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

This is a Notice of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Louisiana (FEMA- 1792-DR), dated 09/13/2008. Incident: Hurricane Ike. Incident Period: 09/11/2008 and continuing. Effective Date: 09/13/2008. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 11/12/2008. Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 06/15/2009.

This is a Notice of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Texas (FEMA-1791- DR), dated 09/13/2008. Incident: Hurricane Ike. Incident Period: 09/07/2008 through 10/02/2008. Effective Date: 09/13/2008. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 11/12/2008. Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 06/15/2009.

The Board published an interim final rule with request for public comment in the Federal Register on October 22, 2008 ( 73 FR 62851), providing that bank holding companies that issue new senior perpetual preferred stock to the U.S Department of Treasury under the capital purchase program announced by the Secretary of the Treasury on October 14, 2008, may include such capital instruments in Tier 1 capital for purposes of the Board's risk-based and leverage capital rules and guidelines for bank holding companies. The Public Law was cited incorrectly. This document corrects the citation in footnote 1 of the Supplementary Information and in the interim final regulation by revising these sections.

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the State of Florida (FEMA-1785-DR), dated 08/26/ 2008. Incident: Tropical Storm Fay. Incident Period: 08/18/2008 through 09/12/2008. Effective Date: 10/16/2008. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 10/27/2008. EIDL Loan Application Deadline Date: 05/26/2009.

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Florida (FEMA-1785-DR), dated 08/24/2008. Incident: Tropical Storm Fay. Incident Period: 08/18/2008 through 09/12/2008. Effective Date: 10/16/2008. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 10/23/2008. Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 05/25/2009.

Pursuant to sections 254(a)(11)(A) and 255(b) of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Public Law 107-252, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) hereby causes to be published in the Federal Register changes to the HAVA State plans previously submitted by Idaho, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for appointing its members. For appointments to MedPAC that will be effective May 1, 2009, I am announcing the following: Letters of nomination should be submitted between January 1 and March 31, 2009, to ensure adequate opportunity for review and consideration of nominees prior to the appointment of new members.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is amending its Debt Collection regulations by clarifying terminology within the regulation and streamlining administrative wage garnishment hearing procedures. These modifications are few in number and result in revisions to the definition of terms and the process by which a debtor requests a hearing regarding administrative wage garnishment. SBA believes that this rule is routine and noncontroversial, and the Agency anticipates no significant adverse comment. If SBA receives a significant adverse comment, it will withdraw the rule.

The Federal Communications Commission has received Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for the following public information collection(s) pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). An agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number, and no person is required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Comments concerning the accuracy of the burden estimate(s) and any suggestions for reducing the burden should be directed to the person listed in the ``FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT'' section below.

The Audio Division grants a Petition for Rule Making issued at the request of Oregon Radio Partners, proposing the allotments of Channel 290A at Butte Falls, Oregon and Channel 232C3 at Netarts, Oregon, as first local services. Channel 290A at Butte Falls can be allotted, consistent with the minimum distance separation requirements of the Commission's Rules, at reference coordinates 42-36-19 NL and 122-24-38 WL with a site restriction of 14.7 kilometers (9.1 miles) northeast of Butte Falls. Moreover, Channel 232C3 can be allotted to Netarts, consistent with the minimum distance separation requirements of the Commission's Rules, at reference coordinates 45-27-56 NL and 123-58-11 WL with a site restriction of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) northwest of Netarts. The coordinates for Channel 232C3 at Netarts are located 320 kilometers from the Canadian border. As such, Canadian concurrence has been requested. Canada has approved the allotment, not specially negotiated, on Channel 232B1, the international class for this vacant facility. See Supplementary Information, supra.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule Advisory Panel (MAS Panel), a Federal Advisory Committee, will hold public meetings on the following dates: Monday, November 10, 2008 and Wednesday, November 12, 2008. GSA utilizes the MAS program to establish long-term Governmentwide contracts with responsible firms to provide Federal, State, and local government customers with access to a wide variety of commercial supplies (products) and services. The MAS Panel was established to develop advice and recommendations on MAS program pricing policies, provisions, and procedures in the context of current commercial pricing practices. The Panel will be developing recommendations for MAS program pricing provisions for the acquisition of (1) professional services; (2) products; (3) total solutions which consist of professional services and products; and (4) non professional services. In developing the recommendations, the Panel will, at a minimum, address these 5 questions for each of the 4 types of acquisitions envisioned above: (1) Where does competition take place?; (2) If competition takes place primarily at the task/delivery order level, does a fair and reasonable price determination at the MAS contract level really matter?; (3) If the Panel consensus is that competition is at the task order level, are the methods that GSA uses to determine fair and reasonable prices and maintain the price/discount relationship with the basis of award customer(s) adequate?; (4) If the current policy is not adequate, what are the recommendations to improve the policy/guidance?; and (5) If fair and reasonable price determination at the MAS contract level is not beneficial and the fair and reasonable price determination is to be determined only at the task/delivery order level, then what is the GSA role? To that end, the Panel would like to hear from the many stakeholders of the MAS program. The MAS program stakeholders include, but are not limited to, ordering agency contracting officers, GSA contracting officers, schedule contract holders, Congress, program managers, General Accountability Office, and Federal agency Inspector General Offices. The panel is particularly interested in stakeholder views as to how the issues discussed above may relate differently to the purchase of goods, services, or goods and services that are configured to propose an integrated solution to an agency's needs. Written comments may be submitted at any time in accordance with the guidance below. Acquisition of Solutions and Non Professional Services Discussion and RecommendationsMonday, November 10, 2008 and Wednesday, November 12, 2008, Location & Address: The meetings will be held at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue, NW., Ballroom II, Washington, DC 20001. The Washington Court Hotel is within walking distance of the Union Station metro stop. The meeting start time for each day is 9:00am, and will adjourn no later than 5:00 p.m. For presentations before the Panel, the following guidance is provided: Oral comments: The Panel will no longer entertain oral presentations. Written Comments: Written comments must be received ten (10) business days prior to the meeting date so that the comments may be provided to the Panel for their consideration prior to the meeting. Comments should be supplied to Ms. Brooks at the address/contact information noted below in the following format: one hard copy with original signature and one electronic copy via email in Microsoft Word. Subsequent meeting dates, locations, and times will be published at least 15 days prior to the meeting date.

The Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) will hold a vendor meeting to provide new information on the Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers. This meeting will cover two main objectives to include details on the ``Vendor Consortium: Available FAC-P/PM Training from Vendors'' and the revised Vendor Submission Process. First, the FAI Certification Team will address the ``Vendor Consortium: Available FAC-P/PM Training from Vendors'' website. There will be a demonstration on how to use the site, along with a chance for everyone to provide their comments and feedback. The final topic to discuss is the revised Vendor Submission Process. FAI will walk through the revisions and improvements that have been made to the submission process and explain in detail how to go about submitting courses. WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Training developers, vendors with Commercial-Off- The- Shelf (COTS) training products, vendors with capabilities related to the full Instructional System Design (ISD) methodologies, professional associations, educational institutions and acquisition training experts. The meeting will be held November 10, 2008 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am, National Capital Region (NCR) Auditorium located at 301 7th Street, SW Washington, DC. Register by e-mail: mcamburn@fmpconsulting.com, or call (703) 671- 6600 x.105.

The FDIC invites the commenter who filed a public comment at www.regulations.gov on July 9, 2008, relating to the FDIC's Interim Final Rule and Request for Comment involving ``Financial Education Programs That Include the Provision of Bank Products and Services'' to resubmit to the FDIC his or her comment relating to this action. We are taking this action because due to a technical software error, a public comment submitted via www.regulations.gov was not transmitted to the FDIC. Therefore, the FDIC will provide this commenter with a limited opportunity to resubmit his or her comment to the FDIC on or before November 24, 2008.