The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) delayed the effective date of the National Organic Program Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Rule for a second time on Wednesday with the publication of a Federal Register notice.
The rule, which was published on January 19, 2017, originally had an effective date of March 20, 2017. This date was extended to May 19, 2017 in February of 2017 in accordance with a Memorandum from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff: “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review”. Wednesday’s Federal Register notice further extends the delay of the effective date by six months to November 14, 2017.
USDA additionally published a proposed rule on Wednesday for the Livestock and Poultry Practices Rule announcing that the agency would be pursuing one of four actions, and requesting public comment on which action the agency should pursue. The four actions proposed by USDA are:
- Allow the rule to become effective on November 14, 2017.
- Suspend the rule indefinitely, during which time the USDA would consider whether to implement, modify or withdraw the final rule.
- Further delay the effective date of the rule beyond November 14, 2017.
- Withdraw the rule and not pursue implementation of the final rule.
USDA has cited “significant policy and legal issues addressed within the final rule that warrant further review by USDA” as the reason for both the delay of the effective date and publication of the proposed rule.
Comments on the proposed rule may be submitted to Regulations.gov, and are due on June 9, 2017.
