May 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Commander, Eighth Coast Guard District, has issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the BNSF Railway Company Vertical Lift Span Bridge across Berwick Bay, mile 0.4, (Atchafalaya River, mile 17.5) at Morgan City, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on the St. Johns River in Palatka, FL for the Blue Crab Festival. This rule is needed to protect participants, vendors, and spectators from the hazards associated with the launching of fireworks from a pier over water. Entry into or movement within this zone is prohibited without approval of the Captain of the Port Jacksonville.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a request for extension of two previously- approved information collections for which approval will soon expire. OPM uses the two information collections, a price survey and a background survey, to gather data to be used in determining nonforeign area cost-of-living allowances (COLAs) paid to certain Federal employees in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. OPM conducts Price Surveys in the Washington, DC, area on an annual basis and once every 3 years in each allowance area on a rotating basis. Prior to these surveys, OPM conducts Background Surveys that are similar to the Price Surveys, but much more limited in scope. OPM uses the results of the Background Surveys to prepare for the Price Surveys. The COLA Price Survey is necessary for collecting living-cost data used to determine COLAs. OPM uses the Price Survey results to compare prices in the allowance areas with prices in the Washington, DC, area and to derive COLA rates where local living costs significantly exceed those in the DC area. The COLA Background Survey is necessary to determine the continued appropriateness of items, services, and businesses selected for the annual price surveys. OPM uses the Background Survey results to identify items to be priced and the outlets at which OPM will price the items in the Price Surveys. OPM will survey selected retail, service, realty, and other businesses and local governments in the allowance areas and in the Washington, DC, area. OPM will contact approximately 2,000 establishments in each annual Price Survey and approximately 100 establishments in each annual Background Survey. Participation in the surveys is voluntary. OPM estimates that the average price survey interview will take approximately 6 minutes, for a total burden of 200 hours. The average background survey interview will take approximately 6.5 minutes, for a total burden of 11 hours. For copies of this proposal, please contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey at (202) 606-8358; fax: (202) 418-3251; or E-mail: mbtoomey@opm.gov.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) intends to submit to the Office of Management and Budget a request for review of a revised information collection. RI 25-7, Marital Status Certification Survey, is used to determine whether widows, widowers, and former spouses receiving survivor annuities from OPM have remarried before reaching age 55 and, thus, are no longer eligible for benefits from OPM. Comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of functions of the Office of Personnel Management, and whether it will have practical utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and methodology; and ways in which we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through the use of appropriate technological techniques or other forms of information technology. Approximately 2,500 forms are completed annually. Each form takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. The annual estimated burden is 625 hours. For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey on (202) 606-8358, FAX (202) 418-3251 or via e-mail to mbtoomey@opm.gov. Please include a mailing address with your request.

In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, 40 CFR 1508.22, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), notice is herby given that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU) intend to prepare a joint Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed development of a rock quarry on private land and federal mineral estate. The proposed EIS/EIR will describe and analyze alternatives for a proposed operation to extract construction aggregates on a 210-acre site in the foothills of Otay Mountain, San Diego County, California.

The Restriction Order prohibits building, maintaining, or using a fire or campfire within the Wallace Forest Conservation Area, described as all public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) located in T.50 N., R. 2 W., Sec. 31; T. 50 N., R. 3 W., Sec. 35; T. 49 N., R. 2 W., Sec. 6 and those portions of T. 49 N., R. 3 W., Sec. 1, which lie north of Coeur d'Alene Lake, Boise Meridian, all in Kootenai County, Idaho. A map depicting the restricted area is available for public inspection at the Bureau of Land Management, Coeur d'Alene Field Office, 1808 North Third Street, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. These restrictions become effective immediately and will remain in effect unless revoked and/or replaced with supplementary rules.

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), give notice that we are reopening the comment period for the proposed rule to add blue- fronted amazon parrots (Amazona aestiva) from Argentina's sustainable- use management plan to the approved list of non-captive-bred (wild- caught) species under the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992 (WBCA). We are reopening the public comment period to allow all interested parties time to comment on Dr. Jorge Rabinovich's study, ``Modeling the Sustainable Use of the Blue-Fronted Parrot (Amazona aestiva) in the Dry Chaco Region of Argentina.'' The proposed rule was published and the public comment period initially opened on August 6, 2003 (68 FR 46559). We reopened the public comment period on March 29, 2005 (70 FR 15798) in order to accept comments related to Dr. Rabinovich's study, and we are now reopening it for an additional 45 days.

This document contains temporary regulations relating to the computation and allocation of the credit for increasing research activities for members of a controlled group of corporations or a group of trades or businesses under common control. These temporary regulations reflect changes made to section 41 by the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1989 (1989 Act), which introduced the current computational regime for the credit, and the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, which introduced the alternative incremental research credit. 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.

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

DoD has issued an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement Sections 841 and 842 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005. Section 841 extends the length of the DoD Pilot Mentor-Protege Program for 5 additional years. Section 842 expands the Program to permit service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns and HUBZone small business concerns to participate in the Program as protege firms.

This document provides advance notice of proposed rulemaking for the issuance of regulations relating to the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program as authorized by 26 U.S.C. 45D. This document invites comments from the public on certain issues regarding the designation of low-income communities for purposes of the NMTC Program. All materials submitted will be available for public inspection and copying.

This document sets forth an elective safe harbor for dealers in securities, dealers in commodities, and traders in securities and commodities that permits these taxpayers to make an election pursuant to which the values of positions reported on certain financial statements are the fair market values of those positions for purposes of section 475 of the Internal Revenue Code. This safe harbor attempts to reduce the compliance burden upon taxpayers and to improve the administrability of the valuation aspect of section 475 for the Internal Revenue Service. This document also provides a notice of a public hearing on these proposed regulations.

This document withdraws the remaining portion of the notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on June 3, 1971 (36 FR 10787) and contains proposed regulations relating to the tax treatment of certain transfers of partnership equity in connection with the performance of services. The proposed regulations provide that the transfer of a partnership interest in connection with the performance of services is subject to section 83 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) and provide rules for coordinating section 83 with partnership taxation principles. The proposed regulations also provide that no gain or loss is recognized by a partnership on the transfer or vesting of an interest in the transferring partnership in connection with the performance of services for the transferring partnership. This document also provides a notice of public hearing on these proposed regulations.

In accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended, this final rule adjusts civil monetary penalties imposed by agencies within USDA to incorporate an inflation adjustment.

The Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act required that a safety rating for child restraints be established to provide practicable, readily understandable, and timely information to consumers. In addition, the TREAD Act directed the Secretary of Transportation to consider placing child restraints in the rear seat of vehicles crash-tested under NCAP. In response to this mandate, NHTSA established a consumer information program for add-on child restraints based on their ease of use, and announced that it would perform two pilot programs to gather additional information about other aspects of child passenger safety. One pilot program would subject child restraints to a 48 km/h (30 mph) sled test. This program focused on the protection provided by the child restraint. The second pilot program placed child restraints in the rear seat of vehicles in frontal NCAP tests. This program focused on the protection the vehicle provided to properly restrained children. Based on the data collected from both pilot programs, the agency has decided not to implement a dynamic child restraint system (CRS) rating based on sled tests, and to continue collecting data from NCAP frontal crash tests to resolve some outstanding technical issues and to gather additional data on the Hybrid III 6-year-old and 10-year-old child dummies. In addition, the agency will develop a better understanding of the real world data and its relationship to NCAP child results. The agency will make a decision on the merits of a vehicle child protection rating in conjunction with any possible revisions to the frontal testing program, which the agency is currently evaluating. Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all submissions received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the petition (or signing the petition, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000, (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit https://dms.dot.gov.

This document corrects a notice published on May 17, 2005 (70 FR 28324), that announces the appointments to the NRC Performance Review Boards. This notice is necessary to correct an omission in the listing. On page 28324, in the third column, insert ``Annette Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission'' after the listing for ``Jack R. Strosnider, Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.''

The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the following proposal for the collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. 1. Type of submission, new, revision, or extension: Extension. 2. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR 81, Standard Specifications for Granting of Patent Licenses. 3. The form number if applicable: Not applicable. 4. How often the collection is required: Applications for licenses are submitted once. Other reports are submitted annually or as other events require. 5. Who will be required or asked to report: Applicants for and holders of NRC licenses to NRC inventions. 6. An estimate of the number of annual responses: 1. 7. The estimated number of annual respondents: 1. 8. An estimate of the total number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request: 37; however, no applications are anticipated during the next three years. 9. An indication of whether Section 3507(d), Pub. L. 104-13 applies: Not applicable. 10. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 81 establishes the standard specifications for the issuance of licenses to rights in inventions covered by patents or patent applications invested in the United States, as represented by or in the custody of the Commission and other patents in which the Commission has legal rights. A copy of the final supporting statement may be viewed free of charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room 0-1F21, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC Worldwide Web site: https:// www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/. The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this notice. Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer listed below by June 22, 2005. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments received after this date. John A. Asalone, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (3150-0121), NEOB-10202, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503. Comments can also be e-mailed to JohnA.Asalone@omb.eop.gov or submitted by telephone at (202) 395-4650. The NRC Clearance Officer is Brenda Jo. Shelton, 301-415-7233.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) intends to prepare a DEIS to assess the impacts on the natural and human environment of the management measures proposed in its draft Fishery Ecosystem Plan Comprehensive Amendment.