Agencies and Commissions June 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As part of a Federal governmentwide effort to streamline the process to seek feedback from the public on service delivery, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) has submitted a Generic Information Collection Request: ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' to the Office of Management and Budget for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

The Commission is extending the compliance date for certain recently adopted requirements of Rule 15c3-5 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act''). Specifically, the Commission is extending the compliance date, until November 30, 2011, for all of the requirements of Rule 15c3-5 for fixed income securities, and the requirements of Rule 15c3-5(c)(1)(i) for all securities. The compliance date remains July 14, 2011 for all provisions of Rule 15c3-5 not subject to this limited extension. Among other things, Rule 15c3-5 requires broker-dealers with access to trading securities directly on an exchange or alternative trading system (``ATS''), including those providing sponsored or direct market access to customers or other persons, and broker-dealer operators of an ATS that provide access to trading securities directly on their ATS to a person other than a broker-dealer, to establish, document, and maintain a system of risk management controls and supervisory procedures that, among other things, is reasonably designed to systematically limit the financial exposure of the broker-dealer that could arise as a result of market access, and ensure compliance with all regulatory requirements that are applicable in connection with market access. The Commission is extending the compliance date for all of the requirements of Rule 15c3-5 for fixed income securities, and the requirements of Rule 15c3-5(c)(1)(i) for all securities to give broker- dealers with market access additional time to develop, test, and implement the relevant risk management controls and supervisory procedures required under the Rule.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, 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 (PRA) of 1995. 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; (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; and (e) ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. The FCC 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 PRA that does not display a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

In accordance with Executive Order 13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or ``Commission'') intends to review its existing regulations to evaluate their continued effectiveness in achieving the objectives for which they were adopted. In this regard, the Commission has developed a plan to identify and evaluate its regulations periodically to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, expanded, streamlined or repealed in order to make the agency's regulatory program more effective (the ``Plan'').

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 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 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

Notice is hereby given that a complaint was filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission on May 25, 2011, under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. 1337, on behalf of Otter Products, LLC of Fort Collins, Colorado. A supplement was filed on June 16, 2011. The complaint, as supplemented, alleges violations of section 337 based upon the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, and the sale within the United States after importation of certain protective cases and components thereof by reason of infringement of certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,933,122 (``the '122 patent''); U.S. Patent No. D600,908 (``the '908 patent''); U.S. Patent No. D617,784 (``the '784 patent''); U.S. Patent No. D615,536 (``the '536 patent''); U.S. Patent No. D617,785 (``the '785 patent''); U.S. Patent No. D634,741 (``the '741 patent''); U.S. Patent No. D636,386 (``the '386 patent''); and U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,788,534 (``the '534 trademark''); U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,788,535 (``the '535 trademark''); U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,623,789 (``the '789 trademark''); and U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,795,187 (``the '187 trademark''). The complaint further alleges that an industry in the United States exists as required by subsection (a)(2) of section 337. The complainant requests that the Commission institute an investigation and, after the investigation, issue an exclusion order and cease and desist orders.

The Division of Ocean Sciences in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO/OCE) has prepared the Final PEIS/OEIS (hereafter Final PEIS) as the lead agency with support from the cooperating agencies, USGS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Final PEIS assesses the potential impacts of marine seismic research on the human and natural environment. Under the Proposed Action, a variety of acoustic sources used for research activities funded by NSF or conducted by the USGS would be operated from various research vessels operated by U.S. academic institutions or government agencies. The seismic acoustic sources would include various airgun configurations (particularly strings or arrays with as little as 2 to as many as 36 seismic airguns), as well as low-energy seismic and non- seismic acoustic sources. The Final PEIS examines the potential impacts that may result from marine geophysical research using seismic surveys that are funded by NSF or conducted by the USGS in non-Arctic waters. The Proposed Action is for academic and U.S. government scientists in the U.S., and possible international collaborators, to conduct marine seismic research from research vessels operated by U.S. academic institutions and government agencies. The purpose of the Proposed Action is to fund the investigation of the geology and geophysics of the seafloor by collecting seismic reflection and refraction data that reveal the structure and stratigraphy of the crust and/or overlying sediment below the world's oceans. NSF has a continuing need to fund seismic surveys that enable scientists to collect data essential to understanding the complex Earth processes beneath the ocean floor. Two action alternatives and the No-Action Alternative were assessed. Please note that responses to all comments received (including all written comments and those provided through testimony at the public hearings) on the Draft PEIS (October 2010) are included in Appendix J of the Final PEIS. The transcripts of public hearings are also included in Appendix I. The Final PEIS reflects the changes made to the Draft PEIS based on the comments received. The Final PEIS is now available on the Internet at: https://www.nsf.gov/geo/oce/envcomp/ in Adobe[supreg] portable document format (pdf). The Final PEIS has also been distributed to interested Federal, state, and local agencies, organizations, and individuals.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing to revise the regulations governing qualification requirements for appointment to a Federal position in the competitive service. The purpose of these proposed regulations is to update and clarify information regarding citizenship and age requirements, add new information concerning appealing an agency's qualification determination, retitle the Operating Manual: Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions to include other pay plans or systems, and replace the Operating Manual with a Web site address for OPM's qualification requirements. These regulations also delete obsolete information regarding purchasing the Operating Manual from the Government Printing Office.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB) will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a previously approved information collection requirement regarding information specific to a contract or contracting action (not required by regulation). Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary and whether it will have practical utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection of information is accurate and based on valid assumptions and methodology; and ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to provide revised regulatory coverage on organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs), provide additional coverage regarding contractor access to nonpublic information, and add related provisions and clauses. Section 841 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 required a review of the FAR coverage on OCIs. This proposed rule was developed as a result of a review conducted in accordance with Section 841 by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in consultation with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). This proposed rule was preceded by an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), under FAR Case 2007-018 (73 FR 15962), to gather comments from the public with regard to whether and how to improve the FAR coverage on OCIs. The comment period is being reopened for an additional 30 days to provide additional time for interested parties to review the proposed FAR changes.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) takes immediate action to address potential waste in the universal service Lifeline and Link Up program (Lifeline/Link Up or the program) by preventing duplicative program payments for multiple Lifeline-supported services to the same individual. On March 4, 2011, the Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reform and modernize Lifeline/Link Up. In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission underscored its commitment to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in Lifeline/Link Up and presented a comprehensive set of proposals to better target support to needy consumers and maximize the number of Americans with access to modern communications services. To ensure that Lifeline support is limited to the amount necessary to provide access to telecommunications service to qualifying low-income consumers, we adopt measures to prevent, detect and resolve duplicative Lifeline claims for the same consumer. The near-term reforms we adopt here will reduce waste in the Fund and give the Commission flexibility to modernize the Low-Income Program in order to align it with changes in technology and market dynamics, such as the proposal we currently are reviewing to support broadband pilot projects for low-income consumers.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing an interim final regulation amending the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) regulations and also the Federal Employees Health Benefits Acquisition Regulation (FEHBAR). This interim final regulation replaces the procedure by which premiums for community rated FEHB carriers are compared with the rates charged to a carrier's similarly sized subscriber groups (SSSGs). This new procedure utilizes a medical loss ratio (MLR) threshold, analogous to that defined in both the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Pub. L. 111-148) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) interim final regulation published December 1, 2010 (75 FR 74864). The purpose of this interim final rule is to replace the outdated SSSG methodology with a more modern and transparent calculation while still ensuring that the FEHB is receiving a fair rate. This will result in a more streamlined process for plans and increased competition and plan choice for enrollees. The new process will apply to all community rated plans, except those under traditional community rating (TCR). This new process will be phased in over two years, with optional participation for non-TCR plans in the first year.