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

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (FEMA-1798-DR), dated 10/01/2008. Incident: Severe Storms and Flooding. Incident Period: 09/21/2008 through 10/03/2008. Effective Date: 10/08/2008. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 12/01/2008. EIDL Loan Application Deadline Date: 07/01/2009.

The NCUA is submitting the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). This information collection is published to obtain comments from the public.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act and supporting regulations, this document announces that the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (the Institute), part of the Morris K. Udall Foundation, is submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for an extension for the currently approved information collection (ICR), OMB control Number 3320-0008: Application for the National Roster of Environmental Dispute Resolution and Consensus Building, currently operating pursuant to OMB clearance issued October 25, 2005 and which expires January 31, 2009 (OMB granted extension from previous expiration date of October 31, 2008). The U.S. Institute published a Federal Register Notice on July 30, 2008 (73 FR 44289-44290), to solicit public comments for a 60-day period. The U.S. Institute received no comments. Thus, no changes were made to the application. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments regarding this information collection. Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information has practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the time spent completing the application (burden of the proposed collection of information), including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission published in the Federal Register of March 25, 2008, a final rule amending its flammability standard for general wearing apparel, the Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles, 16 CFR Part 1610. The published rule contained some incorrect typographical symbols and other inadvertent errors. This document corrects those symbols and errors.

The Federal Election Commission (``Commission'') requests comments on the proposed deletion of its rules regarding increased contribution limits and coordinated party expenditure limits for Senate and House of Representatives candidates facing self-financed opponents. These rules were promulgated to implement sections 304 and 319 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as the ``Millionaires' Amendment.'' In Davis v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court held that sections 319(a) and (b), regarding House of Representatives elections, were unconstitutional. The Court's holding also applies to the contribution and spending limits in section 304 regarding Senate elections. The Commission, therefore, proposes to remove its current rules that implement the Millionaires' Amendment. In addition, the Commission proposes to retain certain other rules that generally are applicable throughout the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the ``Act'' or ``FECA''). The Commission has made no final decision on the issues presented in this rulemaking. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is adopting an interim final temporary rule under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act'') to address abusive ``naked'' short selling in all equity securities by requiring that participants of a clearing agency registered with the Commission deliver securities by settlement date, or if the participants have not delivered shares by settlement date, immediately purchase or borrow securities to close out the fail to deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the settlement day following the day the participant incurred the fail to deliver position. Failure to comply with the close-out requirement of the temporary rule is a violation of the temporary rule. In addition, a participant that does not comply with this close-out requirement, and any broker-dealer from which it receives trades for clearance and settlement, will not be able to short sell the security either for itself or for the account of another, unless it has previously arranged to borrow or borrowed the security, until the fail to deliver position is closed out.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is adopting an antifraud rule under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act'') to address fails to deliver securities that have been associated with ``naked'' short selling. The rule will further evidence the liability of short sellers, including broker-dealers acting for their own accounts, who deceive specified persons about their intention or ability to deliver securities in time for settlement (including persons that deceive their broker-dealer about their locate source or ownership of shares) and that fail to deliver securities by settlement date.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the Planetary Protection Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). This Subcommittee reports to the Science Committee of the NAC. The Meeting will be held for the purpose of soliciting from the scientific community and other person's scientific and technical information relevant to program planning.

The Committee is proposing to delete a product from the Procurement List previously furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities. Comments Must Be Received on or Before: 11/16/2008.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reopening the period for public comment on new rules that it originally proposed in Securities Act Release No. 8933 (June 25, 2008) [73 FR 37752 (July 1, 2008)]. The Commission proposed a rule that would, if adopted, define the terms ``annuity contract'' and ``optional annuity contract'' under the Securities Act of 1933. The proposed rule is intended to clarify the status under the federal securities laws of indexed annuities. The Commission also proposed to exempt insurance companies from filing reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with respect to indexed annuities and other securities that are registered under the Securities Act, provided that the securities are regulated under state insurance law, the issuing insurance company and its financial condition are subject to supervision and examination by a state insurance regulator, and the securities are not publicly traded.

The subject five-year review was initiated in July 2008 to determine whether revocation of the countervailing duty order on DRAMs and DRAM modules from Korea would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury. On October 3, 2008, the Department of Commerce published notice that it was revoking the order effective August 11, 2008, ``{b{time} ecause the domestic interested party did not file a substantive response by the applicable deadline and has withdrawn its notice of intent to participate in this sunset review * * *'' (73 FR 57594). Accordingly, pursuant to section 751(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1675(c)), the subject review is terminated.

The Commission is adding several recently-negotiated Global Expedited Package Service contracts to the competitive product list. This action is consistent with changes in a recent law governing postal operations. Re-publication of the lists of market dominant and competitive products is also consistent with new requirements in the law.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) has adopted final amendments to its Regulation A to reflect the Board's approval of a decrease in the primary credit rate at each Federal Reserve Bank. The secondary credit rate at each Reserve Bank automatically decreased by formula as a result of the Board's primary credit rate action.

The Commission addresses the obligations of small cable systems, and grants them an exemption from the material degradation requirement to carry high definition broadcast signals under the Commission's rules. The Commission holds that cable systems that either have 2,500 or fewer subscribers and are not affiliated with a large cable operator, or have an activated channel capacity of 552 MHz or less, are exempt from the requirement to carry high definition versions of broadcast signals. This exemption will sunset three years after the conclusion of the digital television (DTV) Transition. The Commission notes that the signals of all must-carry stations must continue to be made viewable to all subscribers pursuant to the Commission's rules.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulations on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single-Employer Plans and Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans prescribe interest assumptions for valuing and paying benefits under terminating single-employer plans. This final rule amends the regulations to adopt interest assumptions for plans with valuation dates in November 2008. Interest assumptions are also published on the PBGC's Web site (https://www.pbgc.gov).

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the State of Indiana (FEMA-1795-DR), dated 09/23/ 2008. Incident: Severe storms and flooding. Incident Period: 09/12/2008 and continuing through 10/06/2008. Effective Date: 10/06/2008. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 11/24/2008. EIDL Loan Application Deadline Date: 06/23/2009.

On September 15, 2008, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a ``Notice of Availability of Draft and Request for Comments'' (See 73 FR 53286) on its proposed revised Enforcement Policy (Enforcement Policy or Policy). Subsequent to the September 15th publication, errors were identified in section 6.3, Materials Operations and section 6.7, Health Physics, of the proposed revised Policy. The NRC has corrected sections 6.3 and 6.7 and is making publicly available the corrected document as described below. No other changes or corrections have been made to the proposed revised Enforcement Policy published on September 15, 2008.