By: Peggy Kirk Hall, Tuesday, July 18th, 2017

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) wants to hear from you. The agency published its “Identifying Regulatory Reform Initiatives” notice in the Federal Register on July 17 seeking “ideas from the public on how we can provide better customer service and remove unintended barriers to participation in our programs in ways that least interfere with our customers and allow us to accomplish our mission.”

The notice derives from the Regulatory Reform Task Force established by President Trump’s February 24, 2017 Executive Order 13777 on “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda”. order requires the heads of federal agencies to evaluate existing regulations and make recommendations to repeal, replace or modify regulations that create unnecessary burdens.

Specifically, the USDA invites the public to evaluate the agency’s existing regulations. The agency poses several questions and encourages commenters to respond in detail to the questions:

Are there any regulations that should be repealed, replaced or modified?

For each regulation identified in question one, identify whether the regulation:

Results in the elimination of jobs, or inhibits job creation;

Is outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective;

Imposes costs that exceed benefits;

Creates a serious inconsistency or otherwise interferes with regulatory reform initiatives and policies;

Is inconsistent with requirements that agencies maximize the quality, objectivity, and integrity of the information they disseminate;

Derives from or implements previous presidential directives that have been rescinded or substantially modified.

The comment process offers the agricultural community an opportunity to draw attention to USDA regulations that create unnecessary or unintended negative impacts on agriculture. Considering the wide range of programs and regulations administered by the USDA in areas such as crop and livestock insurance; Farm Service Agency programs; commodity standards, grading and inspections; animal and plant health; and agricultural exports, it’s likely that agricultural producers will have thoughts to share with the agency. To that end, USDA will accept comments for the next year, but will review the comments in four phases. The deadline for the first review is September 15, 2017.

To read the agency’s notice and instructions for submitting comments on regulatory reform, visit this link.