Agencies and Commissions January 27, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft NUREG/CR-7209, ``A Compendium of Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response Analyses to Severe Fire Accident Scenarios.'' This report summarizes studies of rail and truck transport accidents involving fires, relative to regulatory requirements for shipment of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF).

The NCUA Operating Budget has two primary funding mechanisms: (1) An Overhead Transfer, which is funded by federal credit unions (FCUs) and federally insured state-chartered credit unions (FISCUs); and (2) annual Operating Fees, which are charged only to FCUs. In a voluntary effort to invite input from stakeholders representing federal and state-chartered credit unions, the NCUA Board (Board) is simultaneously requesting comments on the methodologies for both funding mechanisms in separate notices in the Federal Register. This request for comments focuses on the methodology NCUA uses to determine the Overhead Transfer Rate (OTR). To facilitate comments, the Board is also assembling and describing its existing OTR methodologies and processes, which are also available on NCUA's Web site. The Board applies the OTR to NCUA's Operating Budget to determine the portion of the budget that will be funded from the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF). The Board invites comments on all aspects of the OTR methodology and any alternatives commenters may offer. Areas the Board specifically seeks comments on include: Whether the OTR should continue to be determined using a formula-driven approach, or instead be set largely at the discretion of the Board; The definition NCUA uses for insurance-related activities; Adjustments or changes to the current calculation; and Alternate methodologies to arrive at an accurate and fair allocation of costs. To be most instructive to the Board, commenters are encouraged to provide the specific basis for their comments and recommendations, as well as documentation to support their proposed adjustments or alternatives.

The NCUA Operating Budget has two primary funding mechanisms: (1) An Overhead Transfer, which is funded by federal credit unions (FCUs) and federally insured state-chartered credit unions (FISCUs); and (2) annual Operating Fees, which are charged only to FCUs. In a voluntary effort to invite input from stakeholders representing federal and state-chartered credit unions, the NCUA Board (Board) is simultaneously requesting comments on the methodologies for both funding mechanisms in separate notices in the Federal Register. This request for comments focuses on the methodology NCUA uses to determine the aggregate amount of Operating Fees charged to federal credit unions, including the fee schedule that allocates the Operating Fees at different rates among FCUs according to various asset thresholds. While the NCUA Board is interested in all comments from the public and stakeholders, commenters are also asked to consider the following questions when responding: (1) Are the asset determination thresholds reasonable; and (2) is the method for forecasting projected asset growth for the credit union system reasonable? Responding to these questions will provide valuable insight to the NCUA Board with respect to how the Operating Fee is administered. To be most instructive to the Board, commenters are encouraged to provide the specific basis for their comments and recommendations, as well as documentation to support their proposed adjustments or alternatives.

The NCUA Board is amending the section of NCUA's regulations addressing the description of NCUA to make minor, non-substantive technical corrections. The technical amendments update the regulations to reflect current agency office functions and responsibilities and will not cause any substantive changes.

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Mississippi (FEMA-4248-DR), dated 01/04/2016. Incident: Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, and Flooding. Incident Period: 12/23/2015 through 12/28/2015.

This is a notice of an Administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of ALABAMA dated 01/15/2016. Incident: Severe Storms and Flooding. Incident Period: 12/23/2015 through 12/31/2015.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is confirming the effective date of February 1, 2016, for the direct final rule that was published in the Federal Register on November 18, 2015. This direct final rule amended the NRC's spent fuel storage regulations by revising the NAC International, Inc., MAGNASTOR[supreg] Cask System listing within the ``List of approved spent fuel storage casks'' to include Revision 1 to Amendment Nos. 0-3 to Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1031. Revision 1 to Amendment Nos. 0-3 to CoC No. 1031 makes changes to the Technical Specifications (TS), including correcting a typographical error in two actual boron loadings in TS 4.1.1(a), and revising the decay times in Tables B2-4 (for Amendment Nos. 0 and 1) and B2-5 (for Amendment Nos. 2 and 3) in Appendix B of the TSs for minimum additional decay time required for spent fuel assemblies that contain nonfuel hardware.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is extending the comment period for a release proposing new Rule 13q-1 and an amendment to Form SD to implement Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act relating to disclosure of payments by resource extraction issuers [Release No. 34-76620 (Dec. 11, 2015); 80 FR 80057 (Dec. 23, 2015)]. The comment period for the proposal is divided between an initial comment period and a period for reply comments. The original initial comment period is scheduled to end on January 25, 2016 and the original period for reply comments is scheduled to end on February 16, 2016. The Commission is extending the time period in which to provide the Commission with initial comments until February 16, 2016 and to provide reply comments until March 8, 2016. This action will allow interested persons additional time to analyze the issues and prepare their comments.

This final rule amends the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) coverage on Construction and Architect- Engineer Contracts, including provisions and clauses for solicitations and resultant contracts, to remove unnecessary regulations.