in effect
This is an interim final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on July 3, 2025, that rewrites USDA’s internal procedures for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the law requiring federal agencies to analyze environmental effects before taking major actions. It took effect immediately upon publication, with a voluntary public comment period closing July 30, 2025.
USDA eliminated seven separate agency-specific NEPA regulation sets (covering the Agricultural Research Service, APHIS, Farm Service Agency, NIFA, NRCS, Rural Development, and the Forest Service) and replaced them with a single, consolidated department-level regulation at 7 CFR Part 1b. All references to the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) implementing regulations—which were themselves rescinded in April 2025—have been removed from USDA rules. The new rules incorporate congressionally mandated page limits and deadlines for environmental assessments and environmental impact statements added by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. The definition of “major Federal action” is now explicitly tied to the statutory text, narrowing which projects trigger a full NEPA review; actions with minimal federal funding or involvement where the agency cannot control the outcome are excluded. USDA subcomponents may now share and apply each other’s categorical exclusions (action categories pre-approved as not needing environmental review), and a new documentation form called a “Finding of Applicability and No Extraordinary Circumstance” (FANEC) is introduced to record when a categorical exclusion is used.
USDA agencies and staff offices must now follow one unified NEPA process instead of their individual rule sets, which changes how they document and review proposed actions internally. Project applicants and sponsors seeking USDA funding or permits—such as farmers, rural utilities, research institutions, and timber operators—will encounter a streamlined review process with statutory deadlines that the agency is now required to meet and report to Congress annually when missed. Environmental groups, state agencies, and members of the public who previously participated in NEPA reviews under the old agency-specific procedures will find those procedures replaced by the consolidated departmental rules.