Dear BRS Stakeholder,

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS) will hold its annual Stakeholder Meeting (via webinar and in-person) on Wednesday, November 16, 2016, at the USDA Center at Riverside, 4700 River Road, Riverdale, MD 20737. There will be a morning session from 9:00 am – 11:30 am with check-in beginning at 8:30 am, and an additional discussion session on weed risk assessment from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm.

The meeting is open to all, and is held annually to foster transparency and engagement in the BRS program. Please join us as we reflect on the past year and look forward to FY 2017, discuss updates to the Federal Coordinated Framework, review compliance initiatives and consolidated supplemental permit conditions; and report on our future electronic permitting system known as APHIS eFile.

We have always conducted weed risk assessments; now we want to make our approach more transparent and systematic. In the afternoon session, we will present our current thinking regarding our weed risk assessment system, and welcome your feedback and questions. Both the morning stakeholder meeting, and the afternoon session are available to all stakeholders. More information on this session will be provided in the near future to registrants.

Register today to attend the meeting and/or the afternoon session and view the draft agenda by going to the BRS 2016 Stakeholder Meeting Information Webpage.

Thank you for your continued interest in Biotechnology Regulatory Services. We look forward to your participation!