[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 60 (Wednesday, March 29, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18512-18514]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06466]


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 Notices
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
 or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 60 / Wednesday, March 29, 2023 / 
Notices  

[[Page 18512]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Agricultural Marketing Service

[Doc. No. AMS-FGIS-22-0095]
RIN 0581-AD94


2023 Rates for Grain Inspection Services Under the United States 
Grain Standards Act

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, Department of Agriculture 
(USDA).

ACTION: Notice.

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

SUMMARY: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing the 
2023 rates it will charge for official inspection and weighing 
services, supervision of official inspection and weighing services, and 
miscellaneous fees for other services performed under the United States 
Grain Standards Act, as amended. This action publishes the annual 
review of fees and the resulting fees.

DATES: Applicable April 1, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Prospective customers can find the fee scheduled posted on 
the Agency's public website: https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/fgis-program-directives.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denise Ruggles, FGIS Executive Program 
Analyst, USDA AMS; Telephone: 816-702-3897; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 costs associated with managing the program. The 
regulations require that Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) 
annually review the national and local tonnage fees, supervision fee, 
and fees for service (7 CFR 800.71).

Overview of Schedule A (Official Inspection and Weighing Services) Fee 
Calculations

    The USGSA and its implementing regulations (7 CFR 800.71(a)(1)) 
require FGIS to maintain and operating reserve not less than 3 and not 
more than 6 months. To comply with this requirement, FGIS conducts an 
annual review of its tonnage fees and operating reserves. Tonnage fees 
are calculated according to 7 CFR 800.71(b)(1). After calculating the 
tonnage fees, FGIS reviews the amount of funds in the operating reserve 
at the end of the fiscal year (FY2022 in this case) to ensure that it 
has 4\1/2\ months of operating expenses. FGIS uses 4.5 months of 
expenses as its target amount because section 800.71(b)(3) of the 
regulations identifies 4.5 months as the trigger for whether FGIS 
should make adjustments to its fees. 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)(3)(i)-(ii)).
    Tonnage fees for the 5-year rolling average tonnage were calculated 
on the previous 5 fiscal years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022). 
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.
    Calculation of 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.
    The fiscal year 2023 national tonnage fee, prior to the operating 
reserve review, is $0.031 per metric ton. The calculation of this fee 
is based on FY2022 national administrative costs of $3,793,021, divided 
by 5-year rolling tonnage average of 121,598,996.

                   Table 1--National Tonnage Inspected
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Fiscal year                          Metric tons
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018....................................................     129,687,652
2019....................................................     107,896,235
2020....................................................     110,090,771
2021....................................................     136,574,792
2022....................................................     123,745,530
5-year Rolling Average..................................     121,598,996
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Calculation of 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 FGIS field offices during the previous 5 fiscal years.

                                                    Table 2--Local Tonnage Inspected by Field Office
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                         5-year rolling
                          Field office                             FY 2018         FY 2019         FY 2020      FY 2021      FY 2022         average
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans....................................................   66,996,126         57,807,378   59,768,303   72,482,289   68,880,711        65,186,961
League City....................................................    8,424,216          7,939,994    9,318,595   12,877,525    8,335,121         9,379,090
Pacific Northwest..............................................    4,643,241          2,530,648    3,331,672    4,136,482    2,720,001         3,472,409
Toledo.........................................................    1,802,762          1,597,584      948,840    1,154,856    1,191,938         1,339,196
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 18513]]

    The local field office administrative costs for fiscal year 2022 
and the fiscal year 2023 calculated local field office tonnage fee, 
prior to the operating reserve review, are as follows:

 Table 3--Local Administrative Costs and Calculated Local Tonnage Fee by
                              Field Office
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                        FY 2022 local     Calculated FY
            Field office               administrative      2023 local
                                            costs          tonnage fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans.........................        $1,372,632            $0.021
League City.........................           665,113             0.071
Pacific Northwest...................           414,143             0.119
Toledo..............................           354,073             0.264
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Operating reserve. In order to maintain an operating reserve that 
is not less than 3 and not more than 6 months of operating expenses, 
FGIS reviewed the value of the operating reserve at the end of FY 2022 
to ensure that an operating reserve equivalent to 4\1/2\ months of 
operating expenses is maintained.
    The program operating reserve at the end of fiscal year 2022 was 
$3,036,951, with a monthly operating expense of $2,983,587. The target 
of 4.5 months of operating reserve is $13,426,143. Therefore, the 
operating reserve is less than 4.5 times the monthly operating expenses 
by $10,389,192. For each $1,000,000, rounded down, above the target 
level, all Schedule A fees must be increased by 2 percent. The 
operating reserve is $10.4 million below the target level, implying a 
20 percent increase in fees is required. However, section 
800.71(b)(3)(i) limits annual fee changes to 5 percent, which will not 
increase the operating reserve to the minimum statutory amount of 3 
times the monthly operating expenses. In addition to this fee 
adjustment, and pursuant to section 800.71(c) of the regulations and 
Sec.  7(j)(4) of the USGSA, FGIS is reviewing all fees to ensure they 
reflect the true costs of providing and supervising official service.
    In this notice for 2023, FGIS is increasing all the 2022 Schedule A 
fees for service in Schedule A in paragraph (a)(1) by 5 percent, 
including calculated fiscal year 2023 national and local tonnage fees. 
All Schedule A fees for service are rounded to the nearest $0.10, 
except for fees based on tonnage or hundredweight. Schedule A fees will 
be outlined in FGIS Directive 9180.74 and published on the agency's 
public website. For example, national and local tonnage fees are 
adjusted as follows:

                 Table 4--National Tonnage Fee With Operating Reserve Adjustment and FY 2022 Fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                   Calculated FY
              Fee description                 Calculation with operating reserve   2023 tonnage       FY 2022
                                                          adjustment                    fee         tonnage fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
National (Delegated States/Designated        $0.031 plus 5% increase ($0.002)             $0.033          $0.057
 Agencies).                                   equals $0.033.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


               Table 5--Field Office Tonnage Fee With Operating Reserve Adjustment and FY 2022 Fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                   Calculated FY
                                              Calculation with operating reserve   2023 tonnage       FY 2022
              Fee description                             adjustment               fee (national    tonnage fee
                                                                                     + local)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans................................  local fee $0.021 plus 5% increase            $0.055          $0.077
                                              ($0.001) equals $0.022.
League City................................  local fee 0.071 plus 5% increase              0.108           0.102
                                              (0.004) equals 0.075.
Pacific Northwest..........................  local fee 0.119 plus 5% increase              0.158           0.198
                                              (0.006) equals 0.125.
Toledo.....................................  local fee 0.264 plus 5% increase              0.310           0.181
                                              (0.013) equals 0.277.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7 CFR 800.71(a)(2) Schedule B Calculations

    FGIS calculates the supervision tonnage fee using the prior year's 
actual costs and the 5-year average tonnage of domestic U.S. grain 
shipments inspected, weighed, or both, including land carrier shipments 
to Canada and Mexico.
    Operating reserve adjustment. 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 FY 2022 to ensure that an 
operating reserve of 6 months is maintained.
    The operating reserve adjustment is the difference between FY 2022 
ending reserves and the operating reserve threshold, which is 
equivalent to 6 months of supervisory costs. FY 2022 supervision costs 
were $1,227,210. The operating reserve threshold for FY 2023 is 
calculated by dividing FY 2022 supervision costs by 2 ($1,227,210/2 = 
$613,605). FY 2022 operating reserve ending balance ($1,201,070) 
exceeds the operating reserve threshold ($613,605) by $587,465. 
Therefore, the operating reserve adjustment for calendar year 2023 is -
$587,465.
    Supervision tonnage fee. FGIS adds the total prior year supervision 
costs and the operating reserve adjustment, then divide the result by 
the previous 5-year average tonnage. If the calculated fee is zero or a 
negative value, FGIS will suspend collection of supervision tonnage 
fees for the next calendar year.
    The supervision tonnage fee for calendar year 2023 is $0.003 per 
ton. The calculation, based on FY 2022 supervision costs of $1,227,210, 
is $1,227,210 plus the operating reserve

[[Page 18514]]

adjustment of -$587,465, which equals $639,745, divided by 5-year 
average tonnage of 227,390,200, which equals $0.003 per ton.

                       Table 6--Tonnage Supervised
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Fiscal year                          Metric tons
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018.................................................        234,298,085
2019.................................................        206,693,881
2020.................................................        237,649,430
2021.................................................        232,738,700
2022.................................................        225,570,903
5-year Rolling Average...............................        227,390,200
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Therefore, for 2023, FGIS will assess supervision tonnage fee of 
$0.003 per ton on domestic shipments officially inspected and/or 
weighed, including land carrier shipments to Canada and Mexico, 
performed by delegated States and/or designated agencies on or after 
April 1, 2023. The Schedule B fee will be published in FGIS Directive 
9180.74 and on the agency's public website.

7 CFR 800.71(d) Miscellaneous Fees for Other Services Calculations

    Registration certificates and renewals. FGIS calculates the 
application fee by multiply the Schedule A non-contract hourly rate 
(Table 1 in Sec.  800.71(a)) by a quantity of five. The resulting fee 
is expected to cover FGIS personnel costs to review applications, fee 
publication expenses, and administrative expenses. The Schedule A non-
contract hourly rate is $69.50. Thus, the application fee for 2023 will 
be $69.50 times 5, or $347.50. The fee will be published on the 
agency's public website after Federal Register publication.
    Designation amendments. FGIS calculates the rate using the Federal 
Register publication rate for three columns, plus one hour of 
noncontract hourly rate from Sec.  800.71(a) Table 1 of Schedule A. The 
fee covers FGIS personnel costs, administrative expenses, and Federal 
Register publication costs. The Federal Register publication rate $151 
per column and the Schedule A non-contract hourly rate is $69.50. FGIS 
calculates the fee will be $522.50 for calendar year 2023. The fee will 
be published on the agency's public website after Federal Register 
publication.
    Authority: 7 U.S.C. 71-87k.

Melissa Bailey,
Associate Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-06466 Filed 3-28-23; 8:45 am]
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