May 16, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On Monday, October 7, 2002, CDC published final criteria for consideration of chemicals or categories of chemicals for possible inclusion in future releases of CDC's ``National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (the ``Report'') and also solicited chemicals for possible inclusion in future editions of the ``Report'' (See Federal Register, 67 FR 62477). The final selection criteria have remained the same since the issuance of the 2002 notice. They are as follows: (1) Independent scientific data which suggest that the potential for exposure of the U.S. population to a particular chemical is changing (i.e., increasing or decreasing) or persisting; (2) seriousness of health effects known or suspected to result from exposure to the chemical (for example, cancer, birth defects, or other serious health effects); (3) proportion of the U.S. population likely to be exposed to levels of chemicals of known or potential health significance; (4) need to assess the efficacy of public health actions to reduce exposure to a chemical in the U.S. population or a large component of the U.S. population (for example, among children, women of childbearing age, the elderly); (5) existence of an analytical method that can measure the chemical or its metabolite in blood or urine with adequate accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and speed; and (6) incremental analytical cost (in dollars and personnel) to perform the analyses (preference is given to chemicals that can be added readily to existing analytical methods). On Tuesday, September 30, 2003, CDC published a record of the nominated chemicals of interest that were scored by a panel of experts in accordance with the published selection criteria. (See Federal Register, 68 FR 56296.) All of this information is available on CDC's Web site at https://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/chemical nominations.htm. Past and future nominations do not result in obligatory laboratory analysis or inclusion of nominated chemicals in the ``Report,'' but rather serve to better inform CDC about which chemicals are of concern to the public. CDC now requests public comment on proposed criteria for removing chemicals from future editions of the ``Report.'' These removal criteria (given below) will become part of a combined process of nominating chemicals for inclusion in or removal from the ``Report.'' This process will include (a) nominations from the public of chemicals to include or remove from the ``Report,''(b) an external scoring of nominations in accord with the published nomination and removal criteria, and (c) assistance from the Board of Scientific Counselors of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in reviewing plans for including or removing chemicals and identifying alternatives for monitoring specific at-risk population subgroups. This combined process for nomination and removal would occur periodically (e.g., every six years). The criteria for selecting and removing chemicals apply only to those chemicals published in the ``Report,'' not those merely nominated. The proposed removal criteria are as follows: A chemical may be removed from the ``Report'': (1) If a new replacement chemical (i.e., a metabolite) is more representative of exposure than the chemical currently being measured or; (2) if after three survey periods (or not less than six years), detection rates for all chemicals within a methodological and chemically-related group* are less than 5 percent for all population subgroups (two sexes, three race/ethnicity, and three age groups) or; (3) if after three survey periods (or not less than six years), levels of chemicals within a methodological and chemically- related group are unchanged or declining in all the specific subgroups as documented in the ``Report.'' A chemical would continue to be measured and not be removed from the ``Report'' if it met either of two proposed exceptions to these criteria: (a) It is a chemical for which there is an established biomonitoring health threshold (e.g., CDC's level of concern for blood lead levels in children) or any chemical for which there is widespread public health concern (e.g., mercury) or (b) three survey periods (or not less than six years) have passed, which constitute the minimum time before a chemical could be removed; a longer period may be necessary to account for the half-life of a particular chemical or to account for a recent change (e.g., the removal of a chemical from commerce) that would necessitate monitoring of the population. Note that the criteria for removing a chemical from the ``Report'' are not the corollaries of the criteria for adding chemicals to the ``Report.'' After reviewing and incorporating public comments from this announcement, CDC will publish the criteria in their final form in the Federal Register.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, we are proposing to establish a new system titled, ``Medicaid Program and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Payment Error Rate Measurement (PERM), System No. 09-70-0578.'' The Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA) of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-300) requires heads of Federal agencies to annually estimate and report to the Congress national error rates for the programs they oversee. The Medicaid and SCHIP programs were identified by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as programs at risk for significant erroneous payments. OMB has directed HHS to report the estimated error rate for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs to OMB. Since Medicaid and SCHIP are administered by state agencies according to each state's unique program characteristics, state assistance in estimating improper payments is critical and continues to be necessary and important for the Secretary to comply with the requirements of the IPIA. CMS will use a national contracting strategy to calculate a state-by-state, comprehensive error rate for both the Medicaid and SCHIP programs. Implementing regulations set forth state requirements to: (1) Provide claims information to CMS for the purposes of estimating improper payment in Medicaid and SCHIP; and (2) measure improper payments in the Medicaid and SCHIP based on eligibility errors. The primary purpose of this system is to collect and maintain individually identifiable claims information to calculate payment error rates for Medicaid and SCHIP programs. Information in this system will also be used to: (1) Support regulatory and policy functions performed within the Agency or by a contractor, consultant or grantee; (2) assist another Federal or state agency in the proper administration of the Medicare program, enable such agency to administer a Federal health benefits program, and/or assist Federal/state Medicaid programs within the state; (3) support constituent requests made to a Congressional representative; (4) to support litigation involving the Agency related to this system; and (5) combat fraud and abuse in certain health benefits programs. We have provided background information about the proposed system in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Although the Privacy Act requires only that the ``routine use'' portion of the system be published for comment, CMS invites comments on all portions of this notice. See ``Effective Dates'' section for comment period.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking volunteers to participate in a pilot project involving the testing of a Health Level 7 (HL7) data interchange standard for the submission of product stability data to FDA to facilitate the review of this data. Using the data interchange standards and the analytical tools will allow consistent data presentation to the agency and allow a reviewer to more efficiently and consistently display and evaluate product stability data submitted in electronic format.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form 1120S, U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation, Schedule D (Form 1120S), Capital Gains and Losses and Built-In Gains, and Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S), Shareholder's Share of Income, Credits, Deductions, etc.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) are extending the comment for the proposed rule re-opening the public comment period on the proposal to remove the bald eagle from the List of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. We are also extending the comment period on the proposed rule to establish a regulatory definition of ``disturb'' under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and on the draft National Bald Eagle Management Guidelines via two additional notices published separately in today's issue of the Federal Register. Comments previously submitted need not be resubmitted as they have been incorporated into the public record and will be fully considered in the final decision and rule.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.