June 25, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In December 2009, the Governments of the United States and Turkey agreed to establish a U.S.-Turkey Business Council. This notice announces the opportunity for appointment as private sector members to the U.S. Section of the Council.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing the names of five individuals and three entities whose property and interests in property have been blocked pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (``Kingpin Act'') (21 U.S.C. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. 1182).

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Notice 2007-19, as Amended and Supplemented by Notice 2007-31, Statute of Limitations on Assessment Concerning Certain Individuals Filing Income Tax Returns With the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability of the Record of Decision (ROD)/Approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument located in Montezuma and Dolores counties in southwest Colorado. The Colorado State Director signed the ROD on June 14, 2010, which constitutes the final decision of the BLM and makes the Approved RMP effective immediately.

Under section 8 of RESPA and HUD's implementing RESPA regulations, services performed by real estate brokers and agents as additional settlement services in a real estate transaction are compensable if the services are actual, necessary and distinct from the primary services provided by the real estate broker or agent, the services are not nominal, and the payment is not a duplicative charge. A referral is not a compensable service for which a broker or agent may receive compensation. This rule interprets section 8 of RESPA and HUD's regulations as they apply to the compensation provided by home warranty companies to real estate brokers and agents. Although interpretive rules are exempt from public comment under the Administrative Procedure Act, HUD nevertheless welcomes public comment on this interpretation.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) publishes its proposed List of Fisheries (LOF) for 2011, as required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The proposed LOF for 2011 reflects new information on interactions between commercial fisheries and marine mammals. NMFS must classify each commercial fishery on the LOF into one of three categories under the MMPA based upon the level of serious injury and mortality of marine mammals that occurs incidental to each fishery. The classification of a fishery in the LOF determines whether participants in that fishery are subject to certain provisions of the MMPA, such as registration, observer coverage, and take reduction plan requirements.

The Olympic Peninsula Resource Advisory Committee will meet this July in Montesano, Washington. The purpose of this meeting will be to review project proposals and provide recommendations for Title II projects to be funded by the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self- Determination Act.

This document contains proposed rules that would amend the project review regulations of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (Commission) to: Include subsidiary allocations for public water supply systems under the scope of withdrawals requiring review and approval; improve notice procedures for all project applications; clarify requirements for grandfathered projects increasing their withdrawals from an existing source or initiating a new withdrawal; refine the provisions governing transfer and re-issuance of approvals; clarify the Executive Director's authority to grant, deny, suspend, rescind, modify or condition an Approval by Rule; include decisional criteria for diversions into the basin; amend administrative appeal procedures to broaden available remedies and streamline the appeal process; and make other minor regulatory clarifications to the text of the regulations.

NCUA is amending its chartering and field of membership manual to update its community chartering policies. These amendments include using objective and quantifiable criteria to determine the existence of a local community and defining the term ``rural district.'' The amendments clarify NCUA's marketing plan requirements for credit unions converting to or expanding their community charters and define the term ``in danger of insolvency'' for emergency merger purposes.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR or Regulations) to modify the requirements of License Exception ENC, ``Encryption Commodities, Software and Technology,'' and the requirements for qualifying an encryption item as mass market. BIS is also amending specific license requirements for encryption items. With respect to encryption products of lesser national security concern, this rule replaces the requirement to wait 30 days for a technical review before exporting such products and the requirement to file semi-annual post-export sales and distribution reports with a provision that allows immediate authorization to export and reexport these products after electronic submission to BIS of an encryption registration. A condition of this new authorization for less sensitive products is submission of an annual self-classification report on these commodities and software exported under License Exception ENC. With respect to most mass market encryption products, this rule similarly replaces the requirement to wait 30 days for a technical review before exporting and reexporting such products with a provision that allows immediate authorization to export and reexport these products after electronic submission to BIS of an encryption registration, subject to annual self-classification reporting for exported encryption products. Only a few categories of License Exception ENC and mass market encryption products will continue to require submission of a 30-day classification request. Encryption items that are more strictly controlled continue to be authorized for immediate export and reexport to most end-users located in close ally countries upon submission of an encryption registration and classification request to BIS. This rule also eases licensing requirements for the export and reexport of many types of technology necessary for the development and use of encryption products, except to countries subject to export or reexport license requirements for national security reasons or anti-terrorism reasons, or that are subject to embargo or sanctions. This rule also removes the requirement to file separate encryption classification requests (formerly encryption review requests) with both BIS and the ENC Encryption Request Coordinator (Ft. Meade, MD).