December 8, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice solicits public input as part of a study on the feasibility, cost and associated concerns or benefits with the installation of voyage data recorders on passenger vessels. In the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, the Congress directed the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct a study of the carriage of voyage data recorders (VDR) by certain passenger vessels. As part of this study, the Coast Guard is to look at the standards, the methods for approval of models, and the procedures for the annual testing of the VDR.

This document corrects notice of proposed rulemaking (REG- 121509-00) that was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 (71 FR 51155). The document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance relating to the exclusion from gross income of previously taxed earnings and profits under section 959 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) and related basis adjustments under section 961 of the Code.

The Commission proposes to amend some of its rules for investigations and related proceedings under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1337) to do the following: (1) Provide for service of certain Commission documents by overnight delivery; and (2) provide one additional day to respond to Commission documents served by overnight delivery. The current manner of service of Commission documents is not effective according to recent agency studies. These rules will ensure effective service of Commission documents on private parties in section 337 investigations and related proceedings.

The Federal Election Commission (the ``Commission'') seeks comments on a proposal to clarify its enforcement policy with respect to the circumstances under which it intends to consider a political committee and its treasurer to be in compliance with the recordkeeping and reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended (``FECA''), based on the ``best efforts'' defense. Section 432(i) of Title 2 provides that when the treasurer of a political committee demonstrates that best efforts were used to obtain, maintain, and submit the information required by FECA, any report or any records of such committee shall be considered in compliance with FECA (and/or chapters 95 and 96 of Title 26). In the past, the Commission has interpreted this section to apply only to a treasurer's efforts to obtain required information from contributors to a political committee, and not to maintaining information or the submission of reports. However, in light of Lovely v. Federal Election Commission, 307 F. Supp. 2d 294 (D. Mass. 2004), the Commission intends to apply Section 432(i) to obtaining, maintaining, and submitting information and records to the Commission for the purpose of complying with FECA's disclosure and reporting requirements. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.

The Federal Election Commission seeks public comment on proposed revisions to its regulations regarding the Commission's administrative fines program. The administrative fines program is a streamlined process through which the Commission finds and penalizes violations of 2 U.S.C. 434(a), which requires committees registered with the Commission to file periodic reports. Current Commission regulations set forth several grounds upon which a respondent may base a challenge to an administrative fine. The proposed regulations replace the current ``extraordinary circumstances'' defense with a ``best efforts'' defense. The proposed regulations would also provide for Commission statements of reasons on administrative fines final determinations. The Commission has made no final decision on the issues presented in this rulemaking. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.

This rule finalizes the interim final rule with comment period published in the Federal Register November 24, 1999 (64 FR 66234) and the interim final rule with comment period published in the Federal Register on October 1, 2002 (67 FR 61496). The November 1999 interim final rule implemented sections 4801 through 4803 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Pub. L. 105-33) and established requirements for Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The interim final rule with comment period published on October 1, 2002 (67 FR 61496) implemented section 903 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA) (Pub. L. 106-554).

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) includes amendments to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) to provide for new Federal energy efficiency and water conservation test procedures, and related definitions, for certain consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment. The amendments direct the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish new test procedures for many of these products and certain equipment, in most cases EPACT 2005 requires the new test procedures to be ``based on'' certain identified testing practices generally accepted by industry and other government agencies. Today, DOE adopts test procedures for eleven types of products for which EPACT 2005 identified specific test procedures on which the federally-mandated test procedures are to be based. In addition, DOE adopts test procedures for three other products for which EPACT 2005 did not specify specific test procedures, and for which test procedures have not previously been established. Furthermore, DOE is adopting a new version of the current test procedure for small commercial package air-conditioning and heating equipment, which will not change the existing requirements. DOE is also adopting technical corrections to the October 18, 2005, final rule, 70 FR 60407, which DOE described in detail in the July 25, 2006, notice of proposed rulemaking in this proceeding (July 2006 proposed rule), 71 FR 42178, 42195-96. However, DOE is not finalizing the procedures for sampling during compliance testing, and compliance certification and enforcement that were included in the July 2006 proposed rule. Such procedures will be addressed in a subsequent final rule.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is issuing this final rule to revise the Agency's Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), which addresses standards in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), title 30, parts 48, 50, and 75. The final rule includes requirements for increased availability and storage of self-contained self-rescue devices (SCSRs); improved emergency evacuation drills and self-contained self-rescue device training; and the installation and maintenance of lifelines in underground coal mines. In addition, the final rule requires immediate accident notification applicable to all mines. The requirements provide an improved, integrated approach to emergency evacuation training and emergency preparedness. This final rule does not reduce protections afforded miners under existing standards.

The FAA's Aviation Safety, an organization responsible for the certification, production approval, and continued airworthiness of aircraft, and certification of pilots, mechanics, and others in safety related positions, publishes proposed non-regulatory documents that are available for public comment on the Internet at https://www.faa.gov/ aircraft/draftdocs/.

Current law requires that U.S. citizens actually control each U.S. air carrier, that U.S. citizens own or control at least 75 percent of the shareholders' voting interest, and that the president and two- thirds of the directors and the managing officers must be U.S. citizens. The Department interprets this law in conducting initial and continuing fitness reviews of U.S. air carriers. We are withdrawing a proposal to modify by regulation the standards we apply in those cases where ``actual control'' by U.S. citizens is at issue. The proposal being withdrawn would have narrowed the scope of our inquiry in such cases to those core matters affecting compliance with U.S. requirements affecting safety, security, national defense and corporate governance. These rationalized standards for deciding whether U.S. citizens maintained ``actual control'' of a carrier would have applied only to proposed transactions involving investors whose countries have an open-skies air services agreement with the United States and offer reciprocal investment opportunities to U.S. citizens. Our interpretation of other aspects of the statutory citizenship requirement would have been unchanged. Although we are withdrawing the current proposal, we will continue to consider other ways to rationalize and simplify our domestic investment regime. The need for greater certainty and transparency in our requirements and administrative process has become very apparent. Indeed, public comment in this docket has only served to confirm the Department's growing concern that the current regime is so unduly complex and burdensome that it needlessly inhibits the movement of capital that otherwise would flow into the U.S. airline industry and thus interferes with the legitimate needs of U.S. carriers to attract strategic investors from overseas markets. The Department notes that most of the American economy has progressed well beyond the antiquated notions that continue to apply to the airline industry because of our administrative interpretations of the current statute. In a modern, global industry such as aviation, we believe that the United States should not shut its doors to foreign investment by perpetuating archaic and time-consuming administrative practices that serve neither a statutory purpose nor an identifiable policy interest of the United States. The Department had also proposed amendments to 14 CFR Part 204, the rules governing the data used in fitness determinations, and invited comment on the procedures used in fitness cases. The Department will publish a separate decision on those matters.

The Department of the Army is resending AR 385-55, Prevention of Motor Vehicle Accidents, and has consolidated its requirements into AR 385-10, Army Safety Program. During consolidation, the section concerning the use of non-tactical off-road vehicles on Army land was removed.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), DoD. Sacramento District has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that analyzes the potential effects of implementing each of five alternative scenarios for a mixed-use development in the approximately 3,828-acre Rio del Oro Specific Plan area, in the City of Rancho Cordova, Sacramento County, CA. The EIS documents the existing condition of environmental resources in and around areas considered for development, and potential impacts on those resources as a result of implementing the alternatives. The alternatives considered in detail are: (1) Proposed Project/Proposed Action (i.e., Proposed Project Alternative), the Applicants' Preferred Alternative; (2) High Density (Increased Densities Consistent with Sacramento Area Council of Governments Blueprint); (3) Impact Minimization; (4) No Federal Action (No Section 404 of the Clean Water Act Permit); and (5) No Project/No Action (No development).

This document provides additional time for interested persons to submit comments on the system of records notice for the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Automated Targeting System.

The USDA Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to disclose environmental effects on a proposed action to recover the economic value of dead and dying tees damaged in the Shake Table Fire Complex, and remove potential hazard trees from open forest travel routes within the Todd, Duncan, Fields Creek and Dry Creek subwatersheds. Shake Table Fire Complex, located approximately 20 miles southwest of John Day, Oregon, burned approximately 14,527 acres across mixed ownership in August 2006, of that approximately 13,536 acres were on National Forest System Lands administered by the Blue Mountain Ranger District, Malheur National Forest. The proposed action is the Thorn Fire Salvage Recovery Project.