[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 6, 2001)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 13400-13402]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-5419]



[[Page 13400]]

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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Agricultural Marketing Service

7 CFR Part 1210

[FV-00-703 FR]


Watermelon Research and Promotion Plan; Redistricting and Adding 
Two Importer Members to the National Watermelon Promotion Board

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: This final rule changes the boundaries of all seven districts 
under the Watermelon Research and Promotion Plan (Plan) to apportion 
producer and handler membership on the National Watermelon Promotion 
Board (Board). This will make all districts equal according to the 
assessments collected in each district. Pursuant to the provisions of 
the Plan and regulations, this rule will also add two importer members 
to the Board to ensure that representation of importers is 
proportionate to the percentage of assessments importers pay to the 
Board. These changes are based on a review of the production and 
assessments paid in each district and the amount of watermelon import 
assessments, which the Plan requires at least every five years.

EFFECTIVE DATE: April 5, 2001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathie Birdsell, Research and 
Promotion Branch, FV, AMS, USDA, Room 2535-S, Stop 0244, Washington, DC 
20250-0244; telephone (202) 720-6930 or (888) 720-9917 (toll free); e-
mail to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This final rule is issued under the 
Watermelon Research and Promotion Plan (Plan) (7 CFR part 1210). The 
Plan is authorized under the Watermelon Research and Promotion Act 
(Act) (7 U.S.C. 4901-4916). Prior document in this proceeding: A 
proposed rule published in the October 16, 2000, issue of the Federal 
Register (65 FR 61122).

Question and Answer Overview

Why is this action being taken?

    Section 1210.320 (d) of the Plan requires the National Watermelon 
Promotion Board (Board) to review the alignment of the seven districts 
and importer representation every five years. The Board conducted a 
review in 1999 and made recommendations to the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA). USDA published those recommendations as a proposed 
rule in the October 16, 2000, issue of the Federal Register. No 
comments were received on the proposed rule. Therefore, this rule 
implements the Board's recommendations.

What is the size and composition of the Board?

    The Plan divides the United States into seven districts of 
comparable watermelon production. Each district is allocated two 
producer members and two handler members. The Plan also requires the 
number of importer members on the Board to be proportionate to the 
percentage of assessments paid by importers. In addition, one public 
member should serve on the Board. The Board currently has 33 members: 
14 producers, 14 handlers, 4 importers, and 1 public member. However, 
two importer positions and the public member position are currently 
vacant.

What data was used by the Board to conduct the review?

    The Board is required to base its recommendations on the most 
recent three years of USDA production reports or Board assessment 
reports. In this instance, the Board used assessment reports for 1996, 
1997, and 1998 because USDA production reports were available for only 
16 of the 35 states in which watermelons are produced.

What was the outcome of the 1999 redistricting review?

    The 1999 review indicated that the boundaries of the districts 
needed to be adjusted in order for there to be an equal amount of 
assessments paid by the producers and handlers in the districts and 
that two additional importers needed to be added to the Board.

How will this action change the size and composition of the Board?

    The number of producer and handler members will not be changed. 
However, the number of importer positions on the Board will be 
increased from four to six.

Will this action affect the current assessment rates paid by importers? 
By producers and handlers?

    This action will not have any impact on the assessment rates paid 
by producers, handlers, and importers.

Executive Orders 12886 and 12988

    This rule has been determined ``not significant'' for purposes of 
Executive Order (E.O.) 2866 and, therefore, has not been reviewed by 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
    In addition, this rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 
12988, Civil Justice Reform. The rule is not intended to have 
retroactive effect and will not affect or preempt any other State or 
Federal law authorizing promotion or research relating to an 
agricultural commodity.
    The Act allows producers, producer-packers, handlers, and importers 
(if covered by the program) to file a written petition with the 
Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) if they believe that the Plan, any 
provision of the Plan, or any obligation imposed in connection with the 
Plan, is not established in accordance with law. In any petition, the 
person may request a modification of the Plan or an exemption from the 
Plan. The petitioner will have the opportunity for a hearing on the 
petition. Afterwards, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) will issue a 
decision. If the petitioner disagrees with the ALJ's ruling, the 
petitioner has 30 days to appeal to the Judicial Officer, who will 
issue a ruling on behalf of the Secretary. If the petitioner disagrees 
with the Secretary's ruling, the petitioner may file, within 20 days, 
an appeal in the U.S. District Court for the district where the 
petitioner resides or conducts business.

Regulatory Flexibility Act and Paperwork Reduction Act

    Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis. In accordance with the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), AMS has examined the 
economic impact of this rule on the small producers, handlers, and 
importers that will be affected by this rule.
    The Small Business Administration defines, in 13 CFR part 121, 
small agricultural producers as those having annual receipts of no more 
than $500,000 and small agricultural service firms (handlers and 
importers) as those having annual receipts of no more than $5 million. 
Under these definitions, the majority of the producers, handlers, and 
importers that would be affected by this rule would be considered small 
entities. Producers of less than 10 acres of watermelons are exempt 
from this program. Importers of less than 150,000 pounds of watermelons 
per year are also exempt.
    According to the Board, there are approximately 2,219 non-exempt 
producers, 619 handlers, and 278 importers who are eligible to serve on 
the Board.
    The Plan requires producers to be nominated by producers, handlers 
to be nominated by handlers, and importers to be nominated by 
importers. This will not change. Because some current

[[Page 13401]]

members are in states or counties which will be moved to other 
districts under this rule, at least one producer member vacancy in 
Districts 1, 6, and 7 and one handler member vacancy in District 6 will 
be created. Nomination meetings will need to be held in the new 
districts to fill these vacancies.
    The overall impact will be favorable for producers and handlers 
because the new district boundaries will provide more equitable 
representation for the producers and handlers who pay assessments in 
the various districts. For importers, too, the overall impact will be 
favorable because they will be provided two additional seats on the 
Board and more equitable representation on the Board.
    The Board considered several alignments of the districts in an 
effort to provide balanced representation for each district. The Board 
selected the alignment described in this rule as it will provide 
proportional representation on the Board of producers, handlers, and 
importers.
    The addition of two importer seats on the Board will mean four 
additional nominees. This is because two nominees must be submitted for 
each position. The estimated additional annual cost of providing 
nomination information by four persons eligible to be nominated to 
serve as importer members on the Board will be $6.00 or $1.50 per 
importer. The increase of .06 hours has been added to the burden 
previously approved under OMB No. 0505-0001.
    There are no federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or conflict 
with this rule.
    Paperwork Reduction Act. This rule will increase the information 
collection burden previously approved by OMB for the Board nominee 
background information form under OMB Number 0505-0001. This is because 
there will be two additional importers on the Board. Since two nominees 
must be submitted to the Secretary for each position, there is the 
potential for four additional background forms to be submitted under 
this final rule. As required by OMB regulations (5 CFR part 1320), the 
revised burden, as described below, has been submitted to OMB.
    Title: National Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information 
Programs.
    OMB Number: 0505-0001.
    Expiration Date of Approval: July 31, 2001.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved information 
collection for research and promotion programs.
    Abstract: The information collection requirements in this request 
are essential to carry out the intent of the Act. The increase in 
burden associated with the background form is as follows:
    Estimate of Burden: Public reporting burden for this collection of 
information is estimated to average 0.50 hours per response.
    Respondents: Importers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 4.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 1 every 3 years 
(0.3).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 0.6 hours.
    The estimated additional annual cost of providing nomination 
information by four persons eligible to be nominated to serve as 
importer members on the Board is $6.00 or $1.50 per importer. The 
increase of .06 hours has been added to the burden previously approved 
under OMB No. 0505-0001.

Background

    Under the Plan, the Board administers a nationally coordinated 
program of research, development, advertising, and promotion designed 
to strengthen the watermelon's position in the market place and to 
establish, maintain, and expand markets for watermelons. This program 
is financed by assessments on producers growing 10 acres or more of 
watermelons, handlers of watermelons, and importers of 150,000 pounds 
of watermelons or more per year. The Plan specifies that handlers are 
responsible for collecting and submitting both the producer and handler 
assessments to the Board, reporting their handling of watermelons, and 
maintaining records necessary to verify their reporting(s). Importers 
are responsible for payment of assessments to the Board on watermelons 
imported into the United States through the U.S. Customs Service.
    Domestic membership on the Board is determined on the basis of two 
producers and two handlers for each of the seven districts established 
by the Plan. The Board should also include at least one representative 
of importers and one public member. There are currently four importer 
positions on the Board.
    The current U.S. districts were established in 1994. They are:
    District 1--South Florida, including all south areas of State 
Highway 50.
    District 2--North Florida, including all north areas of State 
Highway 50.
    District 3--Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.
    District 4--Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, 
Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, 
Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.
    District 5--Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, 
Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, 
Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, 
and Wisconsin.
    District 6--Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.
    District 7--Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, 
Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
    The Plan provides that two years after its effective date (June 8, 
1989), and at least every five years thereafter, the Board should 
review the districts to determine whether realignment of the districts 
is necessary.
    When making a review, the Plan specifies that the Board should 
consider factors such as the most recent three years of USDA production 
reports or Board assessment reports if USDA production reports are 
unavailable, shifts and trends in quantities of watermelons produced, 
and any other relevant factors. In reviewing importer representation, 
the Board should review a three-year average of watermelon import 
assessments.
    The Plan further specifies that, as a result of a review, the Board 
may recommend realignment of the districts and a change in the number 
of importer members subject to the approval of the Secretary. Any 
realignment should be recommended by the Board at least six months 
prior to the date of the call for nominations and should become 
effective at least 30 days prior to this date.
    On November 8, 1999, the Board appointed a subcommittee to begin 
reviewing the U.S. districts and to determine whether realignment was 
necessary based on production and assessment collections in the current 
districts. During the review, as prescribed by the Plan, the 
subcommittee reviewed USDA's Annual Crop Summary reports for 1996 
through 1998, which provide figures for the top 16 watermelon producing 
states, and the Board's assessment collection records for 1996 through 
1998, including assessments collected at the county level for 
California and Florida.
    The subcommittee recommended to the Board that the boundaries of 
Districts 3 through 7 be changed and that Districts 1 and 2 be defined 
by Florida counties, rather than using Route 50 as the boundary line.
    The subcommittee also determined that assessments on imports 
represented 20 percent of the Board's assessment income during 1996-
1998. The Plan

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requires that importers have proportionate representation on the Board. 
Therefore, importers should have 20 percent of the seats on the Board. 
Currently, the four importer positions represent only 12.5 percent of 
the 32 industry seats on the Board. Adding two more importer member 
positions will give importers approximately 20 percent of the seats on 
the Board. Because the Plan and regulations are self-executing in this 
regard, no change to the regulations is needed.
    Subsequently, the realignment was approved by Board at its February 
15-16, 2000, meeting, with slight modification. Under the realignment, 
each district will represent, on average, 14 percent of total U.S. 
production.
    Therefore, this final rule will realign the districts as follows:
    District 1--The Florida counties of Brevard, Broward, Collier, 
Dade, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, Lee, Martin, 
Monroe, Okeechobee, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, and St. Lucie.
    District 2--The Florida counties of Alachula, Baker, Bay, Bradford, 
Calhoun, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Desoto, Dixie, Duval, 
Escambia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, 
Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, 
Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Nassau, Okaloosa, 
Orange, Pasco, Pinnellas, Putnam, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Seminole, St. 
Johns, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton, and 
Washington.
    District 3--Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
South Carolina, and Tennessee.
    District 4--Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North 
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, and 
Wisconsin.
    District 5--Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, 
Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the California counties of 
Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del 
Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, 
Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, 
Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San 
Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, 
Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, 
Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Toulumne, Venture, Yolo, 
and Yuba.
    District 6--Texas.
    District 7--Arizona, New Mexico, and the California counties of 
Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San 
Diego.
    With these district boundaries: (1) South Carolina and Tennessee 
will be moved from District 4 to District 3; (2) Arkansas and Louisiana 
will be moved from District 6 to District 3; (3) Illinois, Iowa, 
Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South 
Dakota, and Wisconsin will be moved from District 5 to District 4; (4) 
four California counties will be moved from District 7 to District 5; 
and (5) only Texas will remain in District 6.
    This will create one producer vacancy in Districts 1, 6, and 7 and 
one handler in District 6. Current Board members will be affected 
because their states or counties will be moved to other districts. 
Nomination meetings will be held in the new districts to fill the 
vacancies.

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 1210

    Administrative practice and procedure, Advertising, Consumer 
information, Marketing agreements, Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements, Watermelon promotion.
    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, Part 1210, Chapter XI of 
Title 7 is amended as follows:

PART 1210--WATERMELON RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN

    1. The authority citation for 7 CFR Part 1210 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 7 U.S.C. 4901-4916.

    2. Section 1210.501 is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 1210.501  Realignment of districts.

    Pursuant to Sec. 1210.320(c) of the Plan, the districts shall be as 
follows:
    District 1--The Florida counties of Brevard, Broward, Collier, 
Dade, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, Lee, Martin, 
Monroe, Okeechobee, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, and St. Lucie.
    District 2--The Florida counties of Alachula, Baker, Bay, Bradford, 
Calhoun, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Desoto, Dixie, Duval, 
Escambia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, 
Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, 
Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Nassau, Okaloosa, 
Orange, Pasco, Pinnellas, Putnam, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Seminole, St. 
Johns, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton, and 
Washington.
    District 3--Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
South Carolina, and Tennessee.
    District 4--Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North 
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, and 
Wisconsin.
    District 5--Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, 
Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and the California counties of 
Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del 
Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, 
Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, 
Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San 
Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, 
Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, 
Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Toulumne, Venture, Yolo, 
and Yuba.
    District 6--Texas.
    District 7--Arizona, New Mexico, and the California counties of 
Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego.

    Dated: March 1, 2001.
Kenneth C. Clayton,
Acting Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.
[FR Doc. 01-5419 Filed 3-5-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P