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

31402 

Vol. 74, No. 125 

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 

1Because the Buy American provision applies 

only to public works and public buildings, 

completely private projects need not obtain a 

waiver to utilize iron, steel, and manufactured 

goods produced outside of the United States. Note, 

however, that public-private partnerships are 

considered public for purposes of the Buy 

American limitation. 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Rural Business-Cooperative Service 

Announcement of Value-Added 

Producer Grant Application Deadlines 

AGENCY: Rural Business-Cooperative 

Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of withdrawal of 

Solicitation of Applications (NOSA) for 

Value-Added Producer Grant Program 

(VAPG). 

SUMMARY: Rural Development is 

withdrawing the May 6, 2009, Federal 

Register notice (74 FR 20900), 

announcing the availability of 

approximately $18 million in 

competitive grants for fiscal year 2009 to 

help independent agricultural producers 

enter into value-added activities. 

DATES: July 1, 2009. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Andrew A. Jermolowicz, USDA Rural 

Development, Mail STOP 3250, Room 

4016–South, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250– 

3250, Telephone: (202) 720–8460, email: cpgrants@wdc.usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The May 

6, 2009, Federal Register notice was 

published in error. The notice will be 

reissued with clarification of 

contradictory language, additional 

guidance on new program components, 

and extended application deadlines. 

Dated: June 25, 2009. 

Judith A. Canales, 

Administrator, Rural Business-Cooperative 

Service. 

[FR Doc. E9–15533 Filed 6–30–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–XY–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Rural Utilities Service 

Notice of Limited Waiver of Section 

1605 (Buy American Requirement) of 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for 

the Broadband Initiatives Program 

AGENCY: Rural Utilities Service, U.S. 

Department of Agriculture. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Rural Utilities Service 

(RUS) is hereby granting a limited 

waiver of the Buy American 

requirements of ARRA Section 1605 

with respect to certain broadband 

equipment that will be used in projects 

funded under the Broadband Initiatives 

Program (BIP). This action permits the 

use of certain essential components of a 

modern broadband infrastructure as 

specified in section III of this notice. 

DATES: Effective Date: July 1, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Send any correspondence 

regarding this order to David J. Villano, 

Assistant Administrator, 

Telecommunications Program, Rural 

Utilities Service, U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, 1400 Independence 

Avenue., SW., STOP 1590, Room 5151, 

Washington, DC 20250–1590. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ken 

Kuchno, Director, Broadband Division, 

Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Department 

of Agriculture, 1400 Independence 

Avenue., SW., STOP 1599, Room 2868– 

S, Washington, DC 20250–1590. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

accordance with section 1605(c) of the 

Recovery Act and section 176.80 of the 

rules of the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB), RUS hereby provides 

notice that it is granting a limited 

waiver of section 1605 of the Recovery 

Act with respect to certain broadband 

equipment that will be used in projects 

funded under BIP. (See American 

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, 

Public Law 111–5, § 1605, 123 Stat. 115, 

303 (Feb. 17, 2009) (‘‘Recovery Act’’); 

Requirements for Implementing 

Sections 1512, 1605, and 1606 of the 

American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009 for Financial Assistance 

Awards, Interim Final Guidance, 74 FR 

18449 (Apr. 23, 2009) (codifying the 

Buy American provisions at 2 CFR part 

176, subpart B) (‘‘Buy American 

Guidance’’)). The basis for this waiver is 

a public interest determination pursuant 

to section 1605(b)(1) of the Recovery 

Act. 

I. Background 

The Recovery Act appropriates $2.5 

billion in budget authority to RUS to 

establish BIP, through which RUS will 

provide grants, loans, and loan/grant 

combinations for broadband initiatives 

throughout the United States, including 

projects in unserved and underserved 

rural areas. Section 1605(a) of the 

Recovery Act, the ‘‘Buy American’’ 

provision, states that none of the funds 

appropriated by the Act, including the 

funds that have been dedicated BIP, 

‘‘may be used for a project for the 

construction, alteration, maintenance, or 

repair of a public building or public 

work unless all of the iron, steel, and 

manufactured goods used in the project 

are produced in the United States.’’ 1

Sections 1605(b) and (c) of the 

Recovery Act authorize the head of a 

Federal department or agency to waive 

the Buy American provision by finding 

that: (1) Applying the provision would 

be inconsistent with the public interest; 

(2) the relevant manufactured goods are 

not produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality; 

or (3) the inclusion of the manufactured 

goods produced in the United States 

will increase the cost of the project by 

more than 25 percent. If the head of the 

Federal department or agency 

determines that it is necessary to waive 

application of the Buy American 

provision, then the head of the 

department or agency shall publish a 

detailed justification in the Federal 

Register. Finally, the Recovery Act 

states that the Buy American provision 

must be applied in a manner consistent 

with the United States’ obligations 

under international agreements. 

II. Public Interest Finding 

The Agency has determined that, as 

applied to certain broadband equipment 

used in a BIP project, the application of 

the Buy American provision would be 

inconsistent with the public interest. 

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 125 / Wednesday, July 1, 2009 / Notices 31403 

(See Recovery Act, § 1605(b)(1), 123 

Stat. at 303.) A modern broadband 

network is generally composed of the 

following components: Broadband 

switching, routing, transport, access, 

customer premises equipment, end-user 

devices, and billing/operations systems. 

The Buy American provision would 

prohibit RUS from awarding a BIP grant, 

loan or loan/grant combination to a 

public applicant unless that applicant 

could certify that each element of each 

broadband network component 

containing iron, steel, and manufactured 

goods are produced in the United States. 

As explained more fully below, it would 

be difficult, if not impossible, for a BIP 

applicant to have certain knowledge of 

the manufacturing origins of each 

component of a broadband network, and 

the requirement to do so would be so 

overwhelmingly burdensome as to deter 

participation in the program. Requiring 

a BIP applicant to request a waiver on 

a case-by-case basis would also be such 

an administrative burden on the 

applicant as to discourage participation 

in the program and would increase RUS’ 

time and costs for processing BIP 

applications for broadband 

infrastructure projects. Thus, 

implementing BIP without a limited 

programmatic waiver encompassing 

broadband network components would 

jeopardize the success of the program 

and undermine President Obama’s 

broadband initiative. 

First, RUS recognizes that much of the 

finished products used to manage and 

operate broadband infrastructure and 

offer broadband service are 

manufactured outside of the United 

States. The manufacturing supply chain 

varies by product and changes 

constantly due to the influence of global 

supply and demand. The result is a very 

competitive and complex production 

landscape with components and end 

products being manufactured and 

assembled in a large number of 

countries. While, arguably, the Secretary 

could have relied on the ‘‘nonavailability’’ exception for granting a 

waiver, the burden placed on the 

Department in sourcing and evaluating 

the availability of each component of 

broadband equipment would be 

significant, and the task of sourcing and 

evaluating would be difficult to 

complete given the speed with which 

Congress has told RUS to allocate funds 

under the Recovery Act. In addition, 

requiring public entities to document 

the origin of broadband equipment and 

their components in order to determine 

whether they fit within the scope of the 

Buy American provision would severely 

complicate those applicants’ ability to 

apply for funds and would place an 

undue burden on State and local 

governments. Taken as a whole, these 

burdens would cause delays and would 

likely thwart the goal of Congress to 

‘‘establish and implement the [BIP] 

grant, loan and loan/grant combination 

program as expeditiously as 

practicable,’’ and the Recovery Act’s 

requirement that RUS obligate all funds 

under BIP by September 30, 2010. (See 

Recovery Act, § 6001(d)(1)–(2), 123 Stat. 

at 513.) 

Second, a limited waiver will help 

facilitate the construction of modern 

broadband networks—an essential 

component of the Recovery Act. 

Applicants to BIP must have the 

flexibility to incorporate the most 

technically-advanced components into 

their infrastructure, and a limited 

waiver gives them the ability to 

incorporate the latest technologies. 

Third, consistent with the Recovery Act, 

a limited waiver will help stimulate job 

growth for construction workers, 

technicians, equipment designers, 

engineers, and others who will operate 

the broadband infrastructure. Fourth, 

while OMB has clarified which 

countries would be exempt from the 

Buy American provision, some of the 

key countries that produce broadband 

equipment would not be exempt. 

Finally, the broadband industry is very 

dynamic and global, and equipment can 

change over the course of a build out. 

Subjecting public applicants for BIP 

funds to the Buy American provision 

ultimately would slow broadband 

deployment and undermine President 

Obama’s broadband initiatives. 

III. Waiver 

Based on the public interest finding 

discussed above and pursuant to section 

1605(c), RUS is granting a limited 

waiver of the Recovery Act’s Buy 

American requirements with respect to 

BIP funds used for the following 

essential components of a modern 

broadband infrastructure: 

• Broadband Switching Equipment— 

Equipment necessary to establish a 

broadband communications path 

between two points. 

• Broadband Routing Equipment— 

Equipment that routes data packets 

throughout a broadband network. 

• Broadband Transport Equipment— 

Equipment for providing 

interconnection within the broadband 

provider’s network. 

• Broadband Access Equipment— 

Equipment facilitating the last mile 

connection to a broadband subscriber. 

• Broadband Customer Premises 

Equipment and End-User Devices—Enduser equipment that connects to a 

broadband network. 

• Billing/Operations Systems— 

Equipment that is used to manage and 

operate a broadband network or offer a 

broadband service. 

Note that this list does not include 

fiber optic cables, cell towers, and other 

facilities that are produced in the 

United States in sufficient quantities to 

be reasonably available as end products. 

To the extent that an applicant wishes 

to use equipment that is not covered by 

the proposed waiver, it may seek a 

waiver on a case-by-case basis as part of 

its application for BIP funds, stating the 

statutory exemption upon which it is 

relying and its rationale for receiving a 

waiver. 

This supplementary information 

constitutes the ‘‘detailed written 

justification’’ required by Section 

1605(c) of the Recovery Act and Section 

176.80 of OMB’s rules for waivers of the 

Buy American provisions. 

Authority: Public Law 111–5 § 1605, 123 

Stat. 115; 2 CFR 176.10 et seq. 

Dated: June 26, 2009. 

Thomas J. Vilsack, 

Secretary, United States Department of 

Agriculture. 

[FR Doc. E9–15511 Filed 6–30–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Lake Tahoe Basin Federal Advisory 

Committee 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Lake Tahoe Basin Federal 

Advisory Committee will hold a 

meeting tentatively on July 15, 2009 at 

the Sierra Nevada College, 999 Tahoe 

Boulevard, Incline Village, NV 89451. 

This Committee, established by the 

Secretary of Agriculture on December 

15, 1998 (64 FR 2876), is chartered to 

provide advice to the Secretary on 

implementing the terms of the Federal 

Interagency Partnership on the Lake 

Tahoe Region and other matters raised 

by the Secretary. 

DATES: The meeting will be held July 15, 

2009, beginning at 9 a.m. and ending at 

12 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

Sierra Nevada College, 999 Tahoe 

Boulevard, Incline Village, NV 89451. 

For Further Information or to Request 

an Accommodation (one week prior to 

meeting date) Contact: Linda Lind, Lake 

Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Forest