May 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document amends the delegations of authority from the Secretary of Agriculture in order to reflect the Secretary's designation of the General Counsel as the Department official responsible for delegating the authority to other Department heads for considering, ascertaining, adjusting, determining, compromising, and settling, pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and regulations of the Attorney General, claims less than $2500 that allege the negligence or wrongful act of an employee of a certain agency.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is adopting, as a final rule, without change, an interim final rule reducing the minimum maturity requirements for fresh grapefruit under the marketing order for Oranges, Grapefruit, Tangerines, and Tangelos Grown in Florida (order). The Citrus Administrative Committee (Committee), which locally administers the order, recommended this change. This rule continues in effect the action that reduced the minimum maturity requirement for soluble solids (sugars) from 8.0 percent to 7.5 percent until July 31, 2005. This action makes additional quantities of grapefruit available for the fresh market and will help reduce the losses sustained by the grapefruit industry during the recent hurricanes in Florida.

The Coast Guard proposes to amend the permanent special local regulations for the Suncoast Offshore Challenge and the Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix in the Gulf of Mexico near Sarasota, Florida. By existing permanent special local regulations, these two race events have nearly identical course and time characteristics, however one event is held annually on the first Saturday of July and the other event is held annually on the first Sunday of July. The sponsor has decided to combine the events into a single day, reduced the length of the racecourse, and modified the times of the event which would take place annually on the first Sunday of July between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). These amended regulations are necessary to provide for the safety of life for the participating vessels, spectators, and mariners on the navigable waters of the United States during the event.

The Coast Guard proposes to establish a temporary security zone on the waters of the upper Potomac River. This action is necessary to provide for the security of a large number of visitors to the annual July 4th celebration on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The security zone will allow for control of a designated area of the river and safeguard spectators and high-ranking officials.

This action revokes Jet Route 711 (J-711), modifies Jet Routes 133 and 889R (J-133 and J-889R), and modifies two colored Federal airways (B-25 and A-1) in Alaska. The FAA is taking this action to remove all airways and routes off the Hinchinbrook, AK, Nondirectional Radio Beacon (NDB) in preparation for the NDB's eventual decommissioning from the National Airspace System (NAS).

The Coast Guard proposes a permanent fixed security zone in the waters from the Don Holt, I-526 Bridge, on the Cooper River to the entrance of Foster Creek on the Cooper River, South Carolina. This security zone is necessary to protect the public and port from potential subversive acts during port embarkation operations. During enforcement of the security zone vessels would be prohibited from entering, transiting, anchoring, mooring, or loitering within this zone, unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Charleston, South Carolina, or the Captain of the Port's designated representative.

The FAA is revising Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2004-25-16, which applies to aircraft equipped with a fuel regulator shutoff valve part number (P/N) 14D11, A14D11, B14D11, C14D11, 23D04, A23D04, B23D04, C23D04, or P23D04 used with B1500, B2030, B2500, B3040, B3500, B4050, or B4500 B-Series combustion heaters. AD 2004-25-16 currently requires you to repetitively inspect the fuel regulator shutoff valve (visually or by pressure test) for fuel leakage and replace the fuel regulator shutoff valve with an improved design replacement part with a manufacturer's date code of 02/02 or later if fuel leakage is found. AD 2004-25-16 also allows you to disable the heater as an alternative method of compliance. Since we issued AD 2004-25-16, we received several comments requesting a revision to paragraph (e)(2). Consequently, this AD retains the actions required in AD 2004-25-16 and revises the requirements in paragraph (e)(2) to remove a required action. We are issuing this AD to prevent failure of the fuel regulator shutoff valve, which could result in fuel leakage in aircraft with these combustion heaters. This failure could result in an aircraft fire.

DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to add policy permitting assignment of an additional identification number to an existing contract for administrative purposes. This proposed rule is a result of a transformation initiative undertaken by DoD to dramatically change the purpose and content of the DFARS.

DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to update text pertaining to contract financing. This proposed rule is a result of a transformation initiative undertaken by DoD to dramatically change the purpose and content of the DFARS.

This emergency rule establishes routine management measure authority, under the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP), to reduce trip limits to incidental levels in the open access fishery for groundfish before the sector has taken its full target groundfish species' allocations, to minimize impacts on overfished species. This action establishes a mechanism that can be used to quickly restrict the directed open access groundfish fishery if NMFS estimates that the incidental catch of an overfished species is too high.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) plans to amend its regulations to remove the reporting requirements for five annual surveys covering international trade in services. The five annual surveys that would be discontinued are: BE-36, BE-47, BE-48, BE-82, and BE-93. BEA proposed to discontinue these surveys because they have been replaced by quarterly surveys that collect essentially the same information.

The Coast Guard proposes to revise regulations governing safety zones for fireworks displays in Long Island Sound. This revision would establish 9 new permanent safety zones, would revise the location for one established fireworks safety zone, and would amend the notification and enforcement provisions to include additional launches from beach areas. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on navigable waters during the events.

This document confirms the effective date of the direct final rule which revises Class E airspace at Mountain Grove, MO.

This document confirms the effective date of the direct final rule which revises Class E airspace at Neosho, MO.

This action revises Class E airspace at Kalskag, AK to provide adequate controlled airspace to contain aircraft executing two new Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) and a new Textual Departure Procedure. This Rule results in new Class E airspace upward from 700 feet (ft.) above the surface at Kalskag, AK.

This notice proposes to establish Class E-2 airspace designated as a surface area for Hancock County-Bar harbor Airport, Bar Harbor, Maine. The airport is served by an RNAV/GPS RWY 4 Standard Instrument Approach Procedure (SIAP), an Instrument Landing System (ILS) RWY 22 SIAP, and a Localizer (LOC)/DME RWY 4 SIAP. This proposed action would accommodate these SIAPs and provide additional controlled airspace for aircraft operating under Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations to the airport.

This document corrects temporary regulations (TD 9170) that were published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 (69 FR 76612). The document contains temporary regulations providing guidance concerning the applicability of section 1374 to S corporations that acquire assets in carryover basis transactions from C corporations on or after December 27, 1994, and to certain corporations that terminate S corporation status and later elect again to become S corporations.

This document makes a correction to Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2005-06-07. That AD applies to GE CF6-80A1/A3 and CF6-80C2A series turbofan engines. We published AD 2005-06-07 in the Federal Register on March 21, 2005, (70 FR 13365). A service bulletin number in the compliance section is incorrect. This document corrects that service bulletin number. In all other respects, the original document remains the same.

This interim final rule with comment period revises the list of procedures that are covered when furnished in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) in accordance with section 1833(i)(1) of the Social Security Act. We published our proposed deletions and additions in the Federal Register on November 26, 2004. In this interim final rule, we respond to public comments and make final additions to and deletions from the current list of Medicare approved ambulatory surgical center (ASC) procedures.

The Federal Election Commission seeks comments on proposed changes to its rules defining ``Federal election activity'' under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (``FECA''). The proposed changes would retain the existing definition of ``voter registration activity'' and modify the existing definitions of ``get- out-the-vote activity'' and ``voter identification'' consistent with the ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Shays v. FEC. The Commission has made no final decision on the issues presented in this rulemaking. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.

This proposed rule would terminate language in Table 3, ``Maximum Defect and Minimum Size Levels,'' of the marketing order regulating pistachios produced in the State of California. This language was erroneously included in Table 3 at the time of promulgation of the order. Correction of the table was unanimously recommended by the Administrative Committee for Pistachios, the committee responsible for local administration of the order.

NMFS establishes fishery management measures for the 2005 ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California and the 2006 salmon seasons opening earlier than May 1, 2006. Specific fishery management measures vary by fishery and by area. The measures establish fishing areas, seasons, quotas, legal gear, recreational fishing days and catch limits, possession and landing restrictions, and minimum lengths for salmon taken in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ)(3- 200 nm) off Washington, Oregon, and California. The management measures are intended to prevent overfishing and to apportion the ocean harvest equitably among treaty Indian, non-treaty commercial, and recreational fisheries. The measures are also intended to allow a portion of the salmon runs to escape the ocean fisheries in order to provide for spawning escapement and to provide for inside fisheries (fisheries occurring in state internal waters).

The General Services Administration is amending the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) by adding the requirement that transportation managers who obligate the Government for rate tender procurements must be properly authorized in writing. This written authorization will certify that the transportation manager is competent and trained in transportation management and has the authority to commit Government funds for the procurement of transportation or transportation services. The FMR and any corresponding documents may be accessed at GSA's website at https://www.gsa.gov/fmr.