2024-26787. Soybean Promotion and Research: Adjustments to Representation on the United Soybean Board

State	Previous representation	Current representation
New York	1	2
North Dakota	4	3

Board adjustments by this final rule will become effective with the 2025 appointment process.

Summary of Comments

A proposed rule was published in the Federal Register (89 FR 51277) on June 17, 2024, with a 30-day comment period. USDA received three comments. One comment communicated displeasure for North Dakota's decreased number from four seats to three seats. Upon reviewing the requirements of the Act and Order, USDA determined that leaving the North Dakota seats at four would not be consistent with the Act and Order, which requires that at the end of each 3-year period, the Secretary review the volume of production of each unit and adjust the boundaries of any unit and the number of Board members from each such unit as necessary to conform with the formula to determine the number of directors for each unit set forth in § 1220.201(e) of the Order. This was done by calculating production data for years 2018-2022 (excluding the crops in years in which production was the highest and in which production was the lowest in each State) as reported by USDA's NASS, resulting in a 3-year average for North Dakota that fell below the required number of bushels to retain four seats under § 1220.201(e)(5) of the Order. Accordingly, no change is made in response to this comment.

One comment was in favor of the seat adjustments for North Dakota and New York.

One comment was not germane to the proposed rule.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Pursuant to the requirements set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) (5 U.S.C. 601-612), the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) considered the economic effect of this action on small entities and determined that this final rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the ( print page 90571) scale of businesses subject to such actions in order that small businesses will not be unduly burdened.

Effective August 19, 2019, the Small Business Administration (SBA) (13 CFR 121.201) published an interim final rule (84 FR 34261) that adjusts the monetary-based size standards for inflation. As a result of this rule, the size classification for soybean producers changed from sales of $750,000 or less to sales of $1,000,000 or less. There are an estimated 413,358 soybean producers and an estimated 10,000 first purchasers who collect the assessment, most who would be considered small businesses under the criteria set up by SBA.

According to USDA's NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture, the number of operations in the United States with soybean production totaled 270,851.^[1] The most recent (2022) Census of Agriculture data show that roughly 19 percent of producers with soybean production, or 52,756 operations, have annual receipts of $1,000,000 or more.^[2] Therefore, most soybean producers, 81 percent, are considered small businesses with the new SBA guidance. It should be noted that producers are only indirectly affected by this final rule.

This final rule imposes no new burden on the industry, as it only adjusts representation on the Board to reflect changes in soybean production. The adjustments are required by the Order and do not result in a change to Board membership, which will remain at 77 members.

AMS is committed to following e-Government Act of 2002 to promote the use of the internet and other information technologies to provide increased opportunities for citizen access to government information and services, and for other purposes.

USDA has not found any relevant Federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or conflict with this rule.

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 1220

• Administrative practice and procedure
• Advertising
• Agricultural research
• Marketing agreements
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Soybeans

For the reasons set forth in the preamble, the Agricultural Marketing Service amends 7 CFR part 1220 as follows:

PART 1220—SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND CONSUMER INFORMATION

1. The authority citation for 7 CFR part 1220 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 6301-6311 and 7 U.S.C. 7401.

2. Amend § 1220.201 by revising paragraph (a) to read as follows:

§ 1220.201

Membership of Board.

(a) For the purposes of nominating and appointing producers to the Board, the United States shall be divided into thirty-one geographic units and the number of Board members from each unit, subject to paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section shall be as follows:

Table 1 to Paragraph (a)

State/unit	Number of members
South Dakota	4
Ohio	4
Nebraska	4
Missouri	4
Minnesota	4
Iowa	4
Indiana	4
Illinois	4
North Dakota	3
Wisconsin	3
Tennessee	3
Mississippi	3
Michigan	3
Kentucky	3
Kansas	3
Arkansas	3
Virginia	2
Pennsylvania	2
North Carolina	2
Maryland	2
Louisiana	2
New York	2
Alabama	1
Texas	1
South Carolina	1
Oklahoma	1
New Jersey	1
Georgia	1
Delaware	1
Unit:
Eastern Region (Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico)	1
Western Region (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming)	1