Legal Status
Agriculture Department
Agriculture Department
The Department of Agriculture works to improve and maintain farm income and to develop and expand markets abroad for agricultural products. The Department helps to curb and cure poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. It works to enhance the environment and to maintain production capacity by helping landowners protect the soil, water, forests, and other natural resources. The Department, through inspection and grading services, safeguards and ensures standards of quality in the daily food supply.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created by act of May 15, 1862 (7 U.S.C. 2201).
- Agency URL:
- http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome
- Sub-agencies:
- Agricultural Marketing Service
- Agricultural Research Service
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
- Commodity Credit Corporation
- Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
- Economic Analysis Staff
- Economic Research Service
- Farm Service Agency
- Federal Crop Insurance Corporation
- Food and Consumer Service
- Food and Nutrition Service
- Food Safety and Inspection Service
- Foreign Agricultural Service
- Forest Service
- Inspector General Office, Agriculture Department
- National Agricultural Library
- National Agricultural Statistics Service
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture
- Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Operations Office
- Risk Management Agency
- Rural Business-Cooperative Service
- Rural Housing and Community Development Service
- Rural Housing Service
- Rural Telephone Bank
- Rural Utilities Service
- Energy Policy and New Uses Office
- Procurement and Property Management, Office of
- Transportation Office
- Advocacy and Outreach Office
- Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Agriculture Department
- U.S. Codex Office
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Establishing a Performance Standard for Authorizing the Importation and Interstate Movement of Fruits and Vegetables
We are correcting a portion of the summary of the economic analysis presented in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION portion of our September 14, 2018, final rule amending our regulations governing the importation and interstate movement of fruits and vegetables. The summary reported an incorrect cost savings figure in its discussion of Executive...
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Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act of 2002; Biennial Review and Republication of the Select Agent and Toxin List; Amendments to the Select Agent and Toxin Regulations; Technical Amendment
As part of a final rule published in the Federal Register on October 5, 2012, we amended and republished the list of select agents and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to animal or plant health, or to animal or plant products. In that final rule we removed bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent from the list of select...
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Establishing a Performance Standard for Authorizing the Importation and Interstate Movement of Fruits and Vegetables
We are amending our regulations governing the importation of fruits and vegetables by broadening our existing performance standard to provide for approval of all new fruits and vegetables for importation into the United States using a notice-based process. We are also removing the region- or commodity-specific phytosanitary requirements...
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Conditions for Payment of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Indemnity Claims
We are adopting as a final rule, with changes, an interim rule that amended the regulations pertaining to certain diseases of livestock and poultry to specify conditions for payment of indemnity claims for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The interim rule provided a formula allowing us to split such payments between poultry and egg...
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Guaranteed Loanmaking and Servicing Regulations; Corrections
On June 3, 2016, the Rural Business-Cooperative Service promulgated changes to its Guaranteed Loanmaking and Servicing Regulations. Following final implementation of this final rule, RBS found that conforming amendments for adoption for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) had not been included. This technical correction makes amendments...
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Notice of Request for Extension of Currently Approved Information Collection
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Rural Business-Cooperative Service's intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of the program for the Agriculture Innovation Demonstration Center.
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Agency Information Collection Activities: Federal-State Supplemental Nutrition Programs Agreement (Form FNS-339)
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. The proposed information collection is a request for a revision of a currently approved collection of information relating to the reporting burden associated with completing...
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Environmental Impact Statement; Cattle Fever Tick Control Barrier in South Texas: Record of Decision
This notice advises the public of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's record of decision for the final environmental impact statement titled ``Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program--Tick Control Barrier: Maverick, Starr, Webb, and Zapata Counties, Texas.''
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Revision of Delegations of Authority
The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to delegate functions, powers, and duties as the Secretary deems appropriate. This document amends the existing delegations of authority by adding and modifying certain delegations, as explained in the Supplementary Information section below.
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``Buy American'' Requirement
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), a Rural Development Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), hereinafter referred to as RUS or the Agency, is issuing a final rule to amend its regulations to address its ``Buy American'' requirement. This will codify long-standing RUS requirements which Agency borrowers have been required...