March 21, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce, 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.

The Department of Commerce, 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.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces the second public teleconference of the Water Security Working Group (WSWG) of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), which was established under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The purpose of this teleconference call is to provide an opportunity for the WSWG members to continue deliberations on their draft report and recommendations on features of active and effective security programs for the water sector (drinking water and wastewater utilities), including incentives to encourage broad adoption of active and effective security programs and measures to track the performance of water security programs. The teleconference will be open to the public by advance registration; an opportunity for public comment will be provided during that time. WSWG findings and recommendations will be provided to the NDWAC for their consideration. The WSWG anticipates providing findings and recommendations to the NDWAC in spring 2005. The WSWG has met in-person four times and had one previous public teleconference. One additional in-person meeting of the WSWG and one additional public teleconference are planned and will be announced in the near future.

EPA is proposing to approve the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's submittals of revisions to the Arizona state implementation plan that include substitution of the clean fuel fleet program requirement with the cleaner burning gasoline program, adoption of the serious area 1-hour ozone plan, and adoption of the 1-hour ozone maintenance plan for the Phoenix (Arizona) metropolitan 1-hour ozone nonattainment area. We are also proposing to approve Arizona's request to redesignate the Phoenix metropolitan 1-hour ozone nonattainment area from nonattainment to attainment. EPA proposes these actions pursuant to those provisions of the Clean Air Act that obligate the agency to take action on submittals of revisions to state implementation plans and requests for redesignation. In addition, under section 107 of the Clean Air Act, we are proposing to revise the boundary of the Phoenix metropolitan 1-hour ozone nonattainment area to exclude the Gila River Indian Reservation. EPA is proposing this last action consistent with the Federal trust responsibility to the Tribes and for the purpose of relieving the Agency or the Gila River Indian Community of the need to promulgate and implement plans and measures for the Community that are not needed for attainment or maintenance of the 1-hour or 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard.

The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices or unfair methods of competition. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both the allegations in the draft complaint that accompanies the consent agreement and the terms of the consent orderembodied in the consent agreementthat would settle these allegations.

The Office of Personnel Management is issuing interim regulations to implement a provision of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 which provides a higher annual leave accrual rate of 1 day (8 hours) per biweekly pay period for members of the Senior Executive Service, employees in senior-level and scientific or professional positions, and other employees covered by equivalent pay systems.

OPM is publishing notice of its computer matching program with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to meet the reporting requirements of Pub. L. 100-503. The purpose of this match is for SSA to establish the conditions under which the SSA agrees to disclose tax return information to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The SSA records will be used in a matching program in which OPM will match SSA's tax return records with OPM's records on disability retirees under age 60, disabled adult child survivors, certain retirees in receipt of a supplemental benefit under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and certain annuitants receiving a discontinued service retirement benefit under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).

This document informs the public that at the request of the United States Postal Service Governors, the Commission will reconsider its opinion and recommended decision approving a negotiated service agreement in docket number MC2004-3. The Postal Service has been allowed until April 15, 2005, to submit arguments in favor of reconsideration. The dates for further procedural steps will be determined after the Postal Service submission has been reviewed.

The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is removing the special grade designation ``off-color'' from the United States Standards for Beans. GIPSA will continue to offer assessments for color uniformity on a request basis. This action will facilitate the marketing of beans from many different regions.

OSHA is announcing that the collections of information contained in the Fire Protection in Shipyard Employment Standard (29 CFR part 1915, subpart P) have been approved by OMB under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The OMB approval number is 1218-0248.

A meeting of the Dakotas Resource Advisory Council will be held May 3-4, 2005, in Fort Meade, SD. At 3 p.m. on May 3 we will meet at 54 Sheridan Street in Fort Meade, SD. The meeting will reconvene on Wednesday at 8 a.m. Agenda items include: National Cemetery, Prairie Dogs, Sage Grouse Conservation Plan review, Coteau Coal Mine, ND Grasslands fire damage and rehabilitation. The meeting is open to the public and a public comment period is set for 1 p.m. on May 4, 2005. The public may make oral statements before the Council or file written statements for the Council to consider. Depending on the number of persons wishing to make an oral statement, a per-person time limit may be established. Summary minutes of the meeting will be available for public inspection and copying. The 15-member Council advises the Secretary of the Interior, through the Bureau of Land Management, on a variety of planning and management issues associated with public land management in the Dakotas.

The following Water Management Plans are available for review: City of Folsom; Plain View Water District; City of Shasta Lake; Tulare Irrigation District. To meet the requirements of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992 (CVPIA) and the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982, the Bureau of Reclamation has developed and published the Criteria for Evaluating Water Management Plans (Criteria). Note: For the purpose of this announcement, Water Management Plans (Plans) are considered the same as Water Conservation Plans. The above districts have developed Plans, which Reclamation has evaluated and preliminarily determined to meet the requirements of these Criteria. Reclamation is publishing this notice in order to allow the public to review the Plans and comment on the preliminary determinations. Public comment on Reclamation's preliminary (i.e., draft) determination is invited at this time.

This Federal Register Notice seeks the input and nominations of interested parties for candidate microbes, microbial consortia, and 250Mb-or-less-sized organisms for draft genomic sequencing in support of Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) programs, among them, the Genomics: GTL Program, the Climate Change Research Program, the Terrestrial Carbon Processes Program, the Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) Program, the Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP), the Ocean Science Program, and the Program for Ecosystem Research. Additional programs of relevance include the Energy Biosciences, and Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology Programs in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Nominated candidates should be relevant to DOE mission needs, e.g., organisms involved in environmental processes, including waste remediation, carbon management, and energy production. This announcement is not an offer of direct financial support for research on these organisms. Those nominations selected will result in the DNA sequence of selected organisms being determined at a draft level (6-8 X coverage) at the DOE Production Genomics Facility (PGF) at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), (https://www.jgi.doe.gov). A subset of the selected organisms may be identified for sequence finishing. This announcement is designed to assist DOE in determining and prioritizing a list of microbes, microbial consortia, or modest-genome sized (not more than 250Mb) organisms (including eukaryotes) that address DOE mission needs. Following merit review, and a determination of satisfactory programmatic relevance, draft sequencing will be carried out at the PGF.

This notice publishes approval of the TribalState Compact between the Osage Nation and the State of Oklahoma.

This notice publishes approval of the First Amendment to the Tribal-State Compact between the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and the State of Nevada.

In compliance with the requirements of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects, the Office of Science Education, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects to be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. Proposed Collection: Title: The Effectiveness of the NIH Curriculum Supplements and Workshops Survey. Information Collection Request: New. Need and Use of Information Collection: The survey will attempt to assess the effectiveness of the NIH curriculum supplements in aiding teachers to teach science in a more engaging and interactive way. The supplements help k-12 educators teach science in more engaging and effective ways by featuring the latest NIH research. A typical supplement contains two weeks of student activities on the science behind a health topic, such as cancer, sleep or obesity. Web-based simulations, animations and experiments enhance the ``pencil and paper'' activities. In addition to developing and distributing the supplements, OSE conducts professional workshops to help teachers successfully implement these lessons with their students. Since January 2000, over 3,000 teachers have attended an OSE workshop. Assessing the effectiveness of the NIH Curriculum Supplements and teacher workshops is critical to determining if OSE is successfully fulfilling its mission. OSE has the database infrastructure in place to easily collect customer satisfaction data from supplement requesters and workshop attendees. At present, we do not have clearance to contact our customers to determine how NIH resources are meeting their educational needs.