USDA Issues Proposed Rule to Revise Formulas Used to Calculate Grain Inspection Fees

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today announced a proposed rule that revises the formulas used to calculate hourly fees for official inspection and weighing services performed under the U.S. Grain Standards Act (USGSA).

The proposed rule published in the Federal Register October 8, 2024, with a 45-day public comment period. Stakeholders and other interested parties should submit comments at Regulations.gov through November 22, 2024. All comments submitted will be considered as USDA develops a final rule.

In June 2024, AMS published an interim rule that revised inspection and weighing fees to ensure the Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) had sufficient funding to continue inspection services for grain exports. The interim rule paused the annual fee adjustment until new formulas could be established.

The proposed rule will allow FGIS to sufficiently recover costs for providing service, maintain appropriate operating reserves and address gaps from previous formulas that did not consider additional and next year's projection costs. The rule also aligns FGIS hourly fees formulas with those currently used by other AMS user fee programs.

The national and local tonnage fees will no longer be subject to operating reserve adjustments. The supervision tonnage fee formula will remain unchanged.

For additional information, contact [email protected] or call at (202)720-0291.

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