[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 61 (Friday, March 29, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11926-11927]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-06079]


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 Notices
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 61 / Friday, March 29, 2019 / 
Notices  

[[Page 11926]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

[Doc. No. AMS-FGIS-18-0092]


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

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA) provides the 
Secretary of Agriculture with the authority to charge and collect 
reasonable fees to cover the costs of performing official services and 
the costs associated with managing the program. The Agricultural 
Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing the 2019 fee schedule for 
official inspection and weighing services performed under the USGSA, as 
amended, and the Agriculture Reauthorizations Act of 2015. This notice 
publishes the annual review of Schedule A fees calculation and the 
resulting fees that went into effect on January 1, 2019.

DATES: Effective January 1, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Prospective customers can find the fee scheduled posted on 
the Agency's public website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denise Ruggles, FGIS Executive Program 
Analyst, USDA AMS; Telephone: (816) 659-8406; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations require that Federal Grain 
Inspection Service (FGIS) annually review the national tonnage fees, 
local tonnage fees, and fees for service. After calculating the tonnage 
fees according to the regulatory formula in 7 CFR 800.71(b)(1), FGIS 
then reviews the amount of funds in the operating reserve at the end of 
the fiscal year (FY2018 in this case) to ensure that it has 4\1/2\ 
months of operating expenses as required by section 800.71(b)(2) of the 
regulations. If the operating reserve has more, or less than 4\1/2\ 
months of operating expenses, then FGIS must adjust all Schedule A 
fees. For each $1,000,000, rounded down, that the operating reserve 
varies from the target of 4\1/2\ months, FGIS will adjust all Schedule 
A fees by 2 percent. If the operating reserve exceeds the target, all 
Schedule A fees will be reduced. If the operating reserve does not meet 
the target, all Schedule A fees will be increased. The maximum annual 
increase or decrease in fees is 5 percent (7 CFR 800.71(b)(2)(i)-(ii)).
    Tonnage fees for the 5-year rolling average tonnage were calculated 
on the previous 5 fiscal years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. 
Tonnage fees consist of the national tonnage fee and local tonnage fee 
and are calculated and rounded to the nearest $0.001 per metric ton. 
The tonnage fees are calculated as following:
    National tonnage fee. The national tonnage fee is the national 
program administrative costs for the previous fiscal year divided by 
the average yearly tons of export grain officially inspected and/or 
weighed by delegated States and designated agencies, excluding land 
carrier shipments to Canada and Mexico, and outbound grain officially 
inspected and/or weighed by FGIS during the previous 5 fiscal years.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN29MR19.002


------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Fiscal year                          Metric tons
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014.................................................        117,560,767
2015.................................................        118,758,937
2016.................................................        122,330,979
2017.................................................        135,017,935
2018.................................................        129,687,652
5-year Rolling Average...............................        124,671,254
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The national program administrative costs for fiscal year 2018 were 
$8,075,737. The fiscal year 2019 national tonnage fee, prior to the 
operating reserve review, is calculated to be at $0.065 per metric ton.
    Local tonnage fee. The local tonnage fee is the field office 
administrative costs for the previous fiscal year divided by the 
average yearly tons of outbound grain officially inspected and/or 
weighed by the field office during the previous 5 fiscal years.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN29MR19.003

    The field offices fiscal year tons for the previous 5 fiscal years 
and calculated 5-year rolling average are as follows:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                         5-year rolling
             Field office                    FY 2014            FY 2015            FY 2016            FY 2017            FY 2018            average
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans...........................         62,862,914         65,244,517         66,077,535         70,439,862         66,996,126         66,324,191
League City...........................         12,623,510         12,474,343         12,581,236         13,307,780          8,424,216         11,882,217
Portland..............................          6,065,934          4,111,533          4,645,754          5,175,459          4,643,241          4,928,384
Toledo................................          1,802,339          2,484,604          2,030,506          2,229,920          1,802,762          2,070,026
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 11927]]

    The local field office administrative costs for fiscal year 2018 
and the fiscal year 2019 calculated local field office tonnage fee, 
prior to the operating reserve review, are as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      FY 2018 local      Calculated FY
           Field office               administrative       2019 local
                                          costs           tonnage fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans.......................         $1,641,144             $0.025
League City.......................            878,868              0.074
Portland..........................            380,435              0.077
Toledo............................            239,862              0.116
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Operating reserve. In order to maintain an operating reserve not 
less than 3 and not more than 6 months, FGIS reviewed the value of the 
operating reserve at the end of FY2018 to ensure that an operating 
reserve of 4 \1/2\ months is maintained.
    The program operating reserve at the end of fiscal year 2018 was 
$21,561,945 with a monthly operating expense of $3,276,796. The target 
of 4.5 months of operating reserve is $14,745,582. Therefore, the 
operating reserve is greater than 4.5 times the monthly operating 
expenses by $6,816,363. For each $1,000,000, rounded down, above the 
target level, all Schedule A fees must be reduced by 2 percent. The 
operating reserve is $6.8 million above the target level resulting in a 
calculated 12 percent reduction. As required by 800.71(b)(2)(ii), the 
reduction is limited to 5 percent. Therefore, for 2019, FGIS is 
reducing all the 2018 Schedule A fees for service in Schedule A in 
paragraph (a)(1) by the maximum 5 percent. All Schedule A fees for 
service are rounded to the nearest $0.10, except for fees based on 
tonnage or hundredweight. The resulting fees from the annual review 
went into effect on January 1, 2019 and this notice formalizes this 
change. The fee Schedule A has been published on the agency's public 
website.

GIPSA/AMS Merger

    GIPSA formerly fell within the mission area overseen by the Under 
Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP), along with AMS. 
The Under Secretary for MRP's authority over GIPSA is further 
demonstrated by the published delegations of authority in Part 2 of 
Title 7 of the CFR. In 7 CFR 2.22(a)(3), the Secretary of Agriculture 
delegated to the Under Secretary for MRP authorities ``related to grain 
inspection, packers and stockyards.'' In 7 CFR 2.81, the Under 
Secretary for MRP further delegated these authorities to the 
Administrator of GIPSA. In a November 14, 2017 Secretary's Memorandum, 
the Secretary directed that the authorities at 7 CFR 2.81 be re-
delegated to the Administrator of AMS, and that the delegations to the 
Administrator of GIPSA be revoked. But these changes did not affect the 
existing delegations to the Under Secretary of MRP related to grain 
inspection, packers and stockyards at 7 CFR 2.22(a)(3).

    Authority: 7 U.S.C. 71-87k.

    Dated: March 26, 2019.
Bruce Summers,
Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.
[FR Doc. 2019-06079 Filed 3-28-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-02-P