✈️User Fee Amendment for Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Services
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.
Learn More🌱Overview of Amendments to Genetically Engineered Organism Regulations
On December 2, 2024, a Federal court vacated the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) final rule issued on May 18, 2020 (the May 2020 final rule) that revised APHIS' regulations governing the movement of certain genetically modified organisms and was issued under the authority of the Plant Protection Act. APHIS is therefore amending the CFR to conform the CFR to the Federal Court's vacatur of that rule. The Court's vacatur was effective December 2, 2024, and had the legal effect of vacating the May 2020 final rule in its entirety and restoring the legal effect of the pre-May 2020 regulations. These technical conforming amendments revise the CFR to reflect the court's vacatur of the May 2020 final rule.
Learn More