Agencies and Commissions January 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In January 2009, mailers will be required to meet one of two options using Intelligent Mail[supreg] barcodes to access automation prices for letters and flats. Automation prices will no longer be available for the use of the POSTNET barcode. This Federal Register notice provides advance information to help mailers understand the mail preparation requirements that the Postal Service will propose when using Intelligent Mail[supreg] barcodes and offers insight into the additional information that will be available to mailers who comply with these requirements.

The Commission's action concerns ``Multiple Dwelling Units'' such as apartment or condominium buildings and centrally managed residential real estate developments (collectively, ``MDUs''); cable operators that provide video service in MDUs; and agreements that grant them the exclusive right to provide video programming service in an MDU. The Commission finds that such agreements, in granting exclusivity, harm competition, the provision of programming to MDU residents, and broadband deployment. Thus, the Commission prohibits the enforcement of existing exclusivity clauses and the execution of new ones by cable operators (and a few others). This prohibition will materially advance the Communications Act's goals of enhancing competition, consumer choice in video service and programming, and broadband deployment.

This document revises the Commission's list of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved public information collection requirements with their associated OMB expiration dates. This list will provide the public with a current list of public information collection requirements approved by OMB and their associated control numbers and expiration dates as of September 28, 2007.

This action adds to the Procurement List products and services to be furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities, and deletes from the Procurement List a product previously furnished by such agencies.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is holding three public meetings to seek public comment to enhance the development of the technical basis for rulemaking proposing to revise NRC regulations on the security requirements for the transportation of Radioactive Material in Quantities of Concern (RAMQC). The goal of this enhanced participatory process is to ensure effective security measures are in place for the protection of radioactive material shipments given the post-September 11, 2001, threat environment. New requirements for recipient license verification; coordination of shipment information; advance notification of shipments; notification of shipment delays, schedule changes and suspected loss; continuous and active shipment position monitoring; two-way and redundant telecommunication; secondary drivers for certain shipments; contingency procedures; and safeguarding shipment information will be incorporated. This document also addresses the State of Washington petition to the NRC requesting that NRC consider adopting global positioning satellite (GPS) technology tracking as a national requirement for mobile or portable uses of radioactive material in quantities of concern.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is adopting amendments to its disclosure and reporting requirements under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to expand the number of companies that qualify for its scaled disclosure requirements for smaller reporting companies. Companies that have less than $75 million in public equity float will qualify for the scaled disclosure requirements under the amendments. Companies without a calculable public equity float will qualify if their revenues were below $50 million in the previous year. To streamline and simplify regulation, the amendments move the scaled disclosure requirements from Regulation S-B into Regulation S-K.

The FDIC published a document in the Federal Register of December 27, 2007, concerning a notice of information collection to be submitted to OMB for review and approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The document contained an outdated estimate of time per response for the proposed survey with the result that the estimated total annual burden for the survey and the total burden for the overall collection were incorrect. In addition, with regard to the case studies, the number of respondents and the estimated time per response for the in-depth interview were outdated and, as a result, the estimated total burden for the case studies aspect of the collection was overstated. For purposes of clarity, information concerning the estimated burden for the collection is re-printed in its entirety.

The Federal Communications Commission, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13. An agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid control number. No person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) that does not display a valid control number. Comments are requested concerning (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Commission's burden estimate; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

This notice publishes the ``2006 Nonforeign Area Cost-of- Living Allowance Survey Report: Alaska and Washington, DC, Areas.'' The Federal Government uses the results of surveys such as these to set cost-of-living allowance (COLA) rates for General Schedule, U.S. Postal Service, and certain other Federal employees in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This report contains the results of the COLA surveys conducted by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, Alaska; and in the Washington, DC, area during the spring and early summer of 2006.