[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 26, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 4213-4214]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00693]


 ========================================================================
 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
 
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 

  Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 16 / Tuesday, January 26, 2016 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 4213]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Office of the Secretary

2 CFR Subtitle B, Ch. IV

5 CFR Ch. LXXIII

7 CFR Subtitle A; Subtitle B, Chs. I-XI, XIV-XVIII, XX, XXV-
XXXVIII, XLII

9 CFR Chs. I-III

36 CFR Ch. II

48 CFR Ch. 4


Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, USDA.

ACTION: Request for Information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: In accordance with Executive Order 13563, ``Improving 
Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' and Executive Order 13610, 
``Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens,'' the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA) is continuing to review its regulatory programs and 
evaluate their burdens and their effectiveness. As part of this effort, 
USDA welcomes public comment on which regulations should be modified, 
expanded, streamlined, or repealed to make the USDA's regulatory 
program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory 
objectives. The 2015 Fall Regulatory Agenda provides a summary of the 
USDA regulations under development or review during the coming year. 
Similarly, USDA's 2015 Statement of Regulatory Priorities provides a 
list of important regulatory actions that USDA is considering for 
issuance in proposed or final form during the 2016 fiscal year.

DATES: Comments and information are requested on or before March 28, 
2016.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this notice. All submissions must refer to ``Retrospective Review'' to 
ensure proper delivery.
     Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may 
submit comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: 
http://www.regulations.gov. USDA strongly encourages commenters to 
submit comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments 
allows the commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, and 
ensures timely receipt by USDA. Commenters should follow the 
instructions provided on that site to submit comments electronically.
     Submission of Comments by Mail, Hand delivery, or Courier. 
Paper, disk, or CD-ROM submissions should be submitted to Michael Poe, 
Office of Budget and Program Analysis, USDA, Jamie L. Whitten Building, 
Room 101-A, 1400 Independence Ave. SW., Washington, DC 20250.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Poe, Telephone Number: (202) 
720-3257.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: USDA remains committed to minimizing the 
burdens on individuals businesses, and communities for participation in 
and compliance with USDA programs that promote economic growth, create 
jobs, and protect the health and safety of the American people. USDA's 
planned regulatory actions and retrospective review efforts were made 
available in the 2015 Fall Unified Regulatory Agenda (http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain?operation=OPERATION_GET_AGENCY_RULE_LIST&currentPub=true&agencyCode=&showStage=active&agencyCd=0500) and the USDA Statement of 
Regulatory Priorities (http://www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/eAgenda/StaticContent/201510/Statement_0500.html).
    USDA programs are diverse and far reaching, as are the regulations 
and legislation that implement their delivery. The regulations range 
from nutrition standards for the school lunch program, natural 
resources and environmental measures governing national forest usage 
and soil conservation, emergency producer assistance as a result of 
natural disasters, to protection of American agriculture from the 
ravages of plant or animal pestilence. USDA regulations extend from 
farm to supermarket to ensure the safety, quality, and availability of 
the Nation's food supply. Regulations also specify how USDA conducts 
its business, including access to and eligibility for USDA programs. 
Finally, regulations specify the responsibilities of businesses, 
individuals, and State and local governments that are necessary to 
comply with their provisions.

I. Executive Orders 13563 and 13610

    The overall intention of Executive Orders 13563 and 13610 is to 
create a continuing process of scrutiny of regulatory actions.
    Executive Order 13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory 
Review,'' was issued to ensure that Federal regulations use the best 
available tools to promote innovation that will reduce costs and burden 
while allowing public participation and an open exchange of ideas. 
These principles enhance and strengthen Federal regulations to allow 
them to achieve their regulatory objectives, most important among them 
protecting public health, welfare, safety, and the environment. In 
consideration of these principles, and as directed by the Executive 
Order, Federal agencies and departments need to periodically review 
existing regulations that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, 
or excessively burdensome and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal 
them in accordance with what has been learned.
    In addition, Executive Order 13610, ``Identifying and Reducing 
Regulatory Burdens,'' directed Federal agencies to conduct 
retrospective analyses of existing rules to examine whether they remain 
justified and whether they should be modified or streamlined in light 
of changed circumstances, including the availability of new 
technologies. Executive Order 13610 directs Federal agencies to give 
priority, consistent with law, to those initiatives that will produce 
significant quantifiable monetary savings or significant quantifiable 
reductions in paperwork burdens while protecting public health, 
welfare, safety, and the environment. For the regulatory requirements 
imposed on small businesses, it directs Federal agencies to give 
special consideration to initiatives that would simplify or harmonize 
the regulatory requirements.

II. Request for Information

    USDA is seeking public comment on our effort: To identify and 
reduce regulatory burdens; to remove unintended regulatory obstacles to

[[Page 4214]]

participation in and compliance with USDA programs; and to improve 
current regulations to help USDA agencies advance the USDA mission. 
USDA is particularly interested in public comments that speak to areas 
in which we can reduce costs and reporting burdens on the public, 
through technological advances or other modernization efforts, and 
comments on regulatory flexibility.

III. Regulatory Flexibility

    USDA is also seeking public input on measures that can be taken to 
reduce burdens and increase flexibility and freedom of choice for the 
public. Regulatory flexibility includes a variety of regulatory 
techniques that can help avoid unnecessary costs on regulated entities 
and avoid negative impacts. Regulatory flexibility techniques could 
include:
     Pilot projects, which can be used to test regulatory 
approaches;
     Safe harbors, which are streamlined modes of regulatory 
compliance and can serve to reduce compliance costs;
     Sunset provisions, which terminate a rule after a certain 
date;
     Trigger provisions, which specify one or more threshold 
indicators that the rule is designed to address;
     Phase-ins, which allow the rule to be phased-in for 
different groups at different times;
     Streamlined requirements, which provide exemptions or 
other streamlined requirements if a particular entity (for example, a 
small business) may otherwise experience disproportionate burden from a 
rule;
     State flexibilities, which provide greater flexibility to 
States or other regulatory partners, for example, giving them freedom 
to implement alternative regulatory approaches; and
     Exceptions, which allow exceptions to part of the rule, or 
the entire rule in cases where there is a potential or suspected 
unintended consequence.

IV. Existing USDA Regulations

    In addition to retrospective review actions and other regulatory 
reforms identified in USDA's 2015 Fall Regulatory Agenda, we welcome 
comments from the public on any of USDA's existing regulations and ways 
to improve them to help USDA agencies advance the mission of the 
Department consistent with the Executive Order. USDA notes that this 
RFI is issued solely for information and program-planning purposes. 
While responses to this RFI do not bind USDA to any further actions, 
all submissions will be reviewed by the appropriate program office, and 
made publicly available on http://www.regulations.gov.

    Dated: January 7, 2016.
Thomas J. Vilsack,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-00693 Filed 1-25-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-90-P