2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (OPHEP) and the Office of Global Health Affairs (OGHA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces that up to $2,100,000 in fiscal year (FY) 2006 funds is available for a cooperative agreement to provide support to develop a cadre of in-country trainers who can improve their ongoing hospital infection-control programs to achieve better adherence by health-care workers to infection-control and case- management principles and practices. This effort is an undertaking by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The project will be approved for up to a program period of three (3) years with a budget period of one-year for a total of $2,100,000. Under certain circumstances especially in support of HHS International efforts, OGHA and OPHEP are required to collaborate on programs, issues and initiatives regarding international public health (i.e. Avian Influenza, disease surveillance, etc.). Normally, OGHA is often tasked as to devise, award, and administer international Federal assistance actions (grants, cooperative agreements, IAA's, etc.). When emergency preparedness issues are to be addressed as part of the program plan, OGHA partners with OPHEP to provide assistance in ensuring risks mitigation and emergency preparedness elements are included. The Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention (REDI) Center in Singapore will design the program around mentorship principles so trainers can gain advice and support for their efforts in teaching infection-control and case-management practices in local languages. While there is no current pandemic influenza outbreak, there is still reason to be concerned about the spread of the H5N1 virus from Southeast Asia to countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the last century, three influenza pandemics have affected the United States, and viruses from birds contributed to all of them. Medical practitioners have also discovered several other, new, avian viruses human beings can transmit among one another. Although the H5N1 virus has primarily infected domesticated birds and long-range migratory birds, the virus has demonstrated the ability to infect and produce fatal illness in humans. Influenza experts believe an avian virus could become efficiently transmissible between humans, and result in a worldwide outbreak, which would overwhelm health and medical capabilities. Furthermore, an influenza pandemic could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of hospitalizations, and hundreds of billions of dollars in direct costs in the United States alone. On November 1, 2005, President Bush announced the National Strategy on Pandemic Influenza, and the following day Secretary Michael O. Leavitt released the HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan. Building on these efforts, President Bush released the Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza on May 3, 2006, which describes more than 300 critical actions to address the threat of pandemic influenza. All relevant Federal Departments and agencies must take steps to address the threat of avian and pandemic influenza. Drawing on the combined efforts of Government officials and the public- health, medical, veterinary, and law-enforcement communities, as well as the private sector, this strategy is designed to meet three critical goals: Detecting human or animal outbreaks that occur anywhere in the world; protecting the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs, while improving the capacity to produce new vaccines; and preparing to respond at the Federal, State, and local levels in the event an avian or pandemic influenza reaches the United States. HHS technical expertise in applied epidemiology, rapid laboratory diagnostics, infection control, virology research, vaccine delivery, and other areas is a critical component of both the domestic and the international response to the threat of pandemic influenza. One of the primary objectives of both the National Strategy and the HHS Pandemic Plan is to leverage global partnerships to increase preparedness and response capabilities around the world with the intent of stopping, slowing, or otherwise limiting the spread of a pandemic to the United States.\1\ The U.S. cannot mount an effective response to an influenza pandemic without effective worldwide partnerships. As such, we are working bilaterally with partner countries, with multilateral organizations, and with private, non-profit organizations, to amplify our efforts. Our international effort to contain and mitigate the effects of an outbreak of pandemic influenza is a central component of our overall strategy. In many ways, the character and quality of the U.S. response and that of our international partners could play a determining role in the severity of a pandemic. Pillars Two and Three of the National Strategy set out clear goals for ensuring the rapid reporting of outbreaks and containing outbreaks beyond the borders of the U.S. by taking the following actions:

EPA is proposing to approve a redesignation request and a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision for the Weirton, West Virginia portion of the Steubenville-Weirton, OH-WV interstate area (herein referred to as the ``Area'') from nonattainment to attainment of the 8- hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is requesting that the Brooke and Hancock County, West Virginia (Weirton) portion of the area be redesignated as attainment for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS. The interstate 8-hour ozone nonattainment area is comprised of three counties (Brooke and Hancock Counties, West Virginia (Weirton) and Jefferson County, Ohio (Steubenville)). EPA is proposing to approve the ozone redesignation request for the Weirton portion of the area. In conjunction with its redesignation request, the WVDEP submitted a SIP revision consisting of a maintenance plan for Weirton that provides for continued attainment of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the next 12 years. EPA is proposing to make a determination that Weirton has attained the 8-hour ozone NAAQS based upon three years of complete, quality-assured ambient air quality ozone monitoring data for 2002-2004. EPA's proposed approval of the 8-hour ozone redesignation request is based on its determination that Weirton has met the criteria for redesignation to attainment specified in the Clean Air Act (CAA). EPA is providing information on the status of its adequacy determination for the motor vehicle emission budgets (MVEBs) that are identified in the Weirton maintenance plan for purposes of transportation conformity, and is also proposing to approve those MVEBs. EPA is proposing approval of the redesignation request and of the maintenance plan revision to the West Virginia SIP in accordance with the requirements of the CAA.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (Privacy Act), the Department of Education (the Department) publishes this notice of a new system of records entitled ``Impact Evaluation of a School-based Violence Prevention Program,'' 18-13-15. The purpose of the impact evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of a violence prevention program comprised of two violence prevention interventions for middle schools using a rigorous research design. Currently, there is lack of rigorous research concerning school-based violence prevention in middle schools. The Department's contractor, RTI International (RTI), selected the violence prevention interventions to be evaluated through an open competition with advisement from a panel of experts in the field of violence prevention. RTI selected the Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RiPP) and Best Behavior interventions and combined the two approaches into a single violence prevention program with two components: (1) A curriculum-based model to facilitate students' social competency, problem solving, and self- control skills, and (2) a whole-school model that targets school practices and policies usually through classroom management or teaching strategies, or through systemic reorganization and modification of school management, disciplinary policies, and enforcement procedures. The RiPP intervention will provide the curriculum-based component of the program , and the Best Behavior intervention will provide the whole-school component of the program. The system will contain information about students, teachers, and other school staff members in schools that are randomly assigned either to implement the violence prevention program or not to implement the program. The sample will consist of approximately 20,000 students and approximately 3,000 teachers and other school staff members drawn from approximately 40 schools over 3 years. Each of the 40 schools that participate in the study will be randomly assigned either to receive the violence prevention program or not to receive the program so that approximately 20 schools are in each study condition. At each school, sixth graders will be surveyed in the 2006-2007 school year, seventh graders in the 2007-2008 school year, and eighth graders in the 2008- 2009 school year. The teacher survey will be administered to a random sample of 24 teachers (stratified by grade) at each of the middle schools participating in the study. Teachers will complete the survey in spring of 2007, 2008, and 2009, with a new random sample of teachers selected each year. Other school staff members will be interviewed about victimization and their experiences implementing the program. The system of records will include students' names, demographic information (such as date of birth and race/ethnicity), self-reported attitudes about violence and feelings of safety, self-reported victimization, and self-reported violent and delinquent behaviors. The system also will include information from school records such as records of students' attendance, suspensions, expulsions, and school policy violations. The system also will include teachers' and other school staff members' self-reported victimization at school as well as their experiences with training and technical assistance related to their schools' violence prevention efforts.

As stipulated by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is hereby giving notice that the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) will hold a meeting. This meeting is open to the public. A description of the Council's functions is included with this notice.

This action is to extend the existing Parker-Davis Project (P- DP) Firm Electric Service Rate Schedule PD-F6 and the Transmission Service Rate Schedules PD-FT6, PD-FCT6, and PD-NFT6 through September 30, 2008. Without this action, the existing Firm Electric Service and Transmission Services rates will expire September 30, 2006, and no rates will be in effect for these services. These Firm Electric Service and Transmission Service Schedules contain formula rates recalculated from yearly updated financial and load data.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Council) Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will hold a working meeting, which is open to the public.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to convene via conference call.

This is a notice of an Administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of North Carolina dated 9/25/2006. Incident: Tropical Storm Ernesto. Incident Period: 8/31/2006. Effective Date: 9/25/2006. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 11/24/2006. Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 6/25/2007.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act Implementation Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (the ``Subcommittee'') is requesting written public comments for the annual review of the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries to receive the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The Subcommittee will consider these comments in developing recommendations on AGOA country eligibility for the President. Comments received related to the child labor criteria may also be considered by the Secretary of Labor for the preparation of the Department of Labor's report on child labor as required under section 412(c) of the Trade and Development Act of 2000. This notice identifies the eligibility criteria that must be considered under AGOA, and lists those sub-Saharan African countries that are currently eligible for the benefits of the AGOA, and those that are currently ineligible for such benefits.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning a final regulation, REG-252936-96 (TD 8780), Rewards for Information Relating to Violations of Internal Revenue Laws (section 301.7623-1).

This document contains a correction to final regulations (TD 9273) that were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, August 8, 2006(71 FR 44887) addressing the carryover of certain tax attributes, such as earnings and profits and foreign income tax accounts, when two corporations combine in a corporate reorganization or liquidation that is described in both section 367(b) and section 381 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code).