Changes in Hourly Fee Rates for Science and Technology Laboratory Services-Fiscal Years 2007-2009

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is changing the hourly fee rates for Science and Technology (S&T) Laboratory Services. The agency is raising these rates to reflect, among other factors, national and locality pay increases for Federal employees and inflation, operating costs, instrumentation and training, and program and agency administrative overhead costs. In the past, AMS has amended its regulations on an as needed basis in order to recover laboratory program costs. With this regulation, AMS is providing for three annual standard hourly fee rate increases for fiscal years 2007-2009. This will provide the agricultural commodity industries and other stakeholders with more timely and relevant information regarding user fees for voluntary laboratory testing services. The agency is also removing tables and schedules with listings of individual tests and services. Three annual hourly fee rate adjustments are established by this action for appeals, holiday, and overtime services to reflect the anticipated increase cost of providing these laboratory services each fiscal year. The regulations also are updated to identify current facility addresses. Part 92 is obsolete and therefore has been removed.