November 30, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rule codifies existing FTA administrative guidance for safety-sensitive employees of ferryboat operations that are subject to the drug and alcohol (D&A) testing regulations of both FTA and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). This rule will provide regulatory relief to ferryboat operators who were previously subject to duplicative D&A testing regulations, and improve ferryboat operator compliance with FTA D&A testing regulations. This rule does not adopt the proposed rule with respect to certain motor carrier operators who are subject to the D&A testing regulations of both FTA and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). FTA will retain its current guidance and interpretation with respect to these motor carrier operators.

These special conditions are issued for the Airbus A380-800 airplane. This airplane will have novel or unusual design features when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for transport category airplanes. Many of these novel or unusual design features are associated with the complex systems and the configuration of the airplane, including its full-length double deck. For these design features, the applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards regarding ground turning loads. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards. Additional special conditions will be issued for other novel or unusual design features of the Airbus Model A380-800 airplane.

The FAA is announcing the effective date of the final rule, publishedJuly 14, 2005, that amended the regulations governing maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations performed on U.S. aeronautical products by certain Canadian persons. That revision removes specific regulatory references and other requirements and requires that the maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations be performed in accordance with a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) between the United States and Canada and associated Maintenance Implementation Procedures (MIP). When the rule was published, the FAA announced the amendments would become effective concurrent with the date the MIP entered into force. The MIP was signed and entered into force on August 31, 2006; accordingly, the amendments became effective on that date.

This rule revises the special regulations for vessel quotas and operating requirements for cruise ships, tour vessels, charter vessels, private vessels, and passenger ferries within Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The rule implements the related final environmental impact statement completed in 2003 for vessel management in the park and preserve. This rule also makes nonsubstantive technical reorganizational changes for all of part 13. The part 13 reorganization, while not included in the proposed rule, is a result of comments received regarding the complexity of the Glacier Bay regulations specifically, as well as comments received previously for various rulemaking documents concerning the organization of part 13 generally.

The Department of the Army is publishing as a final rule an amendment to its regulations to reflect a substantial revision of AR 27-20, an Army publication which governs the processing of claims worldwide. The purpose of this revision is to make AR 27-20 clearer and easier to use, after years of piecemeal amendments. This rewrite also ensures that AR 27-20 is in keeping with current statutes, legal opinions and Department of Justice guidance pertaining to claims processing. This updated rule will expedite payment of meritorious claims throughout the world.

The FDIC is improving and modernizing its operational systems for deposit insurance assessments in 12 CFR Part 327 to make the deposit insurance assessment system react more quickly and more accurately to changes in institutions' risk profiles and to ameliorate several causes for complaint by insured depository institutions. Under the amendments set out in this final rule, deposit insurance assessments will be collected after each quarter endswhich will allow for consideration of more current information than under the prior rule. Ratings changes will become effective when the rating change is transmitted to the institution. Although the FDIC will retain the existing assessment base as applied in practice with only minor modifications, the computation of institutions' assessment bases will change in the following significant ways: institutions with $1 billion or more in assets will determine their assessment bases using average daily deposit balances; existing smaller institutions will have the option of using average daily deposits to determine their assessment bases; and the float deductions used to determine the assessment base will be eliminated. In addition, the rules governing assessments of institutions that go out of business will be simpler; newly insured institutions will be assessed for the assessment period in which they become insured; prepayment and double payment options will be eliminated; institutions will have 90 days from each quarterly certified statement invoice to file requests for review of their risk assignment and requests for revision of the computation of their quarterly assessment payment; and the rules governing quarterly certified statement invoices will be adjusted for a quarterly assessment system and for a three-year retention period rather than the former five-year period.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 requires that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the FDIC) prescribe final regulations, after notice and opportunity for comment, to provide for deposit insurance assessments under section 7(b) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (the FDI Act). In this rulemaking, the FDIC is amending its regulations to create a new risk differentiation system, to establish a new base assessment rate schedule, and to set assessment rates effective January 1, 2007.