January 3, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Executive Order 13357, which removed sanctions against Libya.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Section 637 of Division H of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005. Section 637 provides that no funds made available under the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2005, or under any other Act for fiscal year 2005 and each fiscal year thereafter, shall be expended for purchase of a product or service offered by Federal Prison Industries, Inc., unless the agency making the purchase determines that the offered product or service provides the best value to the buying agency.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed to convert the interim rule published in the Federal Register at 69 FR 77870, December 28, 2004, to a final rule with changes. This rule implemented new Free Trade Agreements with Australia and Morocco as approved by Congress (Public Laws 108-286 and 108-302). These Free Trade Agreements were scheduled to become effective on or after January 1, 2005. However, the Moroccan Free Trade Agreement has not yet been implemented and is therefore removed from this final rule. The rule also established a table of services excluded from the coverage of the various trade agreements, corrected the threshold for Canadian services, revised the list of Least Developed Countries, revised FAR terminology relating to international trade agreements and the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), and revised the FAR clauses that implement application of the Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 10a, 10b, 10b- 1, and 10c) and trade agreements to construction material.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the contractor personal identification requirements in Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12), ``Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors,'' and Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) Number 201, ``Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors.''

This document summarizes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules agreed to by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council in this Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-07. A companion document, the Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), follows this FAC. The FAC, including the SECG, is available via the Internet at https://www.acqnet.gov/far.

Continued examination practice, including the use of both continuing applications and requests for continued examination, permits applicants to obtain further examination and advance an application to final agency action. This practice allow applicants to craft their claims in light of the examiner's evidence and arguments, which in turn may lead to well-designed claims that give the public notice of precisely what the applicant regards as his or her invention. However, each continued examination filing, whether a continuing application or request for continued examination, requires the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) to delay taking up a new application and thus contributes to the backlog of unexamined applications before the Office. In addition, current practice allows an applicant to generate an unlimited string of continued examination filings from an initial application. In such a string of continued examination filings, the exchange between examiners and applicants becomes less beneficial and suffers from diminishing returns as each of the second and subsequent continuing applications or requests for continued examination in a series is filed. Moreover, the possible issuance of multiple patents arising from such a process tends to defeat the public notice function of patent claims in the initial application. The Office is making every effort to become more efficient, to ensure that the patent application process promotes innovation, and to improve the quality of issued patents. With respect to continued examination practice, the Office is proposing to revise the patent rules of practice to better focus the application process. The revised rules would require that second or subsequent continued examination filings, whether a continuation application, a continuation-in-part application, or a request for continued examination, be supported by a showing as to why the amendment, argument, or evidence presented could not have been previously submitted. It is expected that these rules will make the exchange between examiners and applicants more efficient and effective. The revised rules should also improve the quality of issued patents, making them easier to evaluate, enforce, and litigate. Moreover, under the revised rules patents should issue sooner, thus giving the public a clearer understanding of what is patented. The revised rules would also ease the burden of examining multiple applications that have the same effective filing date, overlapping disclosure, a common inventor, and common assignee by requiring that all patentably indistinct claims in such applications be submitted in a single application. The changes proposed in this notice will also allow the Office to focus its patent examining resources on new applications instead of multiple continued examination filings that contain amendments or evidence that could have been submitted earlier, and thus allow the Office to reduce the backlog of unexamined applications. This will mean faster and more effective examination for the vast majority of applicants without any additional work on the applicant's part. Additional resources will be devoted to multiple continued examination filings only where necessary. Comment Deadline Date: To be ensured of consideration, written comments must be received on or before May 3, 2006. No public hearing will be held.

This document contains amendments to the regulations under section 401(k) and (m) of the Internal Revenue Code. These regulations provide guidance concerning the requirements for designated Roth contributions under qualified cash or deferred arrangements described in section 401(k). These regulations affect section 401(k) plans that provide for designated Roth contributions and participants eligible to make elective contributions under these plans.

The EPA is approving non-regulatory revisions to the Tennessee State Implementation Plan (SIP) and regulatory revisions to the Nashville-Davidson portion of the Tennessee SIP, submitted by the State of Tennessee through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) on January 26, 1999, October 11, 2001, and April 15, 2005. The revisions amend the Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance program in Nashville-Davidson County and the Nashville (Middle Tennessee) 1-Hour Ozone Maintenance Plan.

EPA is taking direct final action approving State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Montana on August 2, 2004. The revisions are to the State's Emergency Episode Avoidance Plan (EEAP). The intended effect of this action is to make federally enforceable those provisions that EPA is approving. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act.

EPA is approving a redesignation request and a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) is requesting that the Shenandoah National Park area (the SNP area) be redesignated as attainment for the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). In conjunction with its redesignation request, the Commonwealth submitted a SIP revision consisting of a maintenance plan for the SNP area that provides for continued attainment of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the next 10 years. EPA is also approving the adequacy determination for the motor vehicle emission budgets (MVEBs) that are identified in the 8-hour maintenance plan for the SNP area for purposes of transportation conformity, and is approving those MVEBs. EPA is approving the redesignation request and the maintenance plan revision to the Virginia SIP in accordance with the requirements of the CAA.