September 22, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 Y-12 Plant, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On August 8, 2006, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an additional to the SEC:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing a public meeting and vendor display to discuss the issues associated with the development, implementation, and use of a unique device identification (UDI) system and the use of various automatic identification technologies. We are inviting individuals, companies, organizations, and other stakeholders to attend this public meeting, which will focus on the development and implementation of a UDI system; the benefits and costs of a UDI system; the use of automatic identification technologies; and the development, maintenance, and use of a repository for UDI related information. We are also inviting vendors of automatic identification technologies to display their products for the educational benefits of FDA and other attendees.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 1 announces its intent to delete the Army Materials Technology Laboratory Superfund Site (Site) located in Watertown, Massachusetts, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comment on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is found at Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, through the Department of Environmental Protection, have determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLAother than operation and maintenance and five-year reviewshave been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of today's Federal Register, EPA is publishing a direct final notice of deletion of the Army Materials Technology Laboratory Superfund Site without prior notice of intent to delete because we view this as a non-controversial revision and anticipate no adverse comment(s). EPA has explained our reasons for this deletion in the preamble to the direct final deletion. If EPA receives no adverse comment(s) on this notice of intent to delete or the direct final notice of deletion, EPA will not take further action on this notice of intent to delete. If EPA receives adverse comment(s), EPA will withdraw the direct final notice of deletion and it will not take effect. EPA will address all public comments in a subsequent final deletion notice based on this notice of intent to delete as appropriate. EPA will not institute a second comment period on this notice of intent to delete. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time. For additional information, see the direct final notice of deletion located in the Rules section of this Federal Register.

The Agency is announcing the availability of and seeking public comment on a draft Pesticide Registration Notice (PR Notice) entitled ``Use of Antimicrobial Pesticide Products in Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Systems.'' PR Notices are issued by the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) to inform pesticide registrants and other interested persons about important policies, procedures, and registration related decisions, and serve to provide guidance to pesticide registrants and OPP personnel. This particular draft PR Notice would, once final, provide guidance to the registrants concerning EPA-registered sanitizer, disinfectant and other antimicrobial products whose labels bear general directions for use on or incorporation within hard, non-porous or porous surfaces, but which are not specifically registered for treatment of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Systems (HVAC&R).

The Exposure Modeling Work Group (EMWG) will hold a 1-day meeting on October 3, 2006. This notice announces the location and time for the meeting and provides the tentative agenda topics.

This regulation establishes a time-limited tolerance for residues of fenamidone in or on carrots. This action is in response to EPA's granting of an emergency exemption under section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizing use of the pesticide on carrots. This regulation establishes a maximum permissible level for residues of fenamidone in this food commodity. The tolerance expires and is revoked on December 31, 2009.

EPA is taking direct final action approving State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Utah on November 11 and November 23, 2005. The revisions are to the Utah Administrative Code (UAC) rule R307-101-2 and (1) incorporate by reference the federal definition of ``Volatile Organic Compounds'' (VOC), and (2) update the definition of ``Clearing Index''. The intended effect of this action is to make federally enforceable these revised definitions to the Utah SIP. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act.

This interim final rule with comment period revises the rural health clinic (RHC) regulations to revert to those provisions set forth in regulations before publication of the December 24, 2003 RHC final rule. That final rule implemented certain provisions of the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 to establish a process and criteria for disqualifying from the RHC program clinics that no longer meet basic location requirements (rural and medically underserved), and to require RHCs to establish quality assessment and performance improvement programs. That rule also prohibited ``commingling'' (the use of the space, professional staff, equipment, and other resources) of an RHC with another entity. [In addition, it addressed comments on the February 28, 2000 proposed rule. Since the publication of the RHC final rule exceeded the 3-year timeline for finalizing proposed rules set by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, we are suspending the effectiveness of the current provisions by removing the RHC provisions set forth in the December 2003 final rule and reverting to those RHC provisions previously in effect.] We intend to reissue new proposed and final RHC rules to reinstate the current provisions. However, these revisions do not impact the effectiveness of the self-implementing provisions of the BBA or any provisions we had previously implemented or enforced through program memoranda.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. Appendix 2, section 10(a) (Pub. L. 92-463), this notice announces a meeting of the Advisory Panel on Medicare Education (the Panel) on October 17, 2006. The Panel advises and makes recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of consumer education strategies concerning the Medicare program. This meeting is open to the public.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has submitted the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The submission describes the nature of the information collection, the categories of respondents, the estimated burden (i.e., the time, effort and resources used by respondents to respond) and cost, and includes the actual data collection instruments DHS will use. Title: Citizens Corps Council & CERT Program Registration. OMB Number: 1660-0079. Abstract: This information collection will enable Citizens Corps to operate effectively and efficiently to regularize and coordinate activities between Citizens Corps and those groups active in education, training and coordinating volunteers in crime prevention, disaster preparedness, mitigation, public health and safety issues. Affected Public: State and local Citizens Corps Councils and CERT Programs. Number of Respondents: 500 per year. Estimated Time per Respondent: 1 hour. Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 500. Frequency of Response: On occasion. Comments: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management Budget, Attention: Nathan Lesser, Desk Officer, Department of Homeland Security/ and sent via electronic mail to oirasubmission@omb.eop.gov or faxed to (202) 395- 6974. Comments must be submitted on or before October 23, 2006.

This rule would decrease the assessment rate established for the Prune Marketing Committee (committee) under Marketing Order No. 993 for the 2006-07 and subsequent crop years from $0.65 to $0.40 per ton of salable dried prunes. The committee locally administers the marketing order which regulates the handling of dried prunes grown in California. Assessments upon dried prune handlers are used by the committee to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The crop year began August 1 and ends July 31. The assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is proposing to change the hourly fee rates for Science and Technology (S&T) Laboratory Services. The agency is proposing to raise these rates to reflect, among other factors, national and locality pay increases for Federal employees and inflation, operating costs, instrumentation and training, and program and agency administrative overhead costs. In the past, AMS has amended its regulations on an as needed basis in order to recover laboratory program costs. With this proposed regulation, AMS is providing for three annual standard hourly fee rate increases for fiscal years 2007-2009. This would provide the agricultural commodity industries and other stakeholders with more timely and relevant information regarding voluntary user fees for laboratory testing services. The agency is also proposing to remove tables and schedules with listings of individual tests and services. Three annual hourly fee rate adjustments are proposed for appeals, holiday, and overtime services to reflect the anticipated increase in cost of providing these laboratory services each fiscal year. The regulations also are updated to identify current facility addresses. Part 92 is obsolete and therefore has been removed.

On July 27, 2006, FRA published a notice announcing its intent to conduct a series of open meetings throughout the United States, in cooperation with appropriate State agencies, to consider issues related to the safety of private highway-rail grade crossings. This notice indicated that the first of these meetings would be held August 30, 2006, in Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Notice No. 2 announces that FRA has scheduled subsequent meetings to be held September 27, 2006, in Raleigh, North Carolina; October 26, 2006, in San Francisco, California; and December 6, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana. At each open meeting, FRA intends to solicit oral statements from private crossing owners, railroads and other interested parties on issues related to the safety of private highway-rail grade crossings, which will include, but will not be limited to, current practices concerning the responsibility for safety at private grade crossings, the adequacy of warning devices at private crossings, and the relative merits of a more uniform approach to improving safety at private crossings. FRA has also opened a public docket on these issues so that interested parties may submit written comments for public review and consideration.