Justification to merge forms of 0316

Justification of Change Worksheet

Almonds Grown in California

OMB No. 0581-0178

Marketing Order No. 981

February 2019

On January 29, 2019, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved AMS’s request to approve five new forms related to the Federal marketing order for California almonds. The Almond Board of California (ABC) uses the forms during the process of nominating individuals to represent industry interests on the ABC. OMB had assigned the following forms to OMB Number 0581-0316 during the approval process:

• Independent Grower Ballot, ABC-15

• Independent Handler Ballot, ABC-16

• Cooperative Grower Ballot, ABC-17

• Cooperative Handler Ballot, ABC-18

• Grower Petition, ABC-19

This Justification for Change worksheet requests OMB’s approval to merge these forms into OMB No. 0581-0178, Specialty Crops Program, as stated in the Final Rule collection package and in the 60-day notice published in the Federal Register (Vol 83, No. 177, page 46136-46137) on September 12, 2018. This will keep all forms pertaining to the almond marketing order contained in one collection to prevent duplicity of burden hours.

The OMB No. 0581-0316 package containing these forms has 56.83 burden hours. The currently approved OMB No. 0581-0178 package with the forms pertaining to almond marketing order and several other marketing orders has 25,216 burden hours. Once these five forms are merged into the 0581-0178 parent package, the number of responses will increase by 677; and the burden will increase by 57 hours. The new burden of the parent package will be 25,273 burden hours.

AMS will submit a Discontinuation Request in ROCIS for 0581-0316 upon approval of this Justification for Change.