Rule2025-15539
User Fees: Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Services; Technical Amendment
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 15, 2025
Effective
August 15, 2025
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentAnimal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Abstract
On May 7, 2024, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published in the Federal Register a final rule amending the user fee regulations associated with the agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) program. The final rule went into effect on October 1, 2024, with the exception of the removal of an exemption from paying the AQI user fee for commercial aircraft with 64 or fewer seats meeting certain conditions. The removal of the exemption would have taken effect on April 1, 2025. On March 21, 2025, we published a notice in the Federal Register delaying the effective date of the removal of the exemption from paying the AQI user fee for small commercial passenger aircraft, until June 2, 2025, and requesting information. As a result of the comments we received on that notice, we decided to delay implementation of the removal of the exemption indefinitely. However, as a result of an editorial error, the exemption had already been removed from the regulations. In this document, we are amending the regulations to restore the exemption from paying the AQI user fee for commercial aircraft with 64 or fewer seats meeting certain conditions.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 156 (Friday, August 15, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 156 (Friday, August 15, 2025)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 39307-39308]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-15539]
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Rules and Regulations
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains regulatory documents
having general applicability and legal effect, most of which are keyed
to and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is published
under 50 titles pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 1510.
The Code of Federal Regulations is sold by the Superintendent of Documents.
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Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 156 / Friday, August 15, 2025 / Rules
and Regulations
[[Page 39307]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
7 CFR Part 354
[Docket No. APHIS-2022-0023]
RIN 0579-AE71
User Fees: Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Services;
Technical Amendment
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Final rule; technical amendment.
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SUMMARY: On May 7, 2024, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
published in the Federal Register a final rule amending the user fee
regulations associated with the agricultural quarantine and inspection
(AQI) program. The final rule went into effect on October 1, 2024, with
the exception of the removal of an exemption from paying the AQI user
fee for commercial aircraft with 64 or fewer seats meeting certain
conditions. The removal of the exemption would have taken effect on
April 1, 2025. On March 21, 2025, we published a notice in the Federal
Register delaying the effective date of the removal of the exemption
from paying the AQI user fee for small commercial passenger aircraft,
until June 2, 2025, and requesting information. As a result of the
comments we received on that notice, we decided to delay implementation
of the removal of the exemption indefinitely. However, as a result of
an editorial error, the exemption had already been removed from the
regulations. In this document, we are amending the regulations to
restore the exemption from paying the AQI user fee for commercial
aircraft with 64 or fewer seats meeting certain conditions.
DATES: Effective August 15, 2025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. George Balady, Senior Regulatory
Policy Specialist, PPQ, APHIS, 67 Thomas Johnson Drive Ste. 2,
Frederick, MD 21702-4865; (301) 851-2338; <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#dbbaaab2f5aea8bea9f5bdbebea89baea8bfbaf5bcb4ad"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0b6a7a62257e786e79256d6e6e784b7e786f6a256c647d">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 2509(a) of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade
(FACT) Act of 1990 (21 U.S.C. 136a) authorizes the Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to prescribe and collect user fees
for agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) services. Congress
amended the FACT Act on April 4, 1996, and May 13, 2002.
The FACT Act, as amended, authorizes APHIS to prescribe and collect
user fees for AQI services provided in connection with the arrival, at
a port in the customs territory of the United States, of certain
commercial vessels, commercial trucks, commercial railroad cars,
commercial aircraft, and international passengers. According to the
FACT Act, as amended, these user fees should be ``sufficient'' ``to
cover the cost of'':
<bullet> Providing AQI services ``in connection with the arrival at
a port in the customs territory of the United States'' of the
conveyances and the passengers listed above;
<bullet> Providing ``preclearance or preinspection at a site
outside the customs territory of the United States'' to the conveyances
and the passengers listed above; and
<bullet> Administering 21 U.S.C. 136a, concerning the collection of
fees for inspection services. In addition, the FACT Act, as amended,
contains the following requirements:
<bullet> The amount of the fees shall be ``commensurate with the
costs of [AQI] services with respect to the class of persons or
entities paying the fees.''
<bullet> The cost of AQI services ``with respect to passengers as a
class'' shall include ``the costs of related inspections of the
aircraft or other vehicle.''
The user fees for the AQI activities described above are contained
in 7 CFR 354.3, ``User fees for certain international services.''
APHIS' regulations regarding user fees relating to imports and exports,
as well as overtime services, are found in 7 CFR part 354.
On May 7, 2024, we published a final rule in the Federal Register,
(89 FR 38596-38644, Docket No. APHIS-2022-0023),\1\ amending the user
fee regulations associated with the AQI program. The final rule went
into effect and was applied on October 1, 2024, with the exception of
the removal of 7 CFR 354.3(e)(2)(iv), which contains an exemption from
paying the AQI user fee for commercial aircraft with 64 or fewer seats
meeting certain conditions. Because small commercial passenger aircraft
have not previously been subject to the fee, we delayed implementation
of the commercial aircraft fee for passenger aircraft with 64 or fewer
seats until April 1, 2025 (89 FR 38621).
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\1\ To view the proposed rule, final rule, supporting documents,
and the comments received, go to <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>. Enter APHIS-2022-
0023 in the Search box.
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Since the final rule was published, some operators of small
commercial passenger aircraft stated that their aircraft do not pose a
sanitary or phytosanitary risk because they do not have cargo holds
and, therefore, do not carry cargo that requires AQI services. These
same small commercial passenger aircraft operators further stated that
they should continue to be exempt from the AQI user fees for commercial
aircraft. Other small commercial passenger aircraft operators stated
that they were not of an equivalent risk profile to larger commercial
carriers and should pay a lower fee that correlates to this lower risk.
In accordance with the Presidential Memorandum titled ``Regulatory
Freeze Pending Review'' issued January 20, 2025, which orders all
agencies to consider postponing for 60 days the effective date of any
rule that has not taken effect, for the purpose of reviewing any
question of fact, law, or policy that the rule may raise,\2\ on March
21, 2025 we published a notice in the Federal Register (90 FR 13272-
13273, Docket No. APHIS-2022-0023) \3\ delaying the effective date
until June 2, 2025 of the removal of the exemption from paying the AQI
user fee for small commercial passenger aircraft, and requesting
information.
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\2\ To view the memorandum, go to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/regulatory-freeze-pending-review/">https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/regulatory-freeze-pending-review/</a>.
\3\ To view the request for information and the comments
received, go to <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>. Enter APHIS-2022-0023 in the Search
box.
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In that document, we solicited public information about small
commercial passenger aircraft operations; in
[[Page 39308]]
particular, whether small commercial passenger aircraft operators have
additional data regarding the nature of their activities and whether
those activities result in a lower sanitary and phytosanitary risk
profile that would merit less intensive AQI services and a lower
corresponding user fee. Specifically, we requested information about
whether:
<bullet> Small commercial passenger aircraft predominately operate
(and seldom depart from) a distinct geographical or environmental area;
<bullet> Aircraft departures and arrivals are often more frequent
than those of larger commercial aircraft;
<bullet> There is information that indicates that these small
commercial passenger aircraft take the same or substantially similar
routes per flight;
<bullet> There is information that indicates that these small
commercial passenger aircraft carry the same or substantially similar
cargo per shipment and that the cargo carried does not present a
significant sanitary or phytosanitary risk;
<bullet> There are any other considerations that could help us
differentiate aircraft into categories based on sanitary and
phytosanitary risk; and
<bullet> There are other ways that the fee could be structured
differently, in a manner commensurate with the services being provided,
and evidence to support any alternate fee structures.
We solicited comments for 30 days ending April 21, 2025. We
received 92 comments by that date. They were from aviation industry
associations, operators of small commercial passenger aircraft,
operators of regional airports, representatives of foreign governments,
and private citizens. Some of these commenters presented information
supporting their contention that in certain circumstances, some small
commercial passenger aircraft may not present significant sanitary and
phytosanitary risk, or engage in activities that result in a lower
sanitary and phytosanitary risk profile that would merit less intensive
AQI services and a lower corresponding user fee than other types of
commercial aircraft operators. For example, several aircraft operators
presented data that they operated solely over the Great Lakes region
during temperate months carrying passengers to and from cottages on
Pelee Island, Ontario, lack cargo holds, and allow only non-
agricultural carry-on passenger baggage.
For this reason, and because an editorial error inadvertently
resulted in the Office of the Federal Register removing the exemption
on October 1, 2024, we have decided to restore to the regulations the
exemption from paying the AQI user fee for commercial aircraft with 64
or fewer seats meeting certain conditions. We will address the specific
circumstances and potential fee structures for small commercial
passenger aircraft within the context of future rulemaking.
Specifically, small commercial passenger aircraft do not need to
pay the user fee provided that:
<bullet> They have 64 seats or fewer;
<bullet> They do not carry the following cargo: Fresh fruits, fresh
vegetables, plants, unprocessed plant products, cotton or covers,
sugarcane, or fresh or processed meats; and
<bullet> They do not offer meal service other than beverages and
prepackaged snacks that do not contain meats derived from ruminants,
swine, or poultry or fresh fruits and fresh vegetables.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 354
Exports, Government employees, Plant diseases and pests,
Quarantine, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Travel and
transportation expenses.
As discussed in the preamble, APHIS is amending 7 CFR part 354 as
follows:
PART 354--OVERTIME SERVICES RELATING TO IMPORTS AND EXPORTS; AND
USER FEES
0
1. The authority citation for part 354 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 7701-7772, 7781-7786, and 8301-8317; 21
U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 49 U.S.C. 80503; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.3.
0
2. Amend Sec. 354.3 by adding paragraph (e)(2)(iv) to read as set
forth below:
Sec. 354.3 User fees for certain international services.
* * * * *
(e) * * *
(2) * * *
(iv) Any passenger aircraft with 64 or fewer seats, which is not
carrying the following cargo: Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, plants,
unprocessed plant products, cotton or covers, sugarcane, or fresh or
processed meats; and which does not offer meal service other than
beverages and prepackaged snacks that do not contain meats derived from
ruminants, swine, or poultry or fresh fruits and fresh vegetables.
Aircraft exempt from the user fee under this paragraph would still be
subject to the garbage handling requirements found in Sec. 330.400 of
this chapter and 9 CFR 94.5;
* * * * *
Done in Washington, DC, this 8th day of August 2025.
Michael Watson,
Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-15539 Filed 8-14-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on August 15, 2025.
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