August 4, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As a nonregulated electric utility, the Western Area Power Administration (Western) must consider and determine whether to implement certain standards under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which amended the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). Standards that Western intends to consider include net metering, fuel source diversity, fossil fuel generation efficiency, smart metering, and consumer interconnections. A brochure entitled ``Preconsideration of Sections 1251, 1252, and 1254 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005'' will be prepared and will be available for public review by September 25, 2006.

By this document we are informing the public of the Secretary's recognition of certain Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) criteria for ambulatory EHR functionality, interoperability, security and reliability standards. This list of recognized criteria is available by clicking the applicable link at https://www.hhs.gov/healthit. The CCHIT was created in 2004 by an industry coalition of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the National Alliance for Health Information Technology. CCHIT's mission is to accelerate the adoption of HIT by creating an efficient, credible and sustainable product certification program. During the three comment cycles that generated the ambulatory EHR criteria that the Secretary has recognized, CCHIT received over 1500 comments from a wide range of stakeholders. Further outreach was achieved through the establishment of several large Town Hall presentations with attendances in the range of 500-1000 at Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conferences as well as at more than thirty smaller presentations to a variety of associations, organizations and the press gatherings. CCHIT grouped its ambulatory EHR certification criteria recommendations into three groups, ``functionality,'' ``interoperability'' and ``security/reliability.'' For ease of understanding, the Secretary broke the security and reliability recommendations into separate categories. Definitions of these categories, and an example that illuminates the various functions of each category are as follows: 1. Functionality criteria identify minimum required and provisional product features for documenting and managing a typical patient encounter. For example, a physician needs to be able to access his/her patient's laboratory test results, so an example of a functional requirement is that an EHR would need to provide the capability of displaying laboratory test results. 2. Interoperability criteria establish standards for how products interact with other products within and across care settings. For example, to ensure interoperability, the physician EHR noted above would need to be able to receive laboratory test results from another physician's (within care settings) as well as from laboratory systems (across care settings). 3. Security and reliability criteria are designed to help the security inspector assess a product's ability to protect, manage and audit access to sensitive patient data. For clarity, we have broken these criteria into the two separate categories, security and reliability. a. Security \1\ addresses the appropriate access to data by appropriate parties and the protection of data from improper manipulation. For example, laboratory test results should be accessible to a treating physician, but inaccessible to a clerical employee who does not need such access to accomplish their job. Security also involves ensuring that data have not been altered or tampered with.

Pursuant to the authorities in the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463) and under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-393) the Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forests' North Central Idaho Resource Advisory Committee will meet Wednesday and Thursday, September 6-7, 2006 in Orofino, Idaho for a business meeting. The meeting is open to the public.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees at Harshaw Chemical Company (also known as Uranium Refinery and/or Harshaw Filtrol Partners), to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: Harshaw Chemical Company. Location: Cleveland, Ohio. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All workers at Harshaw Chemical Company plant and the laboratories of the separate facility located at 1945 East 97th Street. Period of Employment: January 1, 1942 through November 30, 1949.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees at the Pacific Proving Grounds, Enewetak Atoll, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On June 26, 2006, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC:

The Department of the Navy is amending a system of records notice in its existing inventory of record systems subject to the privacy Act of 1974, (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended.

This document is issued under the joint authority of the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of General Services and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This Small Entity Compliance Guide has been prepared in accordance with Section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. It consists of a summary of rule appearing in Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-12 which amends the FAR. An asterisk (*) next to a rule indicates that a regulatory flexibility analysis has been prepared. Interested parties may obtain further information regarding this rule by referring to FAC 2005-12 which precedes this document. These documents are also available via the Internet at http:/ /acquisition.gov/far.

This document summarizes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule agreed to by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council in this Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-12. A companion document, the Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), follows this FAC. The FAC, including the SECG, is available via the Internet at https://acquisition.gov/far.

The National Science Foundation gives notice of the availability of a draft Environmental Assessment for proposed activities in the Pacific Ocean. The Division of Ocean Sciences in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO/OCE) has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment for a low- energy marine seismic survey by the Research Vessel Roger Revelle in the South Pacific Ocean, in international waters roughly between 23[deg] and 47[deg] S, and between 115[deg] and 165[deg] W during December 2006-January 2007. The draft Environmental Assessment is available for public review for a 30-day period.

The Forest Service published a notice in the Federal Register on May 12, 2006 initiating a 90-day comment period on the Proposed Land Management Plans for the Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The closing date for submitting comments has been extended to September 9, 2006.

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA, Agency, we or our) issues this final rule amending our regulations that allow a Farm Credit System (FCS, Farm Credit, or System) bank or association to terminate its FCS charter and become a financial institution under another Federal or State chartering authority. The final rule updates the termination procedures for System banks and associations under sections 7.9, 7.10 and 7.11 of the Farm Credit Act of 1971, as amended, ensures that interested parties have sufficient time and opportunities to be fully informed about a termination proposal, and ensures that a significant proportion of equity holders are engaged in the termination process.

Pursuant to section 183(e)(3)(C) of the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act), EPA proposes to determine that control techniques guidelines documents (CTGs) will be substantially as effective as national regulations in reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) nonattainment areas from the following five product categories: Lithographic printing materials, letterpress printing materials, flexible packaging printing materials, flat wood paneling coatings, and industrial cleaning solvents. Based on this determination, EPA may issue CTGs in lieu of national regulations for these product categories. EPA has prepared draft CTGs for the control of VOC emissions from each of the product categories covered by this proposed determination. Once finalized, these CTGs will provide guidance to the States concerning EPA's recommendations for reasonably available control technology (RACT)- level controls for these product categories. EPA further proposes to take final action to list the five Group II consumer and commercial product categories addressed in this notice pursuant to CAA section 183(e).

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA or the Act) authorizes the Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) to establish energy conservation standards for various consumer products and commercial and industrial equipment, including those distribution transformers for which DOE determines that energy conservation standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would result in significant energy savings. In this notice, the Department is proposing energy conservation standards for distribution transformers and is announcing a public meeting.