Office of the Secretary January 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary issues this amendment pursuant to section 319F-3 of the Public Health Service Act to expand the authority for certain Qualified Persons authorized to prescribe, dispense, and administer seasonal influenza vaccines under section VI of this Declaration.

The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, enacted in December 2015, authorized the establishment of a Regional Infrastructure Accelerators Demonstration Program (the Program) to assist entities in developing improved infrastructure priorities and financing strategies for the accelerated development of a project that is eligible for funding under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) Credit Program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, enacted on December 27, 2020, appropriated $5 million for this Program. A NOFO was issued in December 2020 and five accelerators were selected from the initial round of applicants. The Build America Bureau (the Bureau) is issuing a second NOFO to further expand the Program and solicit applications for designating and funding Regional Infrastructure Accelerators (RIA) that: (1) Serve a defined geographic area; (2) act as a resource to qualified entities in the geographic area in accordance with the FAST Act; and (3) demonstrate the effectiveness of an RIA to expedite the delivery of projects eligible for the TIFIA credit program. Projects are not required to apply for or receive TIFIA credit assistance to be eligible; however, applicants who are considering the appropriateness of innovative financing methods such as TIFIA, the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) credit program, Private Activity Bonds (PABs), project bundling, private investment, and other innovative financing methods to accelerate the delivery of eligible projects are strongly encouraged to apply.

This final rule revises the Department of Commerce's (Commerce) regulations, known as ``Touhy regulations,'' that set forth the procedures for responding to requests for documents or testimony for use in legal proceedings. The revisions provide greater clarity to entities seeking documents or testimony from current or former Department employees. Specifically, these revisions clarify, update, and streamline the language of several provisions, provide greater transparency regarding the factors that the agency will consider when reviewing such requests, and more directly address issues that frequently arise in requests for documents or testimony based on the facts of the request, such as whether the testimony requested is that of a former employee, whether the United States is a party to the underlying legal proceedings, or whether the testimony or documents are requested from the Office of the Inspector General.