[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 34 (Thursday, February 20, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9722-9724]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-03303]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Farm Service Agency

[Docket ID FSA-2020-0002]


Information Collection Requests; Farm Loan Programs: Inventory 
Property Management (OMB Control Number 0560-0234), Direct Loan 
Servicing-Regular (OMB Control Number 0560-0234), General Program 
Administration (OMB Control Number 0560-0238) and Guaranteed Farm Loan 
Program (OMB Control Number 0560-0155)

AGENCY: Farm Service Agency, USDA.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 
the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from all 
interested individuals and organizations on the four Farm Loan 
Programs' information collection requests. The four collection requests 
in the Farm Loan Programs are: Inventory Property Management, Direct 
Loan Servicing--Regular, Guaranteed Farm Loan Program and General 
Program Administration. In the Inventory Property Management, the 
collected information is used to evaluate applicant requests to 
purchase inventory property, determine eligibility to lease or purchase 
inventory property, and ensure the payment of the lease amount or 
purchase amount associated with the acquisition of inventory property. 
In the Direct Loan Servicing--Regular, the information is used to 
determine borrower compliance with loan agreements, assist the borrower 
in achieving business goals, and regular servicing of the loan account 
such as graduation, subordination, partial release, and use of 
proceeds. In the General Program Administration, the information 
collected is used to ensure that applicants meet statutory eligibility 
requirements, loan funds are used for authorized purposes, and the 
Government's interest in security is adequately protected. In the 
Guaranteed Farm Loan Program, the collected information is needed to 
make and service loans guaranteed by FSA to eligible farmers and 
ranchers by commercial lenders and nontraditional lenders.

DATES: We will consider comments that we receive by April 20, 2020.

ADDRESSES: We invite you to submit comments on this notice. In your 
comments, please include date, volume, and page number of this issue of 
the Federal Register. You may submit comments by the following method: 
Federal eRulemaking Portal; Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search 
for Docket ID FSA-2020-0001.
    You may also send comments to the Desk Officer for Agricultures, 
Office of the Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management 
and Budget, Washington, DC, 20503. Comments will be available for 
public inspection online at http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to the 
collection activities or to obtain a copy of the information collection 
request: For the Inventory Property Management and Direct Loan 
Servicing-Regular, please contact Lee Nault, (202) 720-6834; 
[email protected]; for the Guaranteed Farm Loan Program, please 
contact Steve Ford, 202-304-7932; [email protected] and for the 
General Program Administration, please contact Niki Chavez, 202-690-61, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Farm Loan Programs; Inventory Management Program.
    OMB Control Number: 0560-0234.
    Expiration Date: April 30, 2020.
    Type of Request: Extension with a revision.
    Abstract: FSA's Farm Loan Programs provide supervised credit in the 
form of loans to family farmers to purchase real estate and equipment 
and finance agricultural production. Inventory Property Management, as 
specified in 7 CFR part 767, provides the requirements for the 
management, lease, and sale of security property acquired by FSA. FSA 
may take title to real estate as part of dealing with a problem loan 
either by entering a winning bid in an attempt to protect its interest 
at a foreclosure sale, or by accepting a deed of conveyance in lieu of 
foreclosure. Information collections established in the regulation are 
necessary for FSA to determine an applicant's eligibility to lease or 
purchase inventory property and to ensure the applicant's ability to 
make payment on the lease or purchase amount.
    The number of response and burden hours decrease in this request. 
While the overall number of inventory properties on hand increased 13.5 
percent from the last collection, the decrease in responses and burden 
hours is due to reduction int eh estimated number of inventory 
properties sold. The number projected to be sold has been revised 
downward to match reported sales percentages over the last several 
years.
    For the following estimated total annual burden on respondents, the 
formula used to calculate the total burden hour is the estimated 
average time per responses hours multiplied by the estimated total 
annual responses.
    Estimate of Average Time to Respond: Public reporting burden for 
the information collection is estimated to average 0.57 hours per 
response.
    Type of Respondents: Individuals or households, businesses or other 
for-profit farms.
    Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 239.
    Estimated Number of Reponses per Respondent: 1.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 239.
    Estimated Average Time per Response: 0.57 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 136 hours.


[[Page 9723]]


    Title: Farm Loan Programs--Direct Loan Servicing--Regular.
    OMB Control Number: 0560-0236.
    Expiration Date: July 31, 2020.
    Type of Request: Extension with a revision.
    Abstract: FSA's Farm Loan Programs provide loans to family farmers 
to purchase real estate and equipment, and finance agricultural 
production. Direct Loan Servicing--Regular, as specified in 7 CFR part 
765, provides the requirements related to routine servicing actions 
associated with direct loans. FSA is required to actively supervise its 
borrowers and provide credit counseling, management advice and 
financial guidance. Additionally, FSA must document that credit is not 
available to the borrower from commercial credit sources in order to 
maintain eligibility for assistance. Information collections 
established in the regulation are necessary for FSA to monitor and 
account for loan security, including proceeds derived from the sale of 
security, and to process a borrower's request for subordination or 
partial release of security. Borrowers are required to provide 
financial information to determine graduation eligibility based on 
commercial lender standards provided to FSA.
    FSA is requesting OMB approval on the estimated numbers, which are 
being provided currently in this request. The burden hours have been 
increased by 2,114 hours while the annual response have increased by 
65. The reason for the increase is due to an overall 10% increase in 
the number of the borrowers and the use of updated reporting tools to 
reevaluate previous burden estimates even though the travel times 
removed from the request.
    For the following estimated total annual burden on respondents, the 
formula used to calculate the total burden hours is the estimated 
average time per responses multiplied by the estimated total annual of 
responses.
    Estimate of Average Time to Respond: Public reporting burden for 
collecting information under this notice is estimated to average 0.31 
hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, 
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data 
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.
    Type of Respondents: Business or other for profits and farms.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 94,603.
    Estimated Average Number of Responses per Respondent: 1,031.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 97,536.
    Estimated Average Time per Response: 0.31.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 30,155 hours.

    Title: Farm Loan Programs--General Program Administration.
    OMB Control Number: 0560-0238.
    Expiration Date: July 31, 2020.
    Type of Request: Extension with a revision.
    Abstract: General Program Administration, as specified in the 7 CFR 
761, contains requirements that are applicable to making and servicing 
direct loans. The information collections are necessary to ensure that 
applicants meet statutory eligibility requirements, loan funds are used 
for authorized purposes, and the Federal Government's interest in 
security is adequately protected. Specific information collection 
requirements include financial information in the form of a balance 
sheet and cash flow projection used in loan making and servicing 
decisions; information needed to establish joint bank accounts in which 
loan funds, proceeds derived from the sale of loan security and 
insurance proceeds, may be deposited; collateral pledges from financial 
institutions when the balance of a supervised bank account will exceed 
the maximum amount insurable by the Federal Government; and documents 
that construction plans and specifications to comply with state and 
local building standards. Since the introduction of Microloan Loan (ML) 
Program certain forms included in this information collection are no 
longer being used and others are being used less. In addition, as 
interest rates have remained well below the limited resource rate, the 
agency has not conducted limited resource reviews to over 20,400 
respondents resulting in a total program changes decrease of 20,181 
respondents; 40,105 responses; and 23,943 burden hours. Further, the 
agency no longer counts respondents' hours of travel time. Respondents 
may submit applications by mail and many respondents go to the county 
offices to do regular and customary business with FSA for other FSA 
programs and can complete and submit the farm loan programs forms 
during this time; this means no travel time is required specifically 
for the information collection and therefore, it is no longer included 
in the burden hour reporting.
    For the following estimated total annual burden on respondents, the 
formula used to calculate the total burden hours is the estimated 
average time per response multiplied by the estimated total annual 
responses.
    Estimated Respondent Burden: Public reporting burden for this 
collection of information is estimated to average 1.02 hours per 
response.
    Type of Respondents: Individuals or households, businesses or other 
for profit and farms.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 64,802.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 2.5.
    Estimated Total Annual Number of Responses: 164,483.
    Estimated Average Time per Response: 1.02 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 168,029 hours.

    Title: Farm Loan Programs--Guaranteed Farm Loan.
    OMB Control Number: 0560-0155.
    Expiration Date: July 31, 2020.
    Type of Request: Extension with a revision.
    Abstract: This information collection is needed to effectively 
administer the FSA guaranteed farm loan programs. The information is 
collected by the FSA loan official in consultation with participating 
lenders. The basic objective of the guaranteed loan program is to 
provide credit to applicants who are unable to obtain credit from 
lending institutions without a guarantee. The reporting requirements 
imposed on the public by the regulations at 7 CFR part 762 and 763 are 
necessary to administer the guaranteed loan program in accordance with 
statutory requirements of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development 
Act and are consistent with commonly performed lending practices. 
Collection of information after loans are made is necessary to protect 
the Government's financial interest. The annual responses have been 
reduced by 17,315 while the burden hours reduced by 48,997 hours in the 
request. The reason for the decrease is due to a drop in Guaranteed 
loans originated between the yeas preceding FY 2017 and FY 2020. 
Between FY 2016 and FY 2919, the number of Guaranteed loans fell by 24 
percent from 10,047 to 7611. In addition, the number of loss claims and 
status reports received is much lower than FY 2017. The travel times 
was also removed from this request.
    For the following estimated total annual burden on respondents, the 
formula used to calculate the total burden hours is the estimated 
average time per response multiplied by the estimated total annual 
responses.
    Estimate of Average Time to Respond: Public reporting burden for 
collecting information under this notice is estimated to average 
0.84434 minutes

[[Page 9724]]

per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching 
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and 
completing and reviewing the collection of information.
    Type of Respondents: Businesses or other for-profits and Farms.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 12.8.
    Estimated Average Number of Responses per Respondent: 9,700.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 202,898.
    Estimated Average Time per Response: 0.8434.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 171,126 hours.

Requesting Comments

    FSA is requesting comments on all aspects of this information 
collection to help us to:
    (1) Evaluate whether the collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of FSA, including whether the 
information will have practical utility;
    (2) Evaluate the accuracy of FSA's estimate of burden including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
    (3) Enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to 
be collected;
    (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.
    All comments received in response to this notice, including names 
and addresses when provided, will be a matter of public record. 
Comments will be summarized and included in the submission for Office 
of Management and Budget approval.

Steve Peterson,
Acting Administrator, Farm Service Agency.
[FR Doc. 2020-03303 Filed 2-19-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-05-P