Agencies and Commissions August 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is required to publish a notice of permit applications received to conduct activities regulated under the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978. NSF has published regulations under the Antarctic Conservation Act at Title 45 Part 670 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This is the required notice of permit applications received.

This action adds services to the Procurement List that will be provided by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities.

This is a Notice of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the State of Oklahoma (FEMA-4078-DR), dated 08/22/2012. Incident: Freedom Wildfire. Incident Period: 08/03/2012 through 08/14/2012. Effective Date: 08/22/2012. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 10/22/2012. Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 05/22/2013.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined not to review two initial determinations (``IDs'') (Order Nos. 23-24) of the presiding administrative law judge (``ALJ'') granting a joint motion by Complainant and Respondent Avaya Inc. (``Avaya'') to terminate the investigation for Respondent Avaya based on settlement and a motion by Complainant to terminate the investigation in its entirety based on withdrawal of the complaint.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) has published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed International Isotopes Fluorine Extraction Process and Depleted Uranium Deconversion Plant (INIS) in Lea County, New Mexico. On December 30, 2009, International Isotopes Fluorine Products, Inc. (IIFP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Isotopes, Inc., submitted a license application that proposes the construction, operation, and decommissioning of a fluorine extraction and depleted uranium deconversion facility (the ``proposed action''). IIFP proposes to locate the facility near Hobbs, New Mexico.

This document seeks comment on post-reconfiguration 800 MHz band channel plans along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau), by this action, affords interested parties an opportunity to submit comments and reply comments on proposals for establishing and implementing reconfigured 800 MHz channel plans along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will host a one day roundtable entitled ``Technology and Trading: Promoting Stability in Today's Markets'' to discuss ways to promote stability in markets that rely on highly automated systems. The roundtable will focus on the relationship between the operational stability and integrity of our securities market and the ways in which market participants design, implement, and manage complex and inter-connected trading technologies. The roundtable discussion will be held in the multi-purpose room of the Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters at 100 F Street NE., in Washington, DC on September 14, 2012 from 10 a.m. to approximately 4 p.m. The public is invited to observe the roundtable discussion. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The roundtable discussion also will be available via webcast on the Commission's Web site at www.sec.gov. The roundtable will consist of two panels. The morning panel will focus on error preventionwhere technology experts will discuss current best practices and practical constraints for creating, deploying, and operating mission-critical systems, including those that are used to automatically generate and route orders, match trades, confirm transactions, and disseminate data. The afternoon panel will focus on error responsewhere panelists will discuss how the market might employ independent filters, objective tests, and other real-time processes or crisis-management procedures to detect, limit, and possibly terminate erroneous market activities when they do occur, thereby limiting the impact of such errors.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is required to publish notice of permit modifications issued under the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978. This is the required notice.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Regulatory Secretariat 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 concerning claims and appeals. A notice was published in the Federal Register at 77 FR 18819, on March 28, 2012. One respondent submitted comments. Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of functions of the FAR, 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; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways in which we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Regulatory Secretariat 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 concerning Integrity of Unit Prices. Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary; 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; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways in which we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively, the agencies) are seeking comment on three notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRs) that would revise and replace the agencies' current capital rules. This NPR (Standardized Approach NPR) includes proposed changes to the agencies' general risk-based capital requirements for determining risk-weighted assets (that is, the calculation of the denominator of a banking organization's risk-based capital ratios). The proposed changes would revise and harmonize the agencies' rules for calculating risk- weighted assets to enhance risk-sensitivity and address weaknesses identified over recent years, including by incorporating certain international capital standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) set forth in the standardized approach of the ``International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: A Revised Framework'' (Basel II), as revised by the BCBS between 2006 and 2009, and other proposals addressed in recent consultative papers of the BCBS. In this NPR, the agencies also propose alternatives to credit ratings for calculating risk-weighted assets for certain assets, consistent with section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). The revisions include methodologies for determining risk-weighted assets for residential mortgages, securitization exposures, and counterparty credit risk. The changes in the Standardized Approach NPR are proposed to take effect on January 1, 2015, with an option for early adoption. The Standardized Approach NPR also would introduce disclosure requirements that would apply to top-tier banking organizations domiciled in the United States with $50 billion or more in total assets, including disclosures related to regulatory capital instruments. In connection with the proposed changes to the agencies' capital rules in this NPR, the agencies are also seeking comment on the two related NPRs published elsewhere in today's Federal Register. The two related NPR's are discussed further in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are revising their market risk capital rules to better capture positions for which the market risk capital rules are appropriate; reduce procyclicality; enhance the rules' sensitivity to risks that are not adequately captured under current methodologies; and increase transparency through enhanced disclosures. The final rule does not include all of the methodologies adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for calculating the standardized specific risk capital requirements for debt and securitization positions due to their reliance on credit ratings, which is impermissible under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Instead, the final rule includes alternative methodologies for calculating standardized specific risk capital requirements for debt and securitization positions.