September 10, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Through this notice, HUD announces that it will be holding a conference call on September 16, 2015, to discuss HUD's previous participation review process and solicit feedback on how this process can be improved. On August 10, 2015, HUD published a proposed rule to revise its regulations governing the previous participation review process that is applied to certain entities seeking to take part in multifamily housing and healthcare programs administered by HUD's Office of Housing. HUD's goal in revising the regulations is to simplify the process by which HUD currently reviews the previous participation of participants that have decision-making authority over their projects as one component of HUD's responsibility to assess financial and operational risk to the projects in these programs.

HUD has submitted the proposed information collection requirement described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. The purpose of this notice is to allow for an additional 30 days of public comment.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

The Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence will hold a one- day meeting. The meeting will be open to public observation but not participation.

Section 101(c) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and Title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 44 govern the application, processing, and disposition of petitions for modification. This notice is a summary of petitions for modification submitted to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) by the parties listed below.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

In conformance with the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the United States Patent and Trademark Office announces the appointment of persons to serve as members of its Performance Review Board.

The Department of Commerce, 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 (PRA) of 1995.

The Department of Commerce, 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.

The Department of Commerce, 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.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment upon this proposed extension of a currently approved collection of information. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the information collection notice is published in the Federal Register to obtain comments regarding the nature of the information collection, the categories of respondents, the estimated burden (i.e. the time, effort, and resources used by the respondents to respond), the estimated cost to the respondent, and the actual information collection instruments.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information collection notice was previously published in the Federal Register on June 19, 2015, at 80 FR 35388, allowing for a 60-day public comment period. USCIS did receive two comments in connection with the 60-day notice.

This notice amends the notice of a major disaster declaration for the Commonwealth of Kentucky (FEMA-4239-DR), dated August 12, 2015, and related determinations.

PHMSA is adopting regulations to include the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and criteria used to evaluate applications for special permits and approvals. This rulemaking addresses issues identified in the Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2012 related to the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety's Approvals and Permits Division. In addition, this rulemaking also provides clarity regarding what conditions need to be satisfied to promote special permit application completeness. An application that contains the required information reduces processing delays by reducing the number of applications rejected due to incompleteness. Through public notice and comment, this final rule is required to establish SOPs to support the administration of the special permit and approval programs, and objective criteria to support the evaluation of special permit and approval applications. These amendments do not change previously established policies, to include but not limited to any inspection activities subsequent to issuance, modification or renewal of a special permit and approval.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is correcting the final guidance that appeared in the Federal Register on September 14, 2010 (75 FR 55673) and December 26, 2013 (78 FR 78589). OMB is amending the guidance to make technical corrections where needed. The final guidance is revised to remove references to the ``System of Award Management'' and replace them with the correct term ``System for Award Management''. With respect to the technical corrections to the final guidance, these corrections are included only where it has come to the attention of the Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) that particular language in the final guidance did not match with the COFAR's intent and would result in an erroneous implementation of the guidance. These technical corrections will go into effect at the time of issuance. Guidance on effective/applicability date is revised to allow a grace period of two fiscal years for non-Federal entities to implement changes to their procurement policies and procedures in accordance with guidance on procurement standards. Other requirements in the section remain as originally published. Technical corrections are made to eliminate conflicting or unclear language and grammatical inconsistencies or citation errors throughout.

We are proposing to amend the scrapie regulations by changing the risk groups and categories established for individual animals and for flocks, increasing the use of genetic testing as a means of assigning risk levels to animals, reducing movement restrictions for animals found to be genetically less susceptible or resistant to scrapie, and simplifying, reducing, or removing certain recordkeeping requirements. We also propose to provide designated scrapie epidemiologists with more alternatives and flexibility when testing animals in order to determine flock designations under the regulations. We propose to change the definition of high-risk animal, which will change the types of animals eligible for indemnity, and to pay higher indemnity for certain pregnant ewes and early maturing ewes. The proposed changes would also make the identification and recordkeeping requirements for goat owners consistent with those for sheep owners. These changes would affect sheep and goat producers, persons who handle sheep and goats in interstate commerce, and State governments.