April 25, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS is closing directed fishing for yellowfin sole by vessels using trawl gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the second seasonal allowance of the 2006 halibut bycatch allowance specified for the trawl yellowfin sole fishery category in the BSAI.

This final rule will revise certain existing definitions, clarify the basis upon which the Regional Director invokes the requirement for an archaeological survey on a lease area, add notification requirements on production status of wells, and update both public information and Information Collection sections. MMS recently redesigned and renamed some of its forms to streamline data submission. MMS also discovered inconsistent practices in first production reporting, which is a prime parameter in determining inspection and testing schedules for safety system devices. This final rulemaking will update the regulations to correspond to recently revised forms, provide clarity and explanation of definitions and forms, and clarify the requirements for first production notices.

The Coast Guard has approved a temporary deviation from the regulations governing the operation of the Jordan Bridge across the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, at mile 2.8, in Chesapeake, Virginia. This deviation allows the drawbridge to be maintained in the limited open-to-navigation position at 90 feet above mean high water each day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on May 13, May 14, May 20, and May 21, 2006. Mariners requiring openings in excess of 90 feet above mean high water are requested to provide at least two hours advance notice to the Jordan Bridge Office at (757) 545-4695. This deviation is necessary to facilitate the completion of repairs to the counterweight system.

In this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations that provide guidance needed to comply with amendments enacted by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, Public Law 108-357, 118 Stat. 1418 (October 22, 2004) (AJCA) and the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, Public Law 109-135, 119 Stat. 2577 (December 22, 2005) (GOZA), concerning the treatment of dividends from noncontrolled section 902 corporations. The AJCA modified the treatment under section 904(d)(4) of dividends from noncontrolled section 902 corporations effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2002. GOZA permits taxpayers to elect to defer the effective date of the AJCA amendments until taxable years beginning after December 31, 2004. The temporary regulations affect domestic corporations that own stock in foreign corporations and that claim foreign tax credits. The text of those temporary regulations published in this issue of the Federal Register also serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations relating to the requirements for including insurance companies in a life-nonlife consolidated return. The text of those regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations. These regulations affect corporations filing life-nonlife consolidated returns.

The General Services Administration is amending the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) language that pertains to personal property by correcting references to outdated or superceded provisions of law or regulation; correcting text to be in conformance with revised laws, regulation, or Federal agency responsibilities; and clarifying text where the intended meaning could be updated or made clearer. The FMR and any corresponding documents may be accessed at GSA's Web site at https://www.gsa.gov/fmr.

Georgia has applied to EPA for Final authorization of the changes to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). EPA proposes to grant final authorization to Georgia. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of this Federal Register, EPA is authorizing the changes by an immediate final rule. EPA did not make a proposal prior to the immediate final rule because we believe this action is not controversial and do not expect comments that oppose it. We have explained the reasons for this authorization in the preamble of the immediate final rule. Unless we get written comments which oppose this authorization during the comment period, the immediate final rule will become effective on the date it establishes, and we will not take further action on this proposal. If we receive comments that oppose this action, we will withdraw the immediate final rule and it will not take effect. We will respond to public comments in a later final rule based on this proposal. You may not have another opportunity for comment.

The Department of the Army is proposing to update policies and responsibilities for the Army Privacy Program, which implements the Privacy Act of 1974, by showing organizational realignments and by revising referenced statutory and regulatory authority, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and E-Government Act of 2002.

On January 23, 2006, PHMSA published a final rule entitled ``Requirements for Lighters and Lighter Refills'' that amended requirements in the Hazardous Materials Regulations pertaining to the examination, testing, certification, and transportation of lighters and lighter refills. In response to appeals submitted by persons affected by the final rule, this final rule amends requirements applicable to the transportation of lighter refills and allows for immediate voluntary compliance with certain provisions.

We are proposing to revise the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems, and to implement a number of changes made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-171). In addition, in the Addendum to this proposed rule, we describe the proposed changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the rates for Medicare hospital inpatient services for operating costs and capital-related costs. We also are setting forth proposed rate-of-increase limits as well as proposed policy changes for hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS that are paid in full or in part on a reasonable cost basis subject to these limits. These proposed changes would be applicable to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2006. In this proposed rule, we discuss our proposals to refine the diagnosis-related group (DRG) system under the IPPS to better recognize severity of illness among patientsfor FY 2007, we are proposing to use a hospital-specific relative value cost center weighting methodology to adjust DRG relative weights and in FY 2008 (if not earlier), to implement consolidated severity-adjusted DRGs or alternative severity adjustment methods. Among the other policy changes that we are proposing to make are changes related to: limited revisions of the reclassification of cases to DRGs; the long-term care (LTC)-DRGs and relative weights; the wage data, including the occupational mix data, used to compute the wage index; applications for new technologies and medical services add-on payments; payments to hospitals for the direct and indirect costs of graduate medical education; submission of hospital quality data; payments to sole community hospitals and Medicare-dependent, small rural hospitals; and provisions governing emergency services under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986 (EMTALA). We are also inviting comments on a number of issues including performance-based hospital payments for services and health information technology, as well as how to improve data transparency for consumers.