January 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary amends the regulations in 34 CFR part 76 governing State reporting requirements. These final regulations require States to submit their performance reports, financial reports, and any other required reports, in the manner prescribed by the Secretary, including through electronic submission, if the Secretary has obtained approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). Failure to submit such reports in the manner prescribed by the Secretary constitutes a failure, under section 454 of the General Education Provisions Act, 20 U.S.C. 1234c, to comply substantially with a requirement of law applicable to the funds made available under the program for which the reports are submitted. If the Secretary chooses to require submission of information electronically, the Secretary may establish a transition period during which a State would not be required to submit such information electronically in the format prescribed by the Secretary, if the State meets certain requirements.

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Airbus Model A318, A319, A320, and A321 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires inspecting to determine the part number and serial number of the fuel tank boost pumps and, for airplanes with affected pumps, revising the airplane flight manual (AFM) and the FAA-approved maintenance program. The existing AD also provides for optional terminating action for compliance with the revisions to the AFM and the maintenance program. This proposed AD would require modifying or replacing the fuel tank boost pumps, which would allow removal of the limitations from the AFM and the maintenance program. This proposed AD results from a report that a fuel tank boost pump failed in service, due to a detached screw of the boost pump housing that created a short circuit between the stator and rotor of the boost pump motor and tripped a circuit breaker. We are proposing this AD to prevent electrical arcing in the fuel tank boost pump motor, which, in the presence of a combustible air-fuel mixture in the pump, could result in an explosion and loss of the airplane.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce our intention to conduct rulemaking under the Endangered Species Act (Act) of 1973 as amended (Act) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) for the purpose of removing Astragalus desereticus (Deseret milk-vetch) from the List of Endangered and Threatened Plants in the near future. Specifically, we intend to propose delisting A. desereticus because threats to the species as identified in the final listing rule (64 FR 56590, October 20, 1999) are not as significant as earlier believed and are managed such that the species is not likely to become in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range in the foreseeable future. Upon delisting, A. desereticus would be managed pursuant to a Conservation Agreement among the Service and Utah State agencies. In response to a stipulated settlement agreement we have reconsidered whether designating critical habitat for Astragalus desereticus would be prudent based on this species' current status. We have determined that such a designation is not prudent because, as described in this advanced notice, we believe that designating critical habitat would not be beneficial to the species (50 CFR 424.12). This is because no area meets the definition of ``critical habitat'' (i.e., there are no areas essential to the conservation of the species which require special management considerations, and protections afforded by the species' current listing status appear to be no longer necessary).

The Coast Guard is temporarily changing the regulations governing the operation of the east and west spans of the Venetian Causeway bridges across the Miami Beach Channel on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the Miami Avenue bridge and the Brickell Avenue bridge across the Miami River, Miami-Dade County. This temporary final rule allows these bridges to remain in the closed position during the running of the Miami Marathon on January 28, 2007. By doing so, this will allow the footrace to take place without runners being unnecessarily delayed.

On August 8, 2006, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Secretary proposed to amend several of their regulations related to Indian trust management (see 71 FR 45173). The rule proposes to address Indian trust management issues in the areas of probate, probate hearings and appeals, tribal probate codes, life estates and future interests in Indian land, the Indian land title of record, and conveyances of trust or restricted land. The proposed rule also includes an ``Application for Consolidation by Sale'' form that is associated with one of these amendments. On November 1, 2006, the BIA and the Office of the Secretary reopened the comment period for an additional 60 days to January 2, 2007 (see 71 FR 64181). This notice reopens the comment period an additional 45 days to March 12, 2007. The BIA and Office of Secretary again are extending the comment period by 45 days to ensure that all interested parties, including tribes and individual Indians, have the opportunity to review the proposed rule and prepare their comments.

This notice establishes Class E-2 airspace at Griffiss Airfield, Rome, NY. The opening of a tower and for the protection of instrument approaches make this action necessary. Controlled airspace extending upward from the surface to the base of the overlying controlled airspace is needed to contain aircraft executing an approach. The area would be depicted on aeronautical charts for pilot reference. This was published in the Federal Register on November 17, 2006. 71 FR 66894.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the United States Coast Guard (Coast Guard), issues this final rule to further secure our Nation's ports and modes of transportation. This rule implements the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 and the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. Those statutes establish requirements regarding the promulgation of regulations that require credentialed merchant mariners and workers with unescorted access to secure areas of vessels and facilities to undergo a security threat assessment and receive a biometric credential, known as a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC). After DHS publishes a notice announcing the compliance date for each Captain of the Port (COTP) zone, persons without TWICs will not be granted unescorted access to secure areas at affected maritime facilities. Those seeking unescorted access to secure areas aboard affected vessels, and all Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners must possess a TWIC by September 25, 2008. This final rule will enhance the security of ports by requiring such security threat assessments of persons in secure areas and by improving access control measures to prevent those who may pose a security threat from gaining unescorted access to secure areas of ports. With this final rule, the Coast Guard amends its regulations on vessel and facility security to require the use of the TWIC as an access control measure. The Coast Guard also amends its merchant mariner regulations to incorporate the requirement to obtain a TWIC. This final rule does not include the card reader requirements for owners and operators set forth in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued in this matter on May 22, 2006. Such requirements will be addressed in a future rulemaking. Although the card reader requirements are not being implemented at this time, the Coast Guard will institute periodic unannounced checks to confirm the identity of the holder of the TWIC. With this final rule, TSA applies its security threat assessment standards that currently apply to commercial drivers authorized to transport hazardous materials in commerce to merchant mariners and workers who require unescorted access to secure areas on vessels and at maritime facilities. This final rule amends TSA regulations in a number of ways. To minimize redundant background checks of workers, TSA amends the threat assessment standards to include a process by which TSA determines if a security threat assessment conducted by another governmental agency or by TSA for another program is comparable to the standards in this rule. TSA amends the qualification standards by changing the list of crimes that disqualify an individual from holding a TWIC or a hazardous materials endorsement. TSA expands the appeal and waiver provisions to apply to TWIC applicants and air cargo employees who undergo a security threat assessment. These modifications include a process for the review of adverse waiver decisions and certain disqualification cases by an administrative law judge (ALJ). TSA also extends the time period in which applicants may apply for an appeal or waiver. Finally, this rule establishes the user fee for the TWIC and invites comment on one component of the fee, the card replacement fee. Under this rule, TSA will begin issuing first generation TWIC cards at initial port deployment locations. These TWIC cards will not initially support contactless biometric operations, but the TWIC cards will be functional with certain existing access control systems in use at ports today. TSA and the Coast Guard have established a working group, comprised of members of the maritime and technology industries, through the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC), a federal advisory committee to the Coast Guard. This working group, in consultation with the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), is tasked with recommending the contactless biometric software specification for TWIC cards. TSA will publish a notice detailing the draft contactless biometric software specification for TWIC cards no later than the date by which it publishes the final TWIC fee as required by this Rule. Currently those notices are expected to be published in February 2007. TSA will subsequently publish a final specification for TWIC contactless biometric software functionality and the associated specifications for TWIC card readers. TSA plans also to write electronically the contactless biometric software application to all issued TWIC cards after publication of this specification. After initial field testing, this additional contactless biometric function will be included with all TWIC cards produced after publication of the contactless biometric software specification. Although this rule goes into effect on March 26, 2007, the requirements to hold a TWIC, and to restrict access to secure areas of a facility or OCS facility, will be effective only after the regulated party is notified by DHS. These notifications will be published in the Federal Register and will require compliance on a COTP by COTP basis. Those seeking unescorted access to secure areas aboard affected vessels, and all Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners must possess a TWIC by September 25, 2008.

EPA is taking direct final action under the Clean Air Act to approve the Miami Sulfur Dioxide Nonattainment Area State Implementation and Maintenance Plan as a revision to the Arizona state implementation plan. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality developed this plan to maintain the sulfur dioxide national ambient air quality standards in the Miami (Gila County) area. The maintenance plan contains various elements, including contingency provisions that will be implemented if measured ambient concentrations of sulfur dioxide are above certain trigger levels. EPA is also approving the State of Arizona's request for redesignation of the Miami area from nonattainment to attainment for the sulfur dioxide standards. Lastly, EPA is correcting the boundary of the Miami sulfur dioxide nonattainment area to exclude a noncontiguous township that was erroneously included in the description of the area and to fix a transcription error in the listing of one of the other townships. EPA is taking these actions consistent with provisions in the Clean Air Act that obligate the Agency to approve or disapprove submittals of revisions to state implementation plans and requests for redesignation. The intended effect is to redesignate the Miami, Arizona sulfur dioxide nonattainment area to attainment, provide for maintenance of the standard for the ten-year period following redesignation, and correct long-standing errors in the codified description of the area.

The Commander, Eighth Coast Guard District, has issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the BNSF Railway Company Vertical Lift Span Bridge across Berwick Bay, mile 0.4 (Atchafalaya River, mile 17.5), at Morgan City, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. This deviation provides for the bridge to remain closed to navigation for 12 consecutive hours to conduct scheduled maintenance to the drawbridge.

The Commander, First Coast Guard District, has issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Amtrak railroad bridge across the Mystic River, mile 2.4, at Mystic, Connecticut. Under this temporary deviation, the bridge may remain in the closed position from February 2, 2007 through February 4, 2007. This deviation is necessary to facilitate scheduled bridge maintenance.

This regulation revises a tolerance for combined residues of spiromesifen in or on vegetables, fruiting, group 8 and establishes tolerances for inadvertent or indirect combined residues in or on oat (grain, forage, hay, straw). Interregional Research Project No. 4 (IR- 4) and Bayer CropScience (respectively) requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to implement requirements for secure transfer of nuclear materials as required by Section 656 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), signed into law on August 8, 2005. The final rule implements Section 656 by specifically excepting certain licensees from provisions of Section 170I of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954, as amended.

These proposed regulations implement provisions of title IV-D of the Social Security Act (the Act) as amended by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-171 (DRA of 2005). The proposed regulations address use of the tax refund intercept program to collect past-due child support on behalf of children who are not minors, mandatory review and adjustment of child support orders for families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), reduction of Federal matching rate for laboratory costs incurred in determining paternity, States' option to pay more child support collections to former assistance families, and the mandatory annual $25 fee in certain child support (IV-D) cases in which the State has collected and disbursed at least $500 of support. The regulations also make other conforming changes necessary to implement changes to the distribution and disbursement requirements.

This document contains corrections to notice of proposed rulemaking by cross-reference to temporary regulations that was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 (71 FR 75898) providing guidance regarding the qualification of certain transactions as reorganizations described in section 368(a)(1)(D) where no stock and/or securities of the acquiring corporation are issued and distributed in the transaction.

This amendment amends Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) for operations at certain airports. These regulatory actions are needed because of changes occurring in the National Airspace System, such as the commissioning of new navigational facilities, addition of new obstacles, or changes in air traffic requirements. These changes are designed to provide safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and to promote safe flight operations under instrument flight rules at the affected airports.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) issued by the aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

This amendment adopts a new airworthiness directive (AD), applicable to certain McDonnell Douglas Model DC-8 airplanes. This AD requires a one-time inspection for previous repairs of the aft fuselage skin panel at the longeron 28 skin splice; repetitive inspections for cracks of the same area; and related investigative and corrective actions. This AD also provides optional actions for extending the repetitive inspection intervals. The actions specified by this AD are intended to detect and correct cracks in the aft fuselage skin at the longeron 28 skin splice, which could lead to loss of structural integrity of the aft fuselage, resulting in rapid decompression of the airplane. This action is intended to address the identified unsafe condition.

NHTSA is having a public meeting to bring together a roundtable of child restraint and vehicle manufacturers, retailers, technicians, researchers and consumer groups to discuss ways to improve child safety through improving the design and increasing the use of child restraint systems. Through a combination of presentations by invited speakers and group discussions among roundtable attendees, the group will focus on the following topics at this meeting: improving Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) system designs, improving child side impact safety, and educating the public about LATCH. This notice announces the date, time and location of the meeting.

This document denies a Petition for Reconsideration filed by Bryan A. King, successor to BK Radio, directed to the Report and Order in this proceeding. With this action, the proceeding is terminated.

These special conditions are issued for the General Electric Company (GE) GEnx turbofan engine models GEnx-1B54, GEnx-1B58, GEnx- 1B64, GEnx-1B67, GEnx-1B70, GEnx-1B70/72, GEnx-1B70/75, GEnx-1B72, and GEnx-1B75. The fan blades of these engines will have novel or unusual design features when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the part 33 airworthiness standards. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for these design features. These special conditions contain the added safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

This Final Rule sets forth the Secretary's proposal to require HTPC grant recipients to contribute non-Federal matching funds in years 2 through 5 of the project period equal to two times the amount of the Federal Grant Award or such lesser amount determined by the Secretary for good cause shown.

On August 18, 2006, the Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (71 FR 56923, September 28, 2006) (NPRM) in the proceeding captioned above. The NPRM seeks comment from the public on proposed licensing procedures and service rules for satellites providing Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service. The NPRM also seeks comment on licensing non-nine-degree-spaced DBS applications. On December 22, 2006, SES Americom, Inc. filed a Motion for Extension of Time, requesting the Commission to extend the reply comment filing deadline in this proceeding. SES Americom, Inc. stated that an extension would enable the parties to the proceeding to provide a more complete record for review, considering the important policy and technical issues raised in the proceeding. The Commission concurred that the issues raised in the proceeding are complex, technical, and of great importance to the DBS service and to direct-to-home satellite consumers throughout the United States. Thus, the Commission granted SES Americom, Inc.'s request, and extended the reply comment pleading deadline to January 25, 2007. The Commission stated that the public interest will be served by the extension to enable the filing of a more complete record in this proceeding. Accordingly, pursuant to section 1.46 of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 1.46, the request of SES Americom, Inc. is granted. The deadline for filing reply comments in this proceeding is extended to January 25, 2007. This action is taken under delegated authority pursuant to sections 0.51 and 0.261 of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 0.51, 0.261.

The National Archives and Records Administration is establishing a new Part 2600 in 2 CFR that adopts the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) guidance in 2 CFR Part 180, as supplemented by this new part, as NARA's policies and procedures for nonprocurement and debarment and suspension. NARA is removing 36 CFR part 1209, the part containing NARA's implementation of the government- wide common rule on nonprocurement debarment and suspension. The new part in 2 CFR part 2600 will serve the same purpose as the common rule in a simpler way. This regulatory action is an administrative simplification that would make no substantive change in NARA's policy or procedures for nonprocurement debarment and suspension.

On January 20, 2006, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) submitted a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision to request redesignation of the El Paso carbon monoxide (CO) nonattainment area to attainment for the CO National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). This submittal also included a CO maintenance plan for the El Paso area and associated Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets (MVEBs). The maintenance plan was developed to ensure continued attainment of the CO NAAQS for a period of 10 years from the effective date of EPA approval of redesignation to attainment. In this action, EPA is approving the El Paso CO redesignation request and the maintenance plan with its associated MVEBs as satisfying the requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA) as amended in 1990.

EPA is re-proposing approval of Ohio rules concerning equivalent visible emission limits (EVELs). Ohio's rules provide criteria for establishment of EVELs, and the rules provide that EVELs established according to these criteria take effect without formal review by EPA. EPA proposed to approve these rules on December 2, 2002, at 67 FR 71515. However, that proposal did not clearly solicit comment on the timing by which actions on EVELs by the State take effect. EPA is proposing that previous State modifications to EVELs would become effective at the federal level immediately upon the effective date of any final EPA action approving these Ohio rules. Similarly, any future action by the State to establish, modify, or rescind EVELs in accordance with the criteria given in these Ohio rules would become effective at the federal level immediately upon the effective date of the State action.