October 17, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has completed its annual determination of the States that qualify as Medically Underserved Areas under the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program for calendar year 2007. This is necessary to comply with a provision of the FEHB law that mandates special consideration for enrollees of certain FEHB plans who receive covered health services in States with critical shortages of primary care physicians. Accordingly, for calendar year 2007, OPM's calculations show that the following states are Medically Underserved Areas under the FEHB Program: Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. For the 2007 calendar year Texas is being added and Alaska is being removed from the list.

By this notice, the Department of the Treasury is informing the public that it is conducting a mandatory survey of ownership of foreign securities by U.S. residents as of December 31, 2006. This notice constitutes legal notification to all United States persons (defined below) who meet the reporting requirements set forth in this notice that they must respond to this survey. United States persons who meet the reporting requirements but who do not receive a set of the survey forms and instructions should contact the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, acting as fiscal agent for the Department of the Treasury, at (212) 720-6300 to obtain a copy. Additional copies of the reporting form SHC (end-Dec. 2006) and instructions may be printed from the Internet at: https://www.treas.gov/tic/forms-sh.html. Definition: A U.S. person is any individual, branch, partnership, associated group, association, estate, trust, corporation, or other organization (whether or not organized under the laws of any State), and any government (including a foreign government, the United States Government, a State, provincial, or local government, and any agency, corporation, financial institution, or other entity or instrumentality thereof, including a government-sponsored agency), who resides in the United States or is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Who Must Report: The following U.S. persons must report on this survey: U.S. persons who manage, as custodians, the safekeeping of foreign securities for U.S. persons. These U.S. persons, who include the affiliates in the United States of foreign entities, must report on this survey if the total market value of the foreign securities whose safekeeping they manage on behalf of U.S. persons aggregated over all accounts and for all branches and affiliates of their firmis $100 million or more as of the close of business on December 31, 2006. U.S. persons who own foreign securities. These U.S. persons, who include the affiliates in the United States of foreign entities, must report on this survey if the total market value of these foreign securitiesaggregated over all accounts and for all branches and affiliates of their firmis $100 million or more as of the close of business on December 31, 2006. What to Report: This report will collect information on U.S. resident holdings of foreign securities, i.e. equities, long-term debt securities, and short-term debt securities (including selected money market instruments). How to Report: Copies of the survey forms and instructions, which contain complete information on reporting procedures, may be obtained at the Web site address given above in the SUMMARY, or by contacting the survey staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at (212) 720- 6300, e-mail: SHC.help@ny.frb.org. The mailing address is: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Statistics Function, 4th Floor, 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10045-0001. When to Report: Data must be submitted to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, acting as fiscal agent for the Department of the Treasury, by March 2, 2007. Paperwork Reduction Act Notice: This data collection has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act and assigned control number 1505-0146. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid control number assigned by OMB. The estimated average annual burden associated with this collection of information is 16 hours per respondent for exempt reporters, 40 hours per respondent reporting U.S resident custodian information on Schedule 3, 120 hours per U.S resident investor providing detailed information on Schedule 2, and 360 hours per U.S. resident custodian reporting detailed information on Schedule 2. Comments concerning the accuracy of this burden estimate and suggestions for reducing this burden should be directed to the Department of the Treasury, Attention Administrator, International Portfolio Investment Data Reporting Systems, Room 5422 MT, Washington, DC 20220, and to OMB, Attention Desk Officer for the Department of the Treasury, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Washington, DC 20503.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for review of a revised information collection. RI 25-41, Initial Certification of Full-Time School Attendance, is used to determine whether a child is unmarried and a full-time student in a recognized school. OPM must determine this in order to pay survivor annuity benefits to children who are age 18 or older. Approximately 1,200 RI 25-41 forms are completed annually. It takes approximately 90 minutes to complete the form. The annual burden is 1,800 hours. For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey on (202) 606-8358, FAX (202) 418-3251 or via E-mail to MaryBeth.Smith- Toomey@opm.gov. Please include a mailing address with your request.

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Arizona (FEMA-1660-DR), dated 09/07/2006. Incident: Severe Storms and Flooding. Incident Period: 07/25/2006 through 08/04/2006. Effective Date: 09/29/2006. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 11/06/2006.

This notice advises the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts (underpayments) and refunds (overpayments) of customs duties. For the calendar quarter beginning October 1, 2006, the interest rates for overpayments will remain at 7 percent for corporations and 8 percent for non-corporations, and the interest rate for underpayments will remain at 8 percent. This notice is published for the convenience of the importing public and Customs and Border Protection personnel.

Pursuant to Section 102 (2) (C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Casper Field Office announces its intent to prepare an EIS on the potential impacts of a proposal to surface mine a tract of Federal coal as requested by Antelope Coal Company (Antelope) in Lease-by- Application (LBA) case number WYW163340. Under the provisions of 43 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 3425.1, the Antelope Coal Company (Antelope) has submitted a competitive coal LBA for a maintenance tract of Federal coal. The tract is known as the West Antelope II Tract and is adjacent to the Antelope Mine in Campbell and Converse Counties.

This document contains final regulations amending the regulations relating to a taxpayer's right to a hearing under section 6320 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 after the filing of a notice of Federal tax lien (NFTL). The final regulations make certain clarifying changes in the way collection due process (CDP) hearings are held and specify the period during which a taxpayer may request an equivalent hearing. The final regulations affect taxpayers against whose property or rights to property the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) files a NFTL.

This document corrects final regulations (TD 9274) that were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 (71 FR 38985). The document contains final regulations relating to the disclosure of return information pursuant to section 6103(k)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.

On September 15, 2004, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new fire protection final rule for shipyards that incorporated by reference 19 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. Ten of those NFPA standards had been updated by NFPA since the fire protection rule was proposed and an additional NFPA standard has been updated since the final rule was published. In today's Federal Register, OSHA is publishing a direct final rule (DFR) replacing the references to the 11 older NFPA standards in OSHA's fire protection standard for shipyards with their most recent versions. If OSHA does not receive significant adverse comment on the DFR, the updated versions of the NFPA standards will replace their older versions in OSHA's fire protection standard for shipyards on the effective date stated in the DFR. If significant adverse comment on the updated versions is received, OSHA will withdraw the DFR and proceed with rulemaking on this proposed rule. However, if significant adverse comments are received regarding certain provisions included in the DFR, but not others, OSHA may finalize those changes that did not receive significant adverse comment, and conduct further rulemaking under the proposed rule for the changes that did receive significant adverse comment. A subsequent Federal Register document will be published to announce OSHA's action.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP), and Draft Land Protection Plan (LPP) are available for the Texas Chenier Plain National Wildlife Refuge Complex. We prepared this CCP pursuant to the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966, as amended by the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA); and we describe how the Service intends to manage this Refuge Complex over the next 15 years. This draft LPP was prepared pursuant to Service policy and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and would expand the approved acquisition boundary for the four refuges within the Complex.

On March 1, 2005, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (70 FR 9889) which proposed the addition of sodium permanganate as a List II chemical because of its direct substitutability for potassium permanganate (a List II chemical) in the illicit production of cocaine. This rulemaking finalizes control of sodium permanganate. As a List II chemical, handlers of sodium permanganate shall be subject to Controlled Substances Act (CSA) chemical regulatory controls including recordkeeping, reporting, and import/export requirements. DEA has determined that these controls are necessary to prevent the diversion of this chemical to cocaine laboratories. This rulemaking is also establishing a cumulative threshold of 55 kilograms and 500 kilograms (respectively) for domestic and international transactions. As such, all transactions which meet or exceed these quantities (in a calendar month) shall be considered regulated transactions, subject to recordkeeping, reporting and/or import/export notification requirements. Additionally, as a result of this rulemaking, chemical mixtures having greater than 15 percent sodium permanganate shall be subject to CSA chemical regulatory control provisions. All handlers of the List II chemical sodium permanganate shall also be subject to the applicable civil and criminal penalty provisions found in 21 U.S.C. 841, 842, 843, 959 and 960.

The United States Department of Agriculture announces a conference call meeting of the Scientific Review Panel at the National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is holding a public listening session to obtain feedback on the Agency's Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 initiative (CSA 2010), a comprehensive review and analysis of FMCSA's current commercial motor carrier safety and enforcement programs. FMCSA will use the upcoming listening session to inform the public on the conceptual direction and progress of CSA 2010, and obtain feedback from its partners and stakeholders. To facilitate the upcoming listening session, FMCSA has included in this notice a number of questions that commenters are invited to address.

Pursuant to Public Law 106-503, the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee (SESAC) will hold its fourteenth meeting. The meeting location is the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory, 10002 Isleta Road, SE, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico 87117. The Committee is comprised of members from academia, industry, and State government. The Committee shall advise the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on matters relating to the USGS's participation in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. The Committee will provide guidance on the USGS's contributions to the Global Seismographic Network and report preparation. Meetings of the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee are open to the public.