Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2004/03/23/04-6519/soybean-promotion-and-research-program-procedures-to-request-a-referendum
Timestamp: 2017-10-23 22:49:56
Document Index: 575345970

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u20091971', '§\u20091974', 'art 1220', 'art 1220', '§\u20091220', '§\u20091220', '§\u20091220', '§\u20091220', '§\u20091220']

A Rule by the Agricultural Marketing Service on 03/23/2004
69 FR 13458
13458-13465 (8 pages)
04-6519
Section 1220.616 General
Section 1220.618 Eligibility
Section 1220.619 Time and Place for Requesting a Referendum
Section 1220.622 Certification and Request Procedures
Section 1220.623 Canvassing Requests
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/04-6519 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/04-6519
This rule will amend the procedures for soybean producers to request a referendum on the Soybean Promotion and Research Order (Order), as authorized under the Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act (Act). The changes are intended to improve the operation of these procedures.
Kenneth R. Payne, Chief, Marketing Programs Branch Livestock and Seed Program, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), USDA, Room 2638-S, STOP 0251, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-0251; telephone 202/720-1115, fax 202/720-1125, or by e-mail at Kenneth.Payne@usda.gov or Phil Brockman, USDA, Farm Service Agency (FSA), DAFO, STOP 0542, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-0542; telephone 202/690-8034, fax 202/720-5900, or by e-mail at Phil.Brockman@usda.gov. Start Printed Page 13459
This final rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988, Civil Justice Reform. This final rule is not intended to have a retroactive effect. This final rule will not preempt any State or local laws, regulations, or policies, unless they present an irreconcilable conflict with this rule.
The Act provides that administrative proceedings must be exhausted before parties may file suit in court. Under § 1971 of the Act, a person subject to the Order may file a petition with USDA stating that the Order, any provision of the Order, or any obligation imposed in connection with the Order, is not in accordance with the law and requesting a modification of the Order or an exemption from the Order. The petitioner is afforded the opportunity for a hearing on the petition. After a hearing, USDA would rule on the petition. The Act provides that the district courts of the United States in any district in which such person is an inhabitant, or has their principal place of business, has jurisdiction to review USDA's ruling on the petition, if a complaint for this purpose is filed within 20 days after the date of the entry of the ruling.
Further, § 1974 of the Act provides, with certain exceptions, that nothing in the Act may be construed to preempt or supersede any other program relating to soybean promotion, research, consumer information, or industry information organized and operated under the laws of the United States or any State. One exception in the Act concerns assessments collected by Qualified State Soybean Boards (QSSBs). The exception provides that to ensure adequate funding of the operations of QSSBs under the Act, no State law or regulation may limit or have the effect of limiting the full amount of assessments that a QSSB in that State may collect, and which is authorized to be credited under the Act. Another exception concerns certain referenda conducted during specified periods by a State relating to the continuation or termination of a QSSB or State soybean assessment.
AMS has determined that this final rule will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities as defined by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) (5 United States Code (U.S.C.) 601 et seq.). Participation in the Request for Referendum is voluntary. Not all persons subject to the Order are expected to participate. USDA personnel will determine producer eligibility.
For the purposes of the Request for Referendum, the Secretary will use the most recent number of soybean producers identified by USDA's FSA. At the time the proposed rule was published in the Federal Register (69 FR 3854) on January 27, 2004, the latest number of soybean producers identified by FSA was for years 2001 (587,151) and 2002 (573,825). The proposed rule contemplated averaging these two numbers to arrive at the total number of producers or baseline number that would be used to determine whether the requisite number of producers' desire a referendum. However, as a result of comments received by various organizations, and further discussions with FSA, AMS has determined that the number of producers should be determined by using FSA's data for 2002 and 2003. And rather than using a simple average of the 2 years, the total number will be calculated by combining the producers for both years and exclude duplication by only counting a producer once if that producer was engaged in the production of soybeans in both years. The total number of soybean producers that will be used as a baseline in the Request for Referendum will be changed from 585,488 to 663,880. The majority of producers subject to the Order are small businesses under the criteria established by the Small Business Administration (SBA) (13 CFR 121.201). SBA defines small agricultural producers as those having annual receipts of less than $750,000 annually.
This final rule amends the current procedures for soybean producers to request a referendum on the Order. The changes were discussed in the proposed rule. Those changes affected a number of sections in subpart F of part 1220, and include requiring documentation with form LS-51-1 to demonstrate that the producer or producer entity paid soybean assessments. These changes are intended to improve the operation of the procedures. The procedures to request a referendum on the Soybean Checkoff Program will permit participation by each person who was a producer and provides evidence that they or the producer entity they represent paid an assessment on soybeans during the representative period. USDA has determined that the representative period will be January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2003.
The information collection requirements, as discussed below, are minimal. Requesting a form by mail, in-person, facsimile, or via the Internet would not impose a significant economic burden on participants. Accordingly, the Administrator of AMS has determined that this final rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small business entities. No comments were received regarding the RFA.
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1990 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the reporting and recordkeeping requirements included in 7 CFR part 1220 were previously approved by OMB and were assigned OMB control number 0581-0093. The purpose of this final rule is to provide soybean producers the opportunity to request a referendum on the Order. These changes will affect the information collection requirements by requiring documentation that shows an assessment was paid during the representative period be provided with form LS-51-1. However, providing the documentation will have no significant impact on the approved per response burden for form LS-51-1. No comments were received regarding the information collection section.
The Act required that an initial referendum be conducted no earlier than 18 months and not later than 36 Start Printed Page 13460months after the issuance of the Order to determine whether the Order should be continued.
The Act also specifies that the Secretary shall, 5 years after the conduct of the initial referendum and every 5 years thereafter, provide soybean producers an opportunity to request a referendum on the Order. On October 1, 1999, through November 16, 1999, a nationwide request for a referendum on the Order was conducted to determine if there was sufficient interest among soybean producers to vote on whether to continue the Soybean Checkoff Program. If at least 10 percent of the 600,813 soybean producers nationwide (not in excess of one-fifth of which may be producers in any one State) had participated in the request for referendum, a referendum would have been held. Only 17,970 eligible soybean producers completed valid requests—far short of the 60,082 required to trigger a referendum.
For all such referendums, if the Secretary determines that at least 10 percent of U.S. producers engaged in growing soybeans (not in excess of one-fifth of which may be producers in any one State) support the conduct of a referendum, the Secretary must conduct a referendum within 1 year of that determination. If these requirements are not met, no referendum will be conducted.
For the purposes of the Request for Referendum, USDA determined that they would use the most recent data of soybean producers identified by USDA's FSA. At the time the proposed rule was published in the Federal Register (69 FR 3854) on January 27, 2004, the most recent numbers of soybean producers identified by FSA was 597,151 for 2001 and 573,825 for 2002. However, as a result of comments received from various organizations and further discussions with FSA, AMS has determined that data is available for 2003 and should be used in lieu of 2001 as proposed. The information for years 2002 and 2003 is based on acreage reports compiled by FSA and using the data from the last two crop years collected will help ensure that all eligible producers are counted. After further review and discussions with FSA, it was determined that the initial baseline proposed by USDA might not include all producers who were engaged in the production of soybeans and would not accurately reflect the universe of soybeans producers for the 2-year period. For example, if Producer A grew soybeans on farm 1 in 2002 and producer B grew soybeans on farm 1 in 2003, under the proposed rule, the average number of producers for the 2 years equals one. Thus, the baseline would be “one.” Based on this conclusion and the purpose of the Request for Referendum, both producers could participate and should be included in the universe or baseline. Therefore, USDA will calculate the total number of soybean producers by using FSA's data for 2002 and 2003 and will sort the data in such a manner as to include all producers that were engaged in the production of soybeans in at least one of the 2 years and will avoid counting a producer more than once if that producer engaged in the production of soybeans in both years. Using this method, USDA has determined that the number of producers for the purposes of this Request for Referendum equals 663,880.
The Act provides that producers shall have an opportunity to request a referendum during a period established by the Secretary. Eligible persons must certify on an official form that they were a producer, paid an assessment during the representative period (January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2003), and indicate that they favor the conduct of a referendum. Further, producers will be required to provide documentation, such as sales receipts, showing that an assessment was paid during the representative period at the time a request for a referendum is made. The Request for Referendum period will be held during a 4-week period announced by the Secretary. The Act also provides that a Request for Referendum may be made in person or by mail-in request at county Cooperative Extension Service offices or county FSA offices. USDA has determined that the Request for Referendum will be held at the county FSA offices because it will give soybean producers the greatest opportunity to request a referendum.
This final rule sets forth the amended procedures as discussed in the proposed rule for producers to request a referendum as authorized under the Act, including definitions, eligibility, certification and request procedures, reporting results, and disposition of the forms and records. FSA will coordinate State and county FSA roles in conducting the Request for Referendum by (1) determining producer eligibility, (2) canvassing and counting requests, and (3) reporting the results.
On January 27, 2004, USDA published in the Federal Register (69 FR 3854) a proposed rule to amend the procedures for soybean producers to request a referendum on the Order. The proposed rule provided soybean producers the opportunity to submit comments on the procedures and permit soybean producers the opportunity to request an additional referendum on the Order. The comment period ended February 17, 2004.
USDA received two comments, one from the Chief Executive Officer of the United Soybean Board (Board) and another from an interested person, in a timely manner. In addition, one late comment was received. This comment generally reflected the views of the Board's comment. The two comments have been posted on AMS' Web site at http://www.ams.usda.gov/​lsg/​mpb/​rp-soy.htm. The changes suggested by commenters are discussed below. Also, USDA has made other miscellaneous changes for the purpose of clarity and accuracy. Those changes are discussed below. For the readers' convenience the discussion of comments is organized by the topic heading.
One commenter who did not support the Soybean Checkoff Program did not think the taxpayers of the United States should have to pay the costs of a referendum more frequently than once every 10 years. Furthermore, the commenter felt that if soybean farmers wanted more frequent referendums, then they should pay for all costs associated with the conduct and administration of such a referendum. The Act and Order provide that USDA, 5 years after the conduct of the initial Start Printed Page 13461referendum and every 5 years thereafter, will give soybean producers the opportunity to request additional referendum. Furthermore, in accordance with the provisions of the Act many of the costs of the Request for Referendum or subsequent referendum are paid by soybean producers through assessments collected under the Soybean Checkoff Program. Consequently, this comment is not adopted.
One commenter submitted a comment regarding the methodology used by USDA in establishing the baseline or universe of producers that would be used to determine if 10 percent of the producers desire a referendum. The commenter contended that the method used to determine the number of soybean producers is an anomalous result. For example, 597,151 producers who grew soybeans during 2001 crop year can request a referendum. By averaging the two crop years (597,151 producers in 2001 and the 573,825 producers in 2002), only 58,548 or 9.8 percent of the 597,151 producers eligible to vote as a result of the 2001 crop year determination would be required for a referendum to be held. The commenters contend this methodology inappropriately lowers the statutory threshold below 10 percent.
Upon further review, it was determined that the initial baseline proposed by USDA might not include all producers who were engaged in the growing of soybeans and would not accurately reflect the universe of soybeans producers for the 2-year period. For example, if Producer A grew soybeans on farm 1 in 2002 and producer B grew soybeans on farm 1 in 2003, under the proposed rule, the average number of producers for the 2 years equals one. Thus, the baseline would be “one.” However, under the Request for Referendum, both producers could participate and should be included in the universe or baseline. As previously discussed, FSA maintains a list of soybean producers that report farm crop acreages and producer crop shares. FSA has the ability to identify all producers that were engaged in growing soybeans for years 2002-2003. Further, FSA has the ability to count the number of producers that produced soybeans in any one of the 2 years and exclude duplicate counting. This comment has merit. After further review, USDA has determined that the number of producers eligible to participate in the Request for Referendum is 663,880. Thus, if 10 percent or 66,388 producers request a referendum, the referendum will be conducted within 1 year after the results are announced. Section 1220.616(d) will be revised to include 663,880 as the total number of producers eligible to participate in the Request for Referendum.
Also, the commenter questioned a statement in the proposed rule's supplementary information section that indicated that averaging the number of soybean producers for crop years 2001 and 2002 was done in an effort to follow procedures similar to the 1999 Request for Referendum. The commenter noted that there are differences between the two. This statement was intended to merely reflect the use of more than 1 year to capture the most accurate number of producers possible. As such no change is necessary.
One commenter suggested that each person who requests a referendum must be required to show that the producer paid an assessment during the representative period. This comment has merit and is consistent with USDA's proposal. No change is needed. This rule requires any person who wants to request a referendum to provide documentation at the time a request is made that shows an assessment was been paid between January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2003, to be eligible to request a referendum.
One commenter supported USDA's proposal that eligible producers must participate in the county FSA office that maintains the producers' administrative farm records are appropriate. This comment has merit and is consistent with USDA's proposal for the Request for Referendum. No change is needed.
However, under § 1220.619(c), USDA removed the word “vote” and replaced it with the words “request for referendum.” The Request for Referendum does not require a “yes'' or “no” vote.
Under § 1220.622(c), the phrase “* * * as provided in paragraph (a) of this section” has been removed and replaced with “* * * to the appropriate county FSA office” to provide more clarity. Also, for clarity, under (c), the term “the ballots'' and been removed and replaced with “Form 51-1.”
Under § 1220.623(b)(1), the phrase “* * * are a producer” has been deleted and replaced with “* * * paid an assessment'.” This correction clarifies that an assessment must have been paid during the representative period to request a referendum.
Under § 1220.623(e), the words “and supporting documentation” has been added after “Form LS-51-1 under subsections (e)(2), (e)(3), (e)(4), and (e)(6).” The words “* * * or supporting documentation” has been added after the words “Form LS-51-1 under subsection (e)(5).” These additions clarify that supporting documentation must be submitted with form LS-51-1.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553, it is found and determined that good cause exists for not postponing the effective date of this rule until 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. This action establishes the final rule, which provides soybean producers the opportunity to request a referendum on the Order. By establishing this final rule in a timely manner, USDA will be able to begin the Request for Referendum no later than May 2004.
Public notice. Start Printed Page 13462
(d) For purposes of paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, the number of soybean producers in the United States is determined to be 663,880.
Start Printed Page 13463
(a) The opportunity to request a referendum shall be provided during a 4-week period beginning and ending on a date determined by the Secretary. Eligible persons shall have the opportunity to request a referendum by following the procedures in § 1220.622 during the normal business hours of each county FSA office.
(b) Producers can determine the location of county FSA offices by contacting the nearest county FSA office, the State FSA office or through an online search of FSA's web site at www.fsa.usda.gov/​pas/​default.asp.
(b) To request a referendum, eligible producers may obtain form LS-51-1 in-person, by mail, or by facsimile during the request for referendum period from the county FSA office where FSA maintains and processes the producer's, corporation's, or other entity's administrative farm records. For the producer, corporation, or other entity not participating in FSA programs, the opportunity to request a referendum would be provided at the county FSA office serving the county where the producer, corporation, or other entity owns or rents land. Eligible producers may also obtain form LS-51-1 via the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/​lsg/​mpb/​rp-soy.htm. For those persons who chose to obtain form LS-51-1 via the Internet, the completed form and required documentation must be submitted to the county FSA office where FSA maintains and process the producer's, corporation's, or other entity's administrative farm records. For producer, corporation, or other entity not participating in FSA programs, the opportunity to request a referendum would be provided at the county FSA office serving the county where the producer, corporation, or other entity owns or rents land.
(a) Canvassing of Form LS-51-1 shall take place at the opening of county FSA offices on the 5th business day following the Request for Referendum Start Printed Page 13464period. Such canvassing, acting on behalf of the Administrator, AMS, shall be in the presence of at least two members of the county committee. If two or more of the counties have been combined and are served by one county office, the canvassing of the requests shall be conducted by at least one member of the county committee from each county served by the county office. The FSA State committee or the State Executive Director if authorized by the State Committee, may designate the County Executive Director (CED) and a county or State FSA office employee to canvass the requests and report the results instead of two members of the county committee when it is determined that the number of eligible voters is so limited that having two members of the county committee present for this function is impractical, and designate the CED and/or another county or State FSA office employee to canvass requests in any emergency situation precluding at least two members of the county committee from being present to carry out the functions required in this section.
(a) The Administrator, FSA, shall submit to the Administrator, AMS, the reports from all State FSA offices. The Administrator, AMS, shall tabulate the results of the Request for Referendum. USDA will issue an official press release announcing the results of the Request for Referendum and publish the same results in the Federal Register. In addition, USDA will post the official results at the following Web site: http://www.ams.usda.gov/​lsg/​mpb/​rp-soy.htm. Subsequently, State reports and related papers shall be available for public inspection upon request during normal business hours in the Marketing Programs Branch office, Livestock and Seed Program, AMS, USDA, Room 2638-S, STOP 0251, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC.
Each FSA CED will place in sealed containers marked with the identification of the “Request for Soybean Referendum,” all of the form LS-51-1's along with the accompanying documentation and county summaries. Such records will be placed in a secure location under the custody of the FSA CED for a period of not less than 12 months after the date of notification by Start Printed Page 13465the Administrator, FSA, that the final results have been announced by the Secretary. If the county FSA office receives no notice to the contrary from the Administrator, FSA, by the end of the 12 month period as described above, the CED or designee shall destroy the records.
[FR Doc. 04-6519 Filed 3-19-04; 9:54 am]