Fees for Official Inspection and Weighing Services Under the United States Grain Standards Act

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE <SUBAGY>Agricultural Marketing Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>7 CFR Part 800</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Doc. No. AMS-FGIS-24-0010]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0581-AE28</RIN> <SUBJECT>Fees for Official Inspection and Weighing Services Under the United States Grain Standards Act</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Agricultural Marketing Service, Department of Agriculture (USDA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS or Service) published an interim rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on June 6, 2024, establishing revised fees for official services performed by FGIS and requesting comments. The revised fees announced in the interim rule became effective on July 8, 2024, and will remain in effect until new fees are established. This final rule adopts the fees established by the interim rule without change and responds to public comments submitted in response to the interim rule. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective January 27, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Denise Ruggles, Executive Program Analyst, USDA, AMS, FGIS, Telephone: 816-702-3897, Email: <E T="03">Denise.M.Ruggles@usda.gov;</E> or Anthony Goodeman, Senior Policy Advisor, USDA, AMS, FGIS, Telephone: 202-720-2091, Email: <E T="03">Anthony.T.Goodeman@usda.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This final rule adopts, without change, revised fees for official services performed by FGIS, as well as the regulatory changes needed to implement those fees, as described in an interim rule (“Fees for Official Inspection and Weighing Services under the United States Grain Standards Act”) published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on June 6, 2024 (89 FR 48257). The revised fees became effective on July 8, 2024, and will remain in effect until new fees are established. The revised fees were calculated using standardized formulas modeled after those used in other AMS user-fee funded grading programs. A forthcoming final rule (“Formulas for Calculating Hourly and Unit Fees for FGIS Services”) to be published separately in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> will amend FGIS's user fee regulations. Prospective customers can find FGIS's fee schedules posted on AMS's public website at: <E T="03">https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/fgis-program-directives.</E> The United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA) authorizes and requires the Secretary of Agriculture to charge and collect reasonable fees to cover the estimated costs for performing official grain inspection and weighing services (which are mandatory under the Act for U.S. grain exports). In 2015, Congress amended the USGSA to provide that “[i]n order to maintain an operating reserve of not less than 3 and not more than 6 months, the Secretary shall adjust the fees . . . not less frequently than annually.” (7 U.S.C. 79(j)(4) and 79a(l)(3)). To comply with these provisions, FGIS, then the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), issued regulations requiring the agency to review and adjust fees annually in order to maintain a 3- to 6-month reserve of operating expenses. (81 FR 49855). AMS published the 2024 interim rule to address FGIS's immediate financial needs, ensure the agency's continued provision of mandatory official services, and prevent disruption to the grain industry. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comment Review</HD> AMS published the interim rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on June 6, 2024 (89 FR 48257). The interim rule became effective on July 8, 2024. Copies of the interim rule were sent via email to FGIS stakeholders. The interim rule was also made available through the internet by AMS via <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> AMS provided a 30-day comment period, ending July 8, 2024, to give interested persons an opportunity to comment on the interim rule. FGIS received two comments to the interim rule. One of the comments was irrelevant to the subject of the rule and was not considered with respect to this rulemaking action. The other comment was jointly submitted by two trade organizations. One of the trade organizations represents grain, feed, processing, exporting, and other grain handling companies who collectively operate over 8,000 facilities. The other trade association represents private and publicly owned companies and farmer-owned cooperatives that are involved in, and provide services to, the agri-bulk products international trading industry. The trade associations' comment generally supported the interim rule; however, the comment expressed concern with the fee changes “and the potential impact of promoting the marketing of high-quality grain to both domestic and foreign buyers based on the agency's current financial status.” The comment also expressed concern about the shifting marketplace, with potentially reduced exports, noting the likelihood of reduced exports in the upcoming 12- to 18-months, and the importance of FGIS taking all measures to control costs. The comment noted that significant fee increases are unsustainable, but also articulated the importance of FGIS, and the accurate, timely, cost-effective delivery of official grain inspection and weighing services. As a strategy to improve the current method for calculating fees, the comment suggested that FGIS de-couple the other Schedule A user fees from the five-year rolling average for tonnage fees to make the fees more in line with the market rates. FGIS agrees with the commenters. FGIS took steps to mitigate a larger increase in the fees through stakeholder interactions prior to publishing the interim rule, and published a more moderate fee increase that would spread the rebuild of the three- to six-month operating reserve over the duration of three years. This step allowed 2024 fees to be substantially lower than they would have been if FGIS attempted to rebuild the reserve more quickly. FGIS is actively taking steps to reduce costs and respond to the evolving export market. FGIS detailed over 10 percent of its staff, froze hiring and awards, reduced overtime, and stopped travel unless mission critical. These steps, coupled with the revised fees, have set FGIS on a path for continued, uninterrupted operations. FGIS is partnering with industry stakeholders to review ways to continue to reduce costs through the use of inspection automation technology. Based on the comments received, the critical requirement for mandatory FGIS inspection and weighing services, and the immediate need for the revised fees published in the interim rule, FGIS has determined that finalizing the interim rule, as published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on June 6, 2024 (89 FR 48257) is consistent with and will tend to effectuate the purposes of the Act. Accordingly, FGIS has made no changes to the fees published in the interim rule and concludes the action through this final rule. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Revised Fees</HD> Tables 2 through 4, below, set forth the revised fees for FGIS inspection and weighing services effective July 8, 2024, as described in the interim rule published on June 6, 2024 (89 FR 48257). The revised fees will remain in effect until new fees are established. The revised fees were calculated using standardized formulas modeled after those used in other AMS user-fee funded grading programs. A forthcoming final rule to be published separately in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> will amend FGIS's user fee regulations to incorporate the formulas. <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s50,13,13,11,9"> <TTITLE> Table 1—Fees for Official Services Performed at an Applicant's Facility in an Onsite FGIS Laboratory  <SU>1</SU> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Service</CHED> (6 a.m.-6 p.m.) (6 p.m.-6 a.m.) <ENT I="22">Inspection and Weighing Services Hourly Fees (per service representative):</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">One-Year Contract (per hour per Service representative)</ENT> <ENT>$65.00</ENT> <ENT>$71.50</ENT> <ENT>$81.30</ENT> <ENT>$97.50</ENT> </ROW> <ROW RUL="s"> <ENT I="03">Noncontract (per hour per Service representative)</ENT> <ENT>93.30</ENT> <ENT/> <ENT>116.60</ENT> <ENT>140.00</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03" RUL="s"> <ENT I="25">Service</ENT> <ENT>2024 Rate</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="22"> Additional Tests (cost per test, assessed in addition to the hourly rate):  <SU>2</SU> </ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03">Aflatoxin (rapid test kit method)</ENT> <ENT>17.90</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03">All other Mycotoxins (rapid test kit method)</ENT> <ENT>32.60</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03">NIR or NMR Analysis (protein, oil, starch, etc.)</ENT> <ENT>4.30</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03">Waxy corn (per test)</ENT> <ENT>4.30</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03">Class Y Weighing—online (per carrier)</ENT> <ENT>2.80</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03" RUL="s"> <ENT I="03">Fees for other tests not listed above will be based on the noncontract hourly rate from Fee Table 1 (per hour/per representative)</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="04" RUL="s"> <ENT I="21">Tonnage Fee (assessed in addition to all other applicable fees, only one tonnage fee will be assessed when inspection and weighing services are performed on the same carrier).</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03" RUL="s"> <ENT I="25">Service</ENT> <ENT>2024 Rate</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="22"> All outbound carriers serviced by the specific field office (per-metric ton):  <SU>3</SU> </ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03"> Delegated States/Designated Agencies (national $0.057)  <SU>4</SU> </ENT> <ENT>0.057</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="03"> <ENT I="03">Leagu ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 31k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━