[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 83 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 18230-18231]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08280]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
50 CFR Chapter I
[Docket No. FWS-HQ-LE-2018-0078; FF09L00200-FX-LE18110900000]
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and Migratory Bird Treaty
Act; Religious Use of Feathers
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have
received a petition for rulemaking, which asks the Service to revise
the existing rules pertaining to the religious use of federally
protected bird feathers. The petition is being published pursuant to
the terms of a settlement agreement entered into in 2016 by the United
States with McAllen Grace Brethren Church and the Becket Fund for
Religious Liberty. Any changes to existing rules will be subject to a
public comment period, and tribal consultation consistent with
Executive Order 13175 and the Department of the Interior Policy on
Consultation with Indian Tribes. The Service seeks comments on the
petition.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before July 1, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Document availability: The petition and other materials
mentioned in this document are available on the internet at http://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-HQ-LE-2018-0078. To review these
materials in person, contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
Comment submission: You may submit comments by one of the following
methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments to Docket No. FWS-HQ-
LE-2018-0078.
U.S. mail or hand-delivery: Public Comments Processing,
Attn: FWS-HQ-LE-2018-0078; Division of Policy, Performance, and
Management Programs; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg
Pike, MS: BPHC, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
See Public Comments below for additional information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Edward Grace, Assistant Director, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement,
[email protected], (703) 358-1949.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
[[Page 18231]]
Background
On July 26, 2018, the Service received a petition for rulemaking
from Pastor Robert Soto, the lead plaintiff in McAllen Grace Brethren
Church v. Jewell, No. 7:07-cv-060 (S.D. Tex. June 3, 2016) (hereinafter
``McAllen''), and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking the
Service to revise its existing rules pertaining to the religious use of
federally protected bird feathers and parts for Native Americans. The
petitioners submitted the petition pursuant to paragraph 7 of the June
10, 2016, settlement agreement between the McAllen Plaintiffs and the
United States, which states:
[The Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior
(``Secretary'')] agrees to consider a petition under 43 CFR 14.2
from Plaintiffs to modify existing regulations or issue new
regulations concerning the possession of eagle feathers by persons
who are not members of federally recognized tribes. In considering
the Petition, [the Secretary] agrees to issue a notice in the
Federal Register requesting public comment on the petition. [The
Secretary] agrees to make a decision on the petition within two
years from the date it is received.
Petitioned Actions
The petition provides proposed regulatory text, which more broadly
asks the Service to do four things:
(1) ``Criminal possession ban: Petitioners propose that the
Department [of the Interior] promulgate the Morton Policy as a
regulation, with one modification: that the policy apply to all sincere
religious believers who use federally protected feathers in their
religious exercise.'' The ``Morton Policy'' is a Department of Justice
enforcement policy that generally advises against prosecuting members
of Federally Recognized Tribes who possess, travel with, or acquire or
transfer without compensation eagle feathers. A Department of Justice
memorandum concerning its application of the Morton Policy to Federally
Recognized Tribes and a related 1975 press release by Secretary of the
Interior Rogers C.B. Morton are available as indicated above in
ADDRESSES.
(2) ``Protect Sincere Religious Believers: Members of a state or
federally recognized Indian tribe, a Native American church, or other
Native American religious organization should enjoy a presumption of
sincerity; others should have the opportunity to demonstrate their
sincerity in other ways.''
(3) ``National Eagle Repository: The Department should reform the
Repository by increasing its funding and staffing, working more closely
with tribes and other stakeholders to improve efficiency, and adopting
policies that will expand the overall supply of feathers. This will
enable the Repository to better serve all sincere religious believers
who use eagle feathers in their religious exercise.'' Note that the
draft regulatory language suggested by the petitioners specifically
requests access to the Repository for all sincere religious believers.
(See paragraph d. of the petitioned regulatory text, pp. 44-45 of the
petition).
(4) ``Combat commercialization and increase enforcement:
Petitioners propose that the Department [of the Interior] engage in
government-to-government consultations with federally recognized tribes
on specific measures to help Native Americans detect and report
suspected illegal commercial activities involving protected feathers.''
(See pp. 3-4 of the petition).
Note that some of these requests are for administrative action and
are not directly addressed in the regulatory language the petitioners
propose. The petitioners' proposed regulatory text can be found on pp.
44-45 of the petition, available at http://www.regulations.gov in
Docket No. FWS-HQ-LE-2018-0078.
Public Comments
You may obtain the petition for rulemaking, and you must submit
your comments and materials concerning this petition, by one of the
methods described in ADDRESSES. The Service will not consider the
petition's merits until after the comment period ends on the date set
forth in DATES. If the Service decides that the petition has merit, we
may begin a rulemaking proceeding. The Service will announce any action
that we decide to take in the Federal Register.
We will not accept comments sent by email or fax or to an address
not listed in ADDRESSES. If you submit a comment via http://www.regulations.gov, your entire comment--including any personal
identifying information, such as your address, telephone number, or
email address--will be posted on the website. When you submit a
comment, the system receives it immediately. However, the comment will
not be publicly viewable until we post it, which might not occur until
several days after submission. If you mail or hand-carry a hardcopy
comment directly to us that includes personal information, you may
request at the top of your document that we withhold this information
from public review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able
to do so. To ensure that all comments that we receive are publicly
available, we will post all hardcopy comments on http://www.regulations.gov.
Administrative Procedure Act
Under the Administrative Procedure Act, any person may petition for
the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule (5 U.S.C. 553(e)). The
petition will be given prompt consideration, and the petitioner will be
notified promptly of action taken. A petition for rulemaking may be
published in the Federal Register if the official responsible for
acting on the petition determines that public comment may aid in
consideration of the petition.
Dated: March 25, 2019.
Andrea Travnicek,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Exercising the Authority of the
Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.
[FR Doc. 2019-08280 Filed 4-29-19; 8:45 am]
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