1. State the administrative agency which controls the regulation. Explain why this agency and your proposed regulation interests you (briefly). Will this proposed regulation affect you or the business in which you are working? If so, how? Submit a copy of the proposed regulation along with your responses to these five questions. The proposed regulation can be submitted as either a separate Word document (.doc) or Adobe file (.pdf). This means you will submit two attachments to the Week 2 Dropbox: (1) a Word doc with the questions and your answers and (2) a copy of the proposed regulation you used for this assignment. (10 points)
Department of Agriculture – I am a fruit lover and I like eating sand pears so much, so this new importation rule interests me a lot, and it relates with China.
This will affect me just personally, I like pears, but the pears produced by the US don’t taste good for me, I miss sand pears in my hometown so much. This new importation rule makes my wish come true.
2. Describe the proposal/change. (10 points)
This rule allows the importation of sand pears (Pyrus pyrifolia) from China into the United States.
3. Write the public comment which you would submit to this proposal. If the proposed regulation deadline has already passed, write the comment you would have submitted. Explain briefly what you wish to accomplish with your comment. (10 points)
It’s great to allow import new fruit from China into the US. It’s a good chance for all American people to try the fantastic pears produced from China. The sand pear is much more juicy than US pears, and can give Americans a different taste experience. Although I am a Chinese and happy with the sand pear importation, the existence of risk to bring new pests into the US should be considered. What measures are should be taken to reduce this risk? Also, it may affect the economical benefits of local pear growers and producers.
I am in favor of this new importation rule, but there are some issues still needed be reconsidered.
4. Provide the "deadline" by which the public comment must be made. (If the date has already passed, please provide when the deadline was). (5 points)
This expires on 2/14/2012.
5. a. Once you have submitted your comment, what will you be legally entitled to do later in the promulgation process (if you should choose to do so)? (See the textbook's discussion of the Administrative Procedure Act.)
If the proposed rules are modified and goes through the process of public comment again, you can make comments on this rules again. If the modification is minor, however, the APA allows the agency to adopt a modified version of the rule without going through the public comment period again. The final choice of the proposing agency is to withdraw the rule. Some rules have so many comments pointing out their impracticability, inflex- ibility, or prematurity that they are withdrawn from the promulgation process. (Marianne M. Jennings, 2010)
The proposal rule can be challenged by five legal parties, including the Arbitrary and Capricious Standard, the Substantial Evidence Standard, the procedures for rulemaking, the Constitutional Standard, and the Ultra Vires Standard (further discuss it below).
b. If the proposal passes, identify and explain the five legal theories you could use in an attempt to have the regulation declared invalid and overturned in court.
First, the Arbitrary and Capricious Standard for Challenging an Agency Action. This standard is generally applied to informal rulemaking and simply requires the agency to show evidence to support the proposed rule. (Marianne M. Jennings, 2010) There is no evidence show that the needs or demands for importing sand pears from another countries, like China. The United States has a lot of kinds of pears providing to our citizens. And the importation of sand pears may bring 16 pests into the US and cause fruit safety problems.

Second, the Substantial Evidence Standard for Challenging an Agency Action. Substantial evidence requires that more convincing evidence exist in support of the regulation than against it. (Marianne M. Jennings, 2010) The convincing evidence for importing sand pears from China is that the sand pears contain different nutrition what American pears do not have, has special effects for the treatment of certain diseases. Unfortunately, sand pears don’t have that kind of special nutrition, and it’s very similar with American pears.

Third, the procedures for rulemaking must be followed in order for the regulatory process and resulting rules to be valid. (Marianne M. Jennings, 2010) This proposed rule were not further studied or researched by the agency, also means it didn’t follow the step 2 in rulemaking.

Fourth, the Constitutional Standard for Challenging an Agency’s Action. Many challenges based on constitutional grounds deal with regulations that give an agency authority to search records or that impose discriminatory requirements for licensing professionals. (Marianne M. Jennings, 2010) This rule makes the existence of the risk of Chinese pear dumping, which may violate Anti-dumping agreement.

Fifth, the Ultra Vires Standard for Challenging an Agency’s Action. An ultra vires regulation is one that goes beyond the authority given to the agency in its enabling act. (Marianne M. Jennings, 2010) If the importation issues are decided by Department of Commerce or Department of Import, then Department of Agriculture goes beyond its power.

c. Which of these challenges would be the best way to challenge the regulation you selected for this assignment if you wanted to have the regulation overturned and why?
I think the first challenge will be the best way to challenge this rule. Why sand pear should be imported? The pears produced by the US are not good or bad for health? There isn’t even a basic evidence to show the reason to import sand pears.
More important, the risk of 16 pests may be brought into the US. The rule also mentions: “we do not consider this evidence sufficient to remove G. pyricola from the list of pests of quarantine significance for sand pears from China”. (Importation of Sand Pears From China, 2012) In other words, no measures can be guaranteed as the solution to those 16 pests. It’s can be a great risk to import sand pears from China.
What’s more, considering the local pear growers, if the sand pears occupy the whole American pear market, their interests will be shrink hugely. Then dumping problems may be caused and local growers may be unsatisfied about this new rule.