UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Farm Service Agency
Washington, DC 20250
For: FSA Employees
Web Receipt for Service (webRFS) Stakeholder Outreach
Approved by: Deputy Administrator for Field Operations
1 Overview
A Background
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill), Section 14003 (7 U.S.C.
2279-1(e)) required FSA, NRCS, and RD to issue a receipt for service or denial of service,
when requested, to a current or prospective producer or landowner. The requirements
established by the 2008 Farm Bill were further amended by Section 12204 of the Agricultural
Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill) to require that FSA, NRCS, and RD provide a receipt when a
current or prospective producer or landowner requests a USDA benefit or service.
Procedural guidance about the December 2, 2014, implementation of webRFS, was provided
in Notice CM-753. WebRFS is used by FSA, NRCS, and RD, to issue a receipt for service.
B Purpose
This notice provides employee guidance on:
• ensuring agricultural customer awareness of webRFS implementation
• where to access the webRFS poster and outreach tools.
C Contact
If there are questions about this notice:
• County Offices shall contact State Offices
• State Offices shall contact J. Latrice Hill, Director of Outreach, by e-mail at
Disposal Date
January 1, 2016
Distribution
All FSA employees; State Offices relay to
County Offices
10-8-15 Page 1
Notice AO-1636
Notice AO-1636
2 General
A webRFS Outreach Resources
Outreach tools have been developed and cleared by OEA to assist offices in promoting the
webRFS program. The following are posted in the “webRFS” folder in the “Outreach
Toolkit” on the DAFO Outreach Sharepoint web site at
https://sharepoint.fsa.usda.net/mgr/DAFO/Outreach:
• webRFS Press Release Template
• webRFS GovDelivery Bulletin text
• webRFS Poster
• Letter Template for Stakeholders.
B County Office Actions
COC’s shall:
• remove all previous RFS posters in County Offices
• display new 8 ½ x 11 webRFS poster, in frame, on the service counter in the FSA Office,
not just on the wall
• notify stakeholder organizations of webRFS implementation
• promote webRFS in local newspapers, including all local minority media, announcing the
implementation and the ability to provide receipts.
C State Office Actions
DD’s shall:
• ensure that each County Office prominently displays an 8 ½ x 11 webRFS poster, within
a frame, on the service counter in the FSA Office, not just on the wall
• ensure that each County Office has notified stakeholder organizations of the webRFS
process
• certify to SED, through the State Outreach Coordinator (SOC), that all counties in
respective districts have complied no later than October 23, 2015.
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Notice AO-1636
2 General (Continued)
C State Office Actions (Continued)
SOC’s shall:
• work with Communications Coordinator (CC) to include webRFS implementation text in
GovDelivery bulletins for 3 consecutive months
• work with State web administrators to post webRFS press release on State web sites
• notify State Office stakeholders of webRFS implementation using the webRFS letter
template on the Outreach sharepoint web site.
Note: This includes 1890's, 19942, HSI Program Specialists who will share with State
USDA grant recipients and partners.
SED’s shall Report compliance of all County Offices to DAFO no later than
October 30, 2015, by submitting a signed memo to fsaou[email protected], with
webRFS and the name of the State in the subject line.
Example: webRFS-MS.
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