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6099Rules and RegulationsFederal RegisterVol. 62, No. 28Tuesday, February 11, 1997This section of the FEDERAL REGISTERcontains regulatory documents having generalapplicability and legal effect, most of whichare keyed to and codified in the Code ofFederal Regulations, which is published under50 titles pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 1510.The Code of Federal Regulations is sold bythe Superintendent of Documents. Prices ofnew books are listed in the first FEDERALREGISTER issue of each week.DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUREFederal Crop Insurance Corporation7 CFR Parts 433 and 457RIN 0563–AB02Common Crop Insurance Regulations,Dry Bean Crop Insurance Provisions;and Dry Bean Crop InsuranceRegulationsAGENCY: Federal Crop InsuranceCorporation, USDA.ACTION: Final rule.SUMMARY: The Federal Crop InsuranceCorporation (FCIC) finalizes specificcrop provisions for the insurance of drybeans. The provisions will be used inconjunction with the Common CropInsurance Policy Basic Provisions,which contain standard terms andconditions common to most crops. Theintended effect of this action is toprovide policy changes to better meetthe needs of the insured, include thecurrent dry bean crop insuranceregulation with the Common CropInsurance Policy for ease of use andconsistency of terms, and to restrict theeffect of the current dry bean cropinsurance regulation to the 1996 andprior crop years.EFFECTIVE DATE: February 11, 1997.FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:Arden Routh, Program Analyst,Research and Development, ProductDevelopment Division, Federal CropInsurance Corporation, United StatesDepartment of Agriculture, 9435 HolmesRoad, Kansas City, MO 64131,telephone (816) 926–7730.SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:Executive Order No. 12866The Office of Management and Budget(OMB) has determined this rule to beexempt for the purposes of ExecutiveOrder No. 12866 and, therefore, has notbeen reviewed by OMB.Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995Following publication of the proposedrule, the public was afforded 60 days tosubmit written comments, data, andopinions on information collectionrequirements previously approved byOMB under OMB control number 0563–0003 through September 30, 1998. Nopublic comments were received.Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of1995Title II of the Unfunded MandatesReform Act of 1995 (UMRA), PublicLaw 104–4, establishes requirements forFederal agencies to assess the effects oftheir regulatory actions on State, local,and tribal governments and the privatesector. This rule contains no Federalmandates (under the regulatoryprovisions of title II of the UMRA) forState, local, and tribal governments orthe private sector. Thus, this rule is notsubject to the requirements of sections202 and 205 of the UMRA.Executive Order No. 12612It has been determined under section6(a) of Executive Order No. 12612,Federalism, that this rule does not havesufficient federalism implications towarrant the preparation of a FederalismAssessment. The provisions containedin this rule will not have a substantialdirect effect on States or their politicalsubdivisions, or on the distribution ofpower and responsibilities among thevarious levels of government.Regulatory Flexibility ActThis regulation will not have asignificant impact on a substantialnumber of small entities. The effect ofthis regulation on small entities will beno greater than on larger entities. Underthe current regulations, a producer isrequired to complete an application andan acreage report. If the crop is damagedor destroyed, the insured is required togive notice of loss and provide thenecessary information to complete aclaim for indemnity.The insured must also annuallycertify to the previous years productionif adequate records are available tosupport the certification. The producermust maintain the production records tosupport the certified information for atleast three years. This regulation doesnot alter those requirements.The amount of work required of theinsurance companies delivering andservicing these policies will not increasesignificantly from the amount of workcurrently required. This rule does nothave any greater or lesser impact on theproducer. Therefore, this action isdetermined to be exempt from theprovisions of the Regulatory FlexibilityAct (5 U.S.C. 605), and no RegulatoryFlexibility Analysis was prepared.Federal Assistance ProgramThis program is listed in the Catalogof Federal Domestic Assistance underNo. 10.450.Executive Order No. 12372This program is not subject to theprovisions of Executive Order No.12372, which require intergovernmentalconsultation with State and localofficials. See the Notice related to 7 CFR3015, subpart V, published at 48 FR29115, June 24, 1983.Executive Order No. 12778The Office of the General Counsel hasdetermined that these regulations meetthe applicable standards provided insections 2(a) and 2(b)(2) of ExecutiveOrder No. 12778. The provisions of thisrule will not have a retroactive effectprior to the effective date. Theprovisions of this rule will preemptState and local laws to the extent suchState and local laws are inconsistentherewith. The administrative appealprovisions published at 7 CFR part 11must be exhausted before any action forjudicial review may be brought.Environmental EvaluationThis action is not expected to have asignificant impact on the quality of thehuman environment, health, and safety.Therefore, neither an EnvironmentalAssessment nor an EnvironmentalImpact Statement is needed.National Performance ReviewThis regulatory action is being takenas part of the National PerformanceReview Initiative to eliminateunnecessary or duplicative regulationsand improve those that remain in force.BackgroundOn Tuesday, November 26, 1996,FCIC published a proposed rule in theFederal Register at 61 FR 60049–60057to add to the Common Crop InsuranceRegulations (7 CFR part 457) a newsection, 7 CFR 457.150, Dry Bean CropProvisions. The new provisions will be
6100 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 28 / Tuesday, February 11, 1997 / Rules and Regulationseffective for the 1997 and succeedingcrop years. These provisions willreplace and supersede the currentprovisions for insuring dry beans foundat 7 CFR part 433 (Dry Bean CropInsurance Regulations). FCIC alsoamends 7 CFR part 433 to limit its effectto the 1996 and prior crop years. FCICwill later publish a regulation to removeand reserve part 433.Following publication of the proposedrule, the public was afforded 30 days tosubmit written comments, data, andopinions. A total of 80 comments werereceived from the crop insuranceindustry and FCIC. The commentsreceived, and FCIC’s responses, are asfollows:Comment: The crop insuranceindustry questioned if considerationhad ever been given to having two beanpolices, one for contract seed beans andone for dry beans. It would be easier forpolicyholders to have crop provisionsthat address only the kind of beans theyare insuring.Response: FCIC will consider thisoption for a future rule. However, thereis not sufficient time to divide thispolicy for the 1997 crop year. Therefore,no change has been made.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended defining‘‘properly handled.’’Response: The requirements forhandling seed beans are contained inthe seed bean processor contract.Therefore, it would be difficult for FCICto define ‘‘properly handled’’ due to thediffering requirements of seed beancompanies. However, FCIC will amendthe definition of ‘‘actual value’’ toclarify that production must be handledin accordance with requirementscontained in the seed bean processorcontract.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended that thedefinition of ‘‘Base price’’ be amendedto exclude any bonus offered when thegermination percentage is above theminimum required by the seed contract.Response: FCIC agrees with thecomment and has amended thedefinition accordingly.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry expressed confusion with thedefinitions of ‘‘beans,’’ ‘‘dry beans,’’ and‘‘contract seed beans.’’ The definition of‘‘contract seed beans,’’ is also coveredby the ‘‘dry beans’’ definition whichmakes the definition of ‘‘beans’’ seemredundant. The commenter questions ifthe definition for ‘‘dry beans’’ needs toinclude the intended use of theproduction.Response: Throughout theseprovisions the term ‘‘beans’’ applies toboth dry beans and contract seed beans.The term ‘‘dry beans’’ includes allclasses of beans included in The UnitedStates Standards for Beans. The term‘‘contract seed beans’’ distinguishes drybeans grown under a contract for thespecific purpose of producing seed fora subsequent crop year. The definitionof ‘‘dry beans’’ was changed to excludecontract seed beans.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry agreed that the definition for‘‘county’’ should be deleted in theseprovisions so that the definition in theBasic Provisions will be effective. Thecommenter emphasized that if theseprovisions are approved for the 1997crop year, these changes and subsequentprocedures need to be issued soonenough for companies to providetraining to their agents, rearrange APHdata bases for units that previouslyincluded land in another county, and toallow policyholders to decide whetherto insure any land in another county inwhich they have an interest.Response: FCIC will provideinstructions for changing the data basesfor units that previously included landin another county. These instructionswill be made available at the time thepolicy is released. FCIC does notanticipate that a large number ofproducers farm in more than one countyand, therefore, does not expect a largenumber of data base revisions to benecessary.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry was concerned with thedefinition of ‘‘Good farming practices,’’which makes reference to ‘‘generallyrecognized by the CooperativeExtension Service.’’ The commentersindicated that there are areas orsituations where good, accepted farmingpractices may not necessarily berecognized by the Extension Service.Response: FCIC has removed the word‘‘generally’’ from this part of thedefinition. However, the CooperativeState Research, Education, andExtension Service recognizes mostfarming practices that are consideredacceptable for producing beans. The useof practices not recognized as acceptableby the Cooperative State Research,Education, and Extension Serviceprovides no standards by which tomeasure performance.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended adding thewords ‘‘and quality’’ after the word‘‘quantity’’ in the definition of ‘‘irrigatedpractice.’Response: Water quality is animportant issue. However, since nostandards or procedures have beendeveloped to measure water quality forinsurance purposes, quality cannot beincluded in the definition. Therefore, nochange has been made.Comment: A representative of FCICrecommended changing the secondsentence in the definition of ‘‘localmarket price’’ to ‘‘Moisture and factors* * *’’ and delete ‘‘such as moisturecontent.’’Response: FCIC agrees with thecomment and has amended thedefinition accordingly.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended changing thedefinition of ‘‘net price’’ to read, ‘‘Thedollar value of dry bean productionreceived or that could have beenreceived * * *’’Response: FCIC agrees with commentand has amended the definitionaccordingly.Comment: One comment receivedfrom the insurance industryrecommended changing the definitionof ‘‘pick’’ to consider defects based onthe original grade of the beans.Response: Dockage does not includedefects to the beans and, therefore,should not be included in anycalculation of the pick, which appliesonly to defects of the beans. Therefore,no change has been made.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended adding a finalsentence to the definition of ‘‘preventedplanting,’’ which would require theinsured to have past history of the beantype which the insured is declaring asbeing prevented from being planted.Response: FCIC cannot penalize newproducers of a bean type, who can provethat they had the inputs available toplant that particular bean type, bydenying them prevented plantingcoverage. Therefore, no change has beenmade.Comment: A representative of FCICrecommended replacing the reference to‘‘Special Provisions’’ in the definition of‘‘Production guarantee (per acre)’’ with‘‘Actuarial Table,’’ since the adjustmentfactors are in the Actuarial Table andnot the Special Provisions.Response: FCIC agrees with thecomment and has amended thedefinition accordingly.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry questioned if the term‘‘production guarantee’’ applies only todry beans and if the term ‘‘amount ofinsurance’’ is used only for contractseed beans. If so, it would be helpful toidentify dry beans in the definition of‘‘production guarantee’’ and include adefinition for ‘‘amount of insurance’’ forcontract seed beans.Response: The term ‘‘productionguarantee’’ applies to both dry beansand contract seed beans. The amount ofinsurance for contract seed beans is
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