority to carry out this 

program to CSREES. 

CSREES is holding a public meeting 

to obtain comments to use in developing 

the proposed regulations for the 

VMLRP. The meeting is open to the 

public. Written comments and 

suggestions on issues that may be 

considered during the meeting may be 

submitted to the CSREES Docket Clerk 

at the address above. 

Implementation Plans 

To meet the legislatively-mandated 

date to promulgate regulations (i.e., 

within 270 days of enactment or March 

14, 2009), CSREES plans to promulgate 

two regulations: Determination of 

Veterinary Shortage Situations for the 

Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment 

Program; and Veterinary Medicine Loan 

Repayment Program (VMLRP)—

Administrative Provisions. CSREES 

plans to release a Solicitation for 

VMLRP Applications by May 31, 2009. 

Done at Washington, DC, this 26th day of 

August 2008. 

Colien Hefferan, 

Administrator, Cooperative State Research, 

Education, and Extension Service. 

[FR Doc. E8–20144 Filed 8–28–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Cibola National Forest; New Mexico; 

McKinley County Easement for Forest 

Roads 191 and 191D 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement. 

SUMMARY: The Department of 

Agriculture, Forest Service has initiated 

the process to prepare an Environmental 

Impact Statement (EIS) for a road 

easement issuance to McKinley County 

for Forest Roads (FRs) 191 and 191D. 

The proposed action would grant an 

easement to McKinley County for FRs 

191 and 191D and reassign an existing 

easement (dated December 21, 2001, 

from David Polich et al.) to the Forest 

Service across private land within 

Section 9, T 13 N, R 16 W, NMPM to 

McKinley County. The granting of the 

right-of-way allows McKinley County to 

upgrade the roads and take over their 

maintenance. The upgrade would make 

these portions of FR 191 and FR191D, 

approximately 2.78 miles, all-weather 

roads. 

DATES: Comments concerning the scope 

of the analysis must be received by 30 

days after the publication of the NOI. 

The draft environmental impact 

statement is expected November, 2008 

and the final environmental impact 

statement is expected March, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to 

Nancy Rose, Forest Supervisor, Cibola 

National Forest, 2113 Osuna Road NE, 

Albuquerque, NM 87113, or fax (505) 

346–3901. Copies of the proposed 

action, project location map, or the 

Environmental Impact Statement, when 

available, may be obtained from the 

Cibola National Forest, 2113 Osuna 

Road, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110–

1001; or from the Mount Taylor Ranger 

District Office (Cibola NF), 1800 Lobo 

Canyon Road, Grants, NM 87020 or 

electronically from the Forest Service 

Web site at http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/ 

cibola/projects/nepa_reports.shtml. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

further information, mail 

correspondence to Keith Baker, NEPA 

Coordinator, Cibola National Forest, 

2113 Osuna Road NE, Albuquerque, NM 

87113–1001 or phone (505) 346–3820. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose and Need for Action 

There is a need to provide for public 

safety and adequate access to private 

inholdings. The desired condition is to 

have FR191 and FR191D under a 

County easement. This would allow 

McKinley County to upgrade FR191D to 

County ‘‘B–2’’ type road standards, with 

an aggregate surface in place of a paved 

surface. An upgrade of this nature 

would make FR191D an all-weather 

road but maintain it as a rural road. It 

would also place these roads under 

McKinley County jurisdiction, which 

would be appropriate due the existing 

and anticipated traffic type and volume 

from the private landowners who live in 

the area and use the road. The current 

road condition limits access for public 

services, such as school buses and fire 

and emergency service vehicles to reach 

these people. An improved, all-weather 

road would allow safe, year-round 

access for the people living on private 

land and provide access for public 

services and emergency service 

vehicles. 

Proposed Action 

The U.S. Forest Service, Cibola 

National Forest, Mount Taylor Ranger 

District proposes to grant an easement to 

McKinley County for access across 

forest lands and transfer an existing 

Forest Service easement across private 

land to the County. The right-of-way 

would be 2.78 miles long and 66 feet 

wide, covering approximately 22 acres. 

About 2.23 miles of the roads are on 

national forest lands. About one-quarter 

mile of the easement would be on FR 

191 from its intersection with New 

Mexico State Highway 400 to the 

intersection of FR191D. The remaining 

2.53 miles would be on FR191D from its 

intersection with FR191 to private land. 

Responsible Official 

The responsible official is Nancy 

Rose, Forest Supervisor, Cibola National 

Forest Supervisor’s Office, 2113 Osuna 

Road NE., Albuquerque, NM 87113–

1001. 

Nature of Decision To Be Made 

The decision to be made is whether to 

implement the proposed action as 

described above, to vary the design of 

the proposed action to meet the purpose 

and need through some other 

combination of activities, or to take no 

action at this time. 

mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES