April 14, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is publishing this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by increasing the country scope of chemical/biological (CB) controls on those Commerce Control List (CCL) entries that contain chemical/ biological equipment and related technology included on the Australia Group (AG) Common Control Lists. Specifically, this final rule expands the country scope of the CB license requirements for these CCL entries from certain countries of concern for chemical/biological weapons reasons to all destinations, worldwide, except for those countries that participate in the Australia Group (AG). These changes are intended to make the EAR license requirements that apply to chemical/biological equipment and related technology identified on the AG Common Control Lists consistent with the AG ``Guidelines for Transfers of Sensitive Chemical or Biological Items.'' In addition, this rule amends certain end-user and end-use based controls in the EAR by expanding these controls to include transfers (in-country), as well as exports and reexports. Specifically, this final rule expands the EAR restrictions on certain chemical and biological weapons end-uses to apply to exports, reexports, and transfers of items subject to the EAR to or within any country or destination, worldwide. Prior to the publication of this rule, such restrictions applied only to exports and reexports. Finally, this rule amends the EAR by expanding the country scope of the restrictions on certain activities of U.S. persons to include activities in support of the design, development, production, stockpiling, or use of chemical or biological weapons in or by any country or destination, worldwide. This change makes the country scope of these U.S. person controls consistent with the country scope of the chemical and biological weapons end-user/end-use controls in Section 744.4 of the EAR, as described above.

NMFS proposes 2005 fishing year (FY) Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for Georges Bank (GB) cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area, and provides notice that these TACs may be adjusted during FY 2005, if NMFS determines that the harvest of these stocks in FY 2004 exceeded the TACs specified for FY 2004. The intent of this action is to provide for the conservation and management of those three stocks of fish.

We are approving a proposed amendment to the Virginia regulatory program under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). The program amendment revises Virginia's Coal Surface Mining Reclamation Regulations concerning performance bonds furnished pursuant to the Coal Surface Mining Reclamation (Pool Bond) Fund. The amendment is intended to conform the performance bond release procedures that are applied to Virginia's ``alternative bonding system'' with bond release procedures used for other performance bonds. The amendment is also intended to clarify language regarding minimum bond amounts for phased bond release.

The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Learjet Model 23, 24, 24A, 24B, 24B-A, 24D, 24D-A, 24E, 24F, 25, 25A, 25B, 25C, 25D, and 25F airplanes. This proposed AD would require removing the thrust reverser accumulator, and making the thrust reverser hydraulic system and the thrust reversers inoperable. This proposed AD is prompted by reports of the failure of two thrust reverser accumulators. We are proposing this AD to prevent failure of the thrust reverser accumulators, due to fatigue cracking on the female threads, which could result in the loss of hydraulic power and damage to the surrounding airplane structure.

This tentative partial decision adopts, on an interim final and emergency basis, proposals that would amend certain features of the pooling standards and transportation credit provisions of the Upper Midwest (UMW) milk marketing order. A separate decision will be issued at a later time that will address proposals concerning the depooling and repooling of milk, temporary loss of Grade A status, and increasing the maximum administrative assessment. This decision requires determining if producers approve the issuance of the amended order on an interim basis.

This proposed rule would revise the regulations for the Public Housing Operating Fund Program (Operating Fund Program). Through the Operating Fund Program, HUD determines the allocation of operating subsidies to public housing agencies (PHAs). HUD developed the proposed rule with the active participation of PHAs, public housing residents, and other relevant parties using the procedures of the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990. These regulatory changes reflect the recommendations made by the negotiated rulemaking committee, with some modifications, on ways to improve and clarify the current regulations governing the Operating Fund Program and take into consideration the recommendations of the congressionally-funded study by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design on the cost of operating well-run public housing.

The EPA is proposing to approve State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the Governor of New Mexico on September 7, 2004. The submittal revises the second ten-year carbon monoxide (CO) maintenance plan for the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County, New Mexico area. The submittal also revises the relevant parts of the New Mexico Administrative Code including revisions to the General Provisions, Inspection and Maintenance Program, and the contingency measures. We are proposing to approve these revisions in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act.

On January 5, 2005, EPA promulgated air quality designations for all areas for the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particles (i.e. particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, also known as PM2.5) (70 FR 944). We designated 47 areas composed of 224 counties and the District of Columbia as nonattainment. We designated 5 areas comprised of 7 counties as unclassifiable. We designated the remaining counties in the United States as attainment/ unclassifiable. We based the designations in the January 5, 2005, final rule on air quality monitoring data from the 3-year period of 2001 to 2003. In that action, we provided that these designations would be effective 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register, which is April 5, 2005. Because the designations occurred at the end of 2004, we indicated our desire to consider 2004 data where feasible in order to evaluate attainment status based upon data from the 3-year period of 2002 to 2004. We explained that we would consider any complete, quality-assured, and certified 2004 PM2.5 data submitted by any State to EPA by February 22, 2005, if such data indicated that a change in the designation for the entire area would be appropriate. In the January 5, 2005, action, we stated that if EPA agreed that a change in the designation was appropriate based upon the inclusion of 2004 data, then EPA would withdraw the initial designation for the area and issue a designation that reflected the consideration of the new data before the April 5, 2005, effective date. Today's action addresses areas for which States have submitted complete, quality-assured, and certified PM2.5 air quality data for 2004, and it modifies the designation status to attainment for eight areas we originally designated as nonattainment and for four areas we originally designated as unclassifiable. This action also includes technical corrections related to boundary descriptions for a few areas included in the January 5, 2005, action. The EPA has received a number of other petitions in connection with the PM2.5 designations pertaining to issues other than inclusion of 2004 data as a basis for changing the designation prior to the effective date. The EPA is not responding to those petitions in this document and will be evaluating and responding to those petitions separately.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations providing guidance under section 3402(f) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for employers and employees relating to the Form W-4, ``Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate.'' The temporary regulations provide rules for the submission of copies of certain withholding exemption certificates to the IRS, the notification provided to the employer and the employee of the maximum number of withholding exemptions permitted, and the use of substitute forms. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these proposed regulations.

This document contains temporary and final regulations relating to certain business entities included on the list of foreign business entities that are always classified as corporations for Federal tax purposes. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.