[Federal Register: May 12, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 91)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 25308-25310]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12my03-12]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
9 CFR Part 130
[Docket No. 02-041-1]
Veterinary Services User Fees; Fee for Use of Animal Ramp at
Miami International Airport
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: We are proposing to establish a user fee for a Government-
owned ramp at Miami International Airport used to move animals off of
and onto airplanes. Under the present user fee schedule we can recover
the cost of labor in supervising and assisting importers and exporters
in the ramp's use, but we currently must absorb all other costs
associated with the ramp. The proposed new user fee would ensure that
we recover costs incurred by the ramp's purchase and use and would
shift the cost of the ramp to those who receive benefits from its use.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before July
11, 2003.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by postal mail/commercial delivery
or by e-mail. If you use postal mail/commercial delivery, please send
four copies of your comment (an original and three copies) to: Docket
No. 02-041-1, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station
3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state
that your comment refers to Docket No. 02-041-1. If you use e-mail,
address your comment to regulations@aphis.usda.gov. Your comment must
be contained in the body of your message; do not send attached files.
Please include your name and address in your message and ``Docket No.
02-041-1'' on the subject line.
You may read any comments that we receive on this docket in our
reading room. The reading room is located in room 1141 of the USDA
South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW., Washington,
DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you,
please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
APHIS documents published in the Federal Register, and related
information, including the names of organizations and individuals who
have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on the Internet at
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information concerning program
operations for Veterinary Services, contact Ms. Inez Hockaday,
Director, Management Support Staff, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 44,
Riverdale, MD 20737-1231, (301) 734-7517. For information concerning
rate development of the proposed user fee, contact Ms. Kris Caraher,
Accountant, User Fees Section, Financial Management Division, APHIS,
4700 River Road Unit 54, Riverdale, MD 20737-1232, (301) 734-8351.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
User fees to reimburse the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) for the costs of providing veterinary diagnostic
services and import- and export-related services for live animals and
birds and animal products are contained in 9 CFR part 130 (referred to
below as the regulations). APHIS receives no directly appropriated
funds to provide these services; our ability to provide them depends on
user fees.
APHIS has purchased a ramp that is used to move animals on and off
airplanes at APHIS's Animal Import/Export and Plant Inspection Station
at Miami International Airport. The ramp is used to move approximately
5,000 to 6,000 animals per year. Last year, approximately 117 users
(brokers or livestock owners) required the aid of the ramp to either
load or unload their animals. The animals moved using this ramp were
cattle (75 percent), sheep (10 percent), goats (10 percent), and horses
and other animals (5 percent).
Both the purchase and maintenance of this ramp are costly; however,
because there is no specific user fee for the ramp's use under the
current regulations, APHIS can only recover some of the labor costs
incurred by its use through its current hourly rate user fee. We are,
therefore, proposing to amend the regulations to establish a user fee
of $151 per use to importers and exporters who use the animal ramp, so
that APHIS may recover its costs. This would ensure that the importers
and exporters who use the ramp pay for the benefits they receive.
Calculation of the User Fee
Costs excluded from this calculation. We began our calculation of
the appropriate user fee for the APHIS animal ramp at Miami
International Airport by identifying the services APHIS provides while
the ramp is being used for which we already charge user fees. Under
Sec. 130.30, ``Hourly rate and minimum user fees,'' APHIS currently
charges for services such as sweeping the ramp, fully cleaning and
disinfecting the ramp, supervising the use of the ramp, driving the
ramp to and from the service site, and assisting with the use of the
ramp. We omitted fees for these services in the calculation of the
proposed ramp fee. We are proposing to charge the proposed ramp fee in
addition to the fees for the labor associated with the ramp's use that
we currently charge. Such labor fees would be charged to the ramp user
at the existing applicable hourly rate user fee, or premium hourly rate
user fee if the service is provided outside the normal tour of duty of
the employee(s), for these services.
Equipment costs. The ramp assembly consists of the ramp itself, a
truck on which the ramp is moved, and piston equipment. This assembly
costs $45,100 and has an expected useful life of 5 years before it will
need to be replaced. The cost of purchasing the ramp was therefore
spread over 5 years to arrive at an annual figure for the cost of its
purchase. This figure is $9,020.
Labor costs not covered under Sec. 130.30. We estimated that a
mechanic at the GS 9, step 5, salary level would spend 7 percent of his
or her time maintaining the ramp. The benefit (e.g., health insurance,
etc.) costs included in the total cost of this labor were set at 20.42
percent of salary. To arrive at our final figure for the labor cost of
maintenance, we used the actual salary figure for fiscal year (FY) 2002
and
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included cost-of-living salary increases in fiscal years 2003 and 2004,
as described in the President's FY 2003 budget. Based on this approach,
we estimate the direct labor cost of the maintenance on the ramp to be
$3,926.17 per year.
Administrative support costs not covered under Sec. 130.30.
Administrative support costs include the cost of local clerical and
administrative activities, indirect labor hours, travel and
transportation for personnel, supplies, equipment, and other necessary
items, training, general office supplies, rent, equipment
capitalization, utilities, and contractual services. Indirect labor
hours include supervision of personnel and time spent doing work that
is not directly connected with use of the ramp but which is nonetheless
necessary for its use, such as repairing other equipment. Rent is the
cost of using the space required to perform this work. Billing costs
are the costs of managing user fee accounts for our customers who wish
to receive monthly invoices for the services they receive from APHIS.
Collection expenses include the costs of managing customer payments and
ensuring that those payments are accurately reflected in our accounting
system. Utilities include water, telephone, electricity, gas, and
heating oil. Contractual services include security service,
maintenance, trash pickup, and other such services. To estimate these
costs, we used the standard APHIS administrative support costs rate of
62.31 percent of direct labor costs. Thus, we estimate administrative
support costs for this service to be $2,818.49 per year.
Agency overhead not covered under Sec. 130.30. Agency overhead is
the pro-rata share, attributable to this service, of the Agency's
management and support costs. Management and support costs include the
costs of providing budget and accounting services, regulatory services,
investigative and enforcement services, debt-management services,
personnel services, public information services, legal services,
liaison with Congress, and other general program and agency management
services provided above the local level. We estimate agency overhead to
be $1,089.26 per year.
Departmental charges not covered under Sec. 130.30. Departmental
charges are APHIS's share, expressed as a percentage of the total cost,
of services provided centrally by the United States Department of
Agriculture. Services the Department provides centrally include the
Federal Telephone Service, mail, National Finance Center processing of
payroll and other money management, unemployment compensation, Office
of Workers Compensation Programs, and central supply for storing and
issuing commonly used supplies and department forms. The Department
notifies APHIS of how much it owes for these services. We estimate the
pro-rata share of these departmental charges attributable to these
services to be $358.01 per year.
Reserve funds. We added an amount that would provide for a
reasonable balance, or reserve, in the Veterinary Services user fee
account. All user fees contribute to the reserve proportionately. A
reserve ensures that we have sufficient operating funds in cases of bad
debt, customer insolvency, and fluctuations in the volume of activity.
We intend to monitor the balance of the reserve closely, and we will
propose adjustments in our fees as necessary to ensure a reasonable
balance. We have included $409.60 per year as this fee's proportional
contribution to the reserve.
Conclusion
The sum of the above items, $17,621.53, represents our calculation
of the annual cost for the purchase, use, and maintenance of the ramp.
The number of importers and exporters expected to use the ramp each
year is about 117. Thus, the expected cost per user of the ramp is
$17,621.53 divided by 117, or $150.6114; rounded to the nearest whole
dollar, this is $151. We are therefore proposing a fee of $151 for use
of the animal ramp at Miami International Airport.
This fee would apply regardless of the length of time the ramp is
used or the number of animals being transported across it. The fees
charged for the hourly labor APHIS provides while the ramp is being
used, of course, would vary with the length of time the ramp is used.
We believe that this fee would adequately cover the cost of
providing the ramp to importers and exporters of animals. As is the
case with all APHIS user fees, we intend to review the user fee
proposed in this document on an annual basis. We will publish any
necessary adjustments to the fee in the Federal Register.
Executive Order 12866 and Regulatory Flexibility Act
This proposed rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12866.
The rule has been determined to be not significant for the purposes of
Executive Order 12866 and, therefore, has not been reviewed by the
Office of Management and Budget.
This proposed rule would establish a user fee of $151 for the
animal ramp APHIS operates at Miami International Airport.
Though the fee is $151 per use regardless of the number of animals
being moved across the ramp, in the past clients have moved, on
average, approximately 50 animals per ramp use. Thus the average cost
per animal for use of the ramp would be approximately $3. This is a
negligible fee compared to the market value of the breeding animals and
other upper-end livestock that are transported by air and that may be
moved using the ramp. For example, the average import/export price per
head of purebred cattle in 2001 was $1,186, while the price of purebred
horses was $9,653. Our customers, usually brokers, are likely to pass
this fee on to their clients.
This proposed user fee is also similar to the fees charged for the
use of similar ramps elsewhere. For example, O'Hare International
Airport in Chicago charges approximately $150 for use of its ramp,
while one private horse-transporting entity charges approximately $800
for the use of the ramp it owns.
Impact on Small Entities
The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires that agencies consider the
economic effects of their rules on small entities. The Small Business
Administration (SBA) has published criteria for determining which
economic entities meet the definition of a small business. The entities
affected by this proposed fee are most likely to be brokers and
livestock owners importing or exporting animals. The SBA considers an
entity engaged in importing and exporting live animals, poultry, and
birds to be small if its total sales are less than $5 million annually.
The total revenue of livestock brokers who transport animals through
Miami International Airport is not available, but we expect that a
majority of these brokers can be classified as small entities. While
the majority of entities affected by the proposed user fee may be
small, this proposed rule is not expected to have a significant impact
on them, due to the fact that the average fee per animal is quite small
in comparison to the value of the livestock being transported.
Under these circumstances, the Administrator of the Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service has determined that this action would
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities.
Executive Order 12372
This program/activity is listed in the Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance under No. 10.025 and is subject to
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Executive Order 12372, which requires intergovernmental consultation
with State and local officials. (See 7 CFR part 3015, subpart V.)
Executive Order 12988
This proposed rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988,
Civil Justice Reform. If this proposed rule is adopted: (1) All State
and local laws and regulations that are inconsistent with this rule
will be preempted; (2) no retroactive effect will be given to this
rule; and (3) administrative proceedings will not be required before
parties may file suit in court challenging this rule.
Paperwork Reduction Act
This proposed rule contains no new information collection or
recordkeeping requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
List of Subjects in 9 CFR Part 130
Animals, Birds, Diagnostic reagents, Exports, Imports, Poultry and
poultry products, Quarantine, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements,
Tests.
Accordingly, we propose to amend 9 CFR part 130 as follows:
PART 130--USER FEES
1. The authority citation for part 130 would continue to read as
follows:
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 5542; 7 U.S.C. 1622 and 8301-8317; 21 U.S.C.
136 and 136a; 31 U.S.C. 3701, 3716, 3717, 3719, and 3720A; 7 CFR
2.22, 2.80, and 371.4.
2. Section 130.8 would be amended by adding a new paragraph (b) to
read as follows:
Sec. 130.8 User fees for other services.
* * * * *
(b) The user fee for the transport ramp used to move animals on or
off aircraft at APHIS's Animal Import/Export and Plant Inspection
Station at Miami International Airport is $151 per use. For labor
services associated with the ramp, the hourly user fees in Sec. 130.30
will apply.
* * * * *
Done in Washington, DC, this 6th day of May, 2003.
Peter Fernandez,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 03-11707 Filed 5-9-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P
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