December 15, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are proposing amendments to the proxy rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that would provide an alternative method for issuers and other persons to furnish proxy materials to shareholders by posting them on an Internet Web site and providing shareholders with notice of the availability of the proxy materials. Copies would be available to shareholders on request, at no cost. The proposed amendments are intended to put into place processes that would provide shareholders with notice of, and access to, proxy materials while taking advantage of technological developments and the growth of the Internet and electronic communications. Issuers that rely on the proposed amendments would be able to lower costs of proxy solicitations that ultimately are borne by shareholders. The proposed amendments also would apply to a soliciting person other than the issuer, which we anticipate might reduce the costs of engaging in a proxy contest. Today's proposals would not apply to business combination transactions. These proposals also would not affect the availability of any existing method of furnishing proxy materials.

This is a final rule to amend the NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) to revise clause 1852.217-70 Property Administration and Reporting to change the name of ``NASA-Defense Purchase Request'' to ``NASA- Interagency Purchase Request'' and to replace the term ``Military Department'' to ``servicing agency'' in order to permit the use of this clause in interagency acquisitions with military departments and civilian agencies.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is proposing to amend Commission regulations to require that commodity pool annual financial reports submitted by commodity pool operators (``CPOs'') to the National Futures Association (``NFA'') be filed electronically. Commodity pool annual reports filed with a registered futures association (currently, the NFA is the sole registered futures association) must contain a manually signed oath or affirmation under Commission regulations and no provision exists for electronic filing of annual reports with NFA. The NFA has recently petitioned the Commission to amend its regulations to require mandatory electronic filing of commodity pool annual reports. The Commission has considered the NFA petition and is hereby proposing to amend Commission regulations: (i) To require CPOs to file a commodity pool annual report with NFA electronically, with the required oath or affirmation to be made through compliance with NFA's electronic filing procedures; (ii) to require CPOs to maintain for five years a manually signed copy of each annual report and to maintain records of how certain key financial balances submitted to NFA were compiled from the annual report; (iii) to eliminate the requirement that the annual report filed with NFA be manually signed. Further, the Commission is proposing additional amendments to clarify certain aspects of the Commission's regulations applicable to CPOs with respect to financial reporting, Specifically, the Commission is proposing amendments that would: explicitly state that commodity pool monthly and/or quarterly account statements distributed to participants must be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles; clarify that COPs must file a notification of a change in a public accountant for a commodity pool with the Commission and with NFA; clarify that a reference to ``segregation'' with respect to a statement required to be made in an accountant's letter refers to the prohibition on commingling of funds of a commodity pool with the assets of any other person; and require that notifications concerning CPOs' election of fiscal years for commodity pools other than the calendar year or changes in fiscal year be filed solely with NFA and not the Commission. Annual reports to pool participants may continue to be provided as they have been previously, either through hard-copy distribution via postal mail or electronically if the pool participant consents thereto.

The Economic Development Administration (``EDA'') published an interim final rule in the Federal Register on August 11, 2005. EDA is publishing this interim final rule to effect those changes to the August 11, 2005 interim final rule specified in the conference report, accompanying the FY 2006 Science, State, Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. Capitalized terms used but not otherwise defined in this interim final rule have the meanings ascribed to them in the August 11, 2005 interim final rule.

EPA is proposing to take action on certain modifications to the reformulated and conventional gasoline regulations. Based on experience gained since the promulgation of these regulations, EPA proposed these modifications along with various others in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) published on July 11, 1997. In final rules published on December 31, 1997 and December 28, 2001, EPA took final action on several of the modifications proposed in the July 11, 1997 NPRM. Today's action proposes to take action on many of the remaining modifications in the 1997 NPRM. The modifications in today's proposed rule would correct technical errors, clarify certain provisions, and codify guidance previously issued by the Agency. This rule also would make several minor technical corrections to the RFG rule which were not included in the July 11, 1997 proposal, and make two minor technical corrections to the Tier 2 gasoline sulfur rule. The emissions benefits achieved from the RFG and conventional gasoline programs would not be reduced as a result of this proposed rule.