WASHINGTON, November 1, 2022 - On October 29, 2015, APHIS published a final rule in the Federal Register that revised its user fees charged for certain Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection services (the “final rule”). In setting the AQI user fees in the final rule, APHIS applied a 3.5% reserve surcharge to the fees for some user groups: commercial trucks and truck transponders, international air passengers, and international cruise ship passengers. In the final rule, the commercial aircraft fee, the commercial cargo vessel fee, and the commercial railroad car fees were set at a level that did not include a reserve surcharge component.
As an outcome of litigation challenging the final rule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) rejected the majority of the challenges to the rule, but it found that APHIS’s authority to collect a surcharge to fund a reserve as a component of the fees expired in FY 2002. See Air Transport Ass’n of Am. v. United States Dep’t of Agric., 37 F.4th 667 (D.C. Cir. 2022). The D.C. Circuit remanded to the District Court for proceedings consistent with the appellate court’s opinion.
On September 15, 2022, the District Court issued a final judgment vacating the final rule only insofar as it authorizes collecting fees to maintain a reserve account and remanded the final rule to the agency for further proceedings consistent with the D.C. Circuit Opinion.
In order to comply with the District Court’s final judgment, APHIS is removing this surcharge from the applicable fees, effective December 1, 2022. Read More→
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/stakeholder-info/sa_by_date/sa-2022/aqi-user-fees-response
