FSA Revises Compliance With National Environmental Policy Act Regulations

In the August 3, 2016, Federal Register, USDA's Farm Service Agency ("FSA") consolidated, updated, and amended its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended ("NEPA"). FSA's previous NEPA regulations had been in place since 1980. The changes are intended to better serve the change to FSA's structure and scope of its programs, and to align FSA's NEPA regulations with the President's Council on Environmental Quality NEPA regulations and meet the FSA responsibilities for periodic review of their categorical exclusions ("CatExs"). CatExs involve proposed actions that typically do not result in individual or cumulative significant environmental effects or impacts and therefore do not merit further environmental review in an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement. This final rule also expands and clarifies the list of proposed actions that require an Environmental Assessment. The FSA NEPA implementing regulations