APHIS Significant Guidance Documents
In order to increase the quality and transparency of agency guidance practices and to comply with OMB's "Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices" published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2007 (72 FR 3432–3440), APHIS is providing the information below on its significant guidance documents. The term ‘‘guidance document’’ means an agency statement of general applicability and future effect, other than a regulatory action, that sets forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory or technical issue or an interpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue. A discussion of this definition and various types of guidance documents and other background information is available at the following sites:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/2007/
012507_good_guidance.pdf
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy2007/
m07-13.pdf
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Members of the public who wish to request that the agency issue, reconsider, modify, or rescind a significant guidance document, or to complain that the agency is not following the procedures in OMB's Bulletin or is improperly treating a significant guidance document as a binding requirement, may do so by sending an email to Good_Guidance_Comments@aphis.usda.gov
Or by mailing a letter to the following office:
Guidance Officer
Policy and Program Development
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
4700 River Road, Unit 20
Riverdale, MD 20737-1230
Additionally, you may submit comments through www.regulations.gov on new or revised significant guidance documents open for comment as indicated in the chart below.
This agency effort and OMB's Bulletin is intended to improve the internal management of the Executive Branch and is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, against the United States, its agencies or other entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
Significant Guidance Documents |
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APHIS Policy on Responding to the Low-Level Presence of Regulated Genetically Engineered Plant Materials (Issued March 29, 2007)
- This guidance describes how APHIS evaluates and responds to incidents in which regulated genetically engineered plant material becomes mixed at low levels with commercial seeds and grain.
National Animal Identification System (NAIS): A User Guide and Additional Information Resources, Draft Version (Issued November 2006, Revised December 2007)
- The NAIS User Guide provides guidance to producers and owners of animals included in NAIS, as well as other sectors involved in the animal agricultural industry on how to participate in NAIS, and how participation will benefit them. NAIS – voluntary at the Federal level – is a modern, streamlined information system that helps producers and animal health officials respond quickly and effectively to animal disease events in the United States. NAIS, achieved through State-Federal-Industry partnerships, is beneficial because it helps us protect U.S. livestock and poultry from disease spread, maintain consumer confidence in our food supply, and retain access to domestic and foreign markets.
You may submit comments on the User Guide via email at animalidcomments@aphis.usda.gov or via mail to NAIS Program Staff, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA, Unit 200, 4700 River Road, Riverdale, Maryland 20737.
Animal Care Policy Manual (Issued April 1997, Revised July 17, 2007)
- Guidance developed primarily for USDA's Animal Care field inspectors, and provided to the regulated community, which clarifies, interprets, and/or provides examples of how to comply with an existing Animal Welfare Act regulation or standard.
- Animal Care is currently reviewing this guidance and welcomes suggestions for revising it. You may submit comments until November 16, 2007 at www.regulations.gov.
