April 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action proposes to amend the designated altitudes of restricted areas R-3702A and R-3702B, Fort Campbell, KY, to better accommodate training requirements and provide greater access to the airspace for nonparticipating aircraft flying through the area above 10,000 feet MSL.

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

The FAA is revising an earlier NPRM for an airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain Bombardier Model CL-600-1A11 (CL-600) airplanes, CL-600-2A12 (CL-601) airplanes, and CL-600-2B16 (CL-601-3A, CL-601-3R, and CL-604) airplanes. The original NPRM would have required inspecting to identify the part number and serial number of the selector valves of the nose landing gear (NLG) and the nose gear door; and doing related investigative and corrective actions if necessary. The original NPRM resulted from reports of uncommanded partial retractions of the NLG. This action revises the original NPRM by adding airplanes to the applicability. We are proposing this supplemental NPRM to prevent internal leakage of the selector valve, which, under certain conditions, could result in an uncommanded retraction of the NLG with consequent damage to the airplane and possible serious injury to ground personnel.

Base (1% annual chance) Flood Elevations (BFEs) and modified BFEs are made final for the communities listed below. The BFEs and modified BFEs are the basis for the floodplain management measures that each community is required either to adopt or to show evidence of being already in effect in order to qualify or remain qualified for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published a direct final rule that notified the public of its intent to remove the FEMA Acquisition Regulation in its entirety. FEMA did not receive any comments on the rule. Therefore, the rule will go into effect as scheduled.

The Office of Personnel Management is issuing final regulations to increase the maximum annual uniform allowance rate from $400 to $800. When civilian Federal employees are required to wear a uniform in the performance of their duties, agencies must pay a uniform allowance or furnish a uniform.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone in Port Washington Harbor, Port Washington, WI. This zone is intended to restrict vessels from a portion of Port Washington Harbor and Lake Michigan during the Port Pirate Festival fireworks display. This temporary safety zone is necessary to protect spectators and vessels from the hazards associated with fireworks displays.

The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) is revising the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grants Program Administrative Regulations to implement changes and be compliant with the Small Business Innovation Research Policy Directive (67 FR 60072, September 24, 2002).

DoD has issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to remove text addressing a statutory prohibition on the use of nonimmigrant aliens to perform work under contracts for military construction on Guam. The statutory prohibition was repealed by Section 2810 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007.

DoD has issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to update procedures for obtaining Department of Labor wage determinations for construction and service contracts. The DFARS amendments are consistent with changes made to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

DoD has issued a final rule amending Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) text pertaining to small business programs. The rule updates and clarifies policy for contracting with small business and small disadvantaged business concerns and relocates text to the DFARS companion resource, Procedures, Guidance, and Information.

The EPA is approving revisions to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County, New Mexico, area that were adopted on December 14, 2005, and submitted to EPA by the Governor of New Mexico on May 24, 2006. The SIP revisions modify the PSD and Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR) regulations in the SIP. They were submitted to make the area's PSD and NNSR rules consistent with the Federal PSD and NNSR revised regulations, which were promulgated by EPA on December 31, 2002, (67 FR 80186), and reconsidered with minor changes on November 7, 2003, (68 FR 63021), (collectively, the ``2002 New Source Review (NSR) Reform rules''). The revisions include provisions for baseline emissions calculations, an actual-to-projected- actual methodology for calculating emissions changes, options for plantwide applicability limits, and recordkeeping and reporting requirements. The EPA is approving these revisions pursuant to section 110, part C, and part D of the Federal Clean Air Act.

In order to implement its authority under section 23 of the Natural Gas Act, which was added by section 316 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), the Commission proposes to revise its regulations to: require that intrastate pipelines post daily the capacities of, and volumes flowing through, their major receipt and delivery points and mainline segments in order to make available the information needed to track daily flows of natural gas throughout the United States; and require that buyers and sellers of more than a de minimis volume of natural gas report annual numbers and volumes of relevant transactions to the Commission in order to make possible an estimate of the size of the physical U.S. natural gas market, assess the importance of the use of index pricing in that market, and determine the size of the fixed-price trading market that produces the information. These revisions would facilitate price transparency in markets for the sale or transportation of physical natural gas in interstate commerce.

In this Final Rule, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is amending its accounting and reporting regulations to require public utilities and licensees to continue to follow the Commission's Uniform System of Accounts (USofA) and to file annual and quarterly financial reports when they have ceased making jurisdictional sales of electric energy, or providing jurisdictional transmission service, but continue collecting amounts pursuant to a Commission- accepted tariff or rate schedule, or a Commission order. The Final Rule will close a gap in the Commission's regulations which apply now only to operating public utilities and licensees, and which provide information necessary to the Commission's regulatory responsibilities.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Learjet Model 45 airplanes. This AD requires deactivating the auxiliary power unit (APU), capping/plugging the fuel lines to the APU, and removing the APU fuel shutoff valve. This AD results from reports of fuel leaking from the APU fuel shutoff valve into a flammable fluid fire protection area that is also interconnected with the main landing gear's wheel well bay. We are issuing this AD to prevent fuel leaking from the fuel shutoff valve of the APU, which could result in an uncontrollable fire and adversely affect the airplane's continued safe flight and landing.

In a rule published November 8, 2002, EPA promulgated new emission standards for recreational vehicles beginning in model year 2006. This included a newly regulated class of nonroad vehicles/engines commonly referred to as all-terrain vehicles. In that rulemaking, a temporary provision was included allowing manufacturers to certify all- terrain vehicles over a steady-state, engine-based, duty cycle for exhaust emissions prior to the 2009 model year in lieu of the transient, chassis-based, Federal Test Procedure which was effective for 2006 and later model years. In this rulemaking we are proposing to extend the availability of this temporary provision for in some cases up to an additional six model years, after which the chassis-based Federal Test Procedure would become the only available test cycle. More specifically, manufacturers would have to certify exhaust emission engine families representing not less than 50 percent of their U.S.- directed production on the Federal Test Procedure in model year 2014 and 100 percent in 2015. Manufacturers with only one all-terrain vehicle exhaust emission engine engine family would not be required to use the Federal Test Procedure until the 2015 model year. For those manufacturers who have not yet done so, this will allow additional time to certify to the previously promulgated Federal Test Procedure-based emission standards using either contract facilities or by obtaining in- house capability.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS or Department) recommends that chemical facilities begin the registration process to gain access to the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) system. This is a voluntary registration process for facilities that think they may be covered by DHS's Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards located in 6 CFR Part 27 and that would like to initiate the process to determine whether or not they are covered by 6 CFR Part 27.

EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Maryland operating permit program. The revisions amend the Code of Maryland Administrative Regulations' (COMAR) incorporation by reference citations to ensure that future changes to the Federal Acid Rain program will continue to be incorporated into Maryland's regulations. EPA is approving these revisions in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act.

EPA is proposing to approve State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Montana. On May 27, 2005, the Governor of Montana submitted a request to redesignate the Missoula ``moderate'' carbon monoxide (CO) nonattainment area to attainment for the CO National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The Governor also submitted a CO maintenance plan which includes transportation conformity motor vehicle emission budgets (MVEB) for 2000, 2010, and 2020. In addition, EPA is proposing to approve CO periodic emission inventories for 1993 and 1996 for the Missoula nonattainment area that the State had previously submitted. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act.

The Postal Service is proposing to revise our mailing standards for lithium batteries. Currently, our standards limit customers and battery manufacturers from using the mail to send consumer-type lithium batteries, and prohibit the mailing of devices powered by lithium batteries when the batteries are in the device. These standards are excessively restrictive because they obstruct the mailing of commonly used consumer-type batteries that are permitted to be transported by air under Department of Transportation (DOT) and International Air Transportation Association (IATA) regulations. In addition, under our current standards, it is difficult to determine which lithium batteries meet mailing standards and which do not. Therefore, by identifying all small consumer-type lithium batteries as mailable when properly labeled and packaged, this proposal would increase the safety of the mail. Our proposed standards are based on, yet more restrictive than, DOT shipping regulations for lithium batteries.

This document adopts as a final rule a proposed rule amending Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rules governing certification of enrollment in approved courses for the training of veterans and other eligible persons under the education benefit programs VA administers. Under this rule, educational institutions with multi-state campuses may submit certifications to VA from a centralized location.

This document provides notice of the termination of the proceeding in WT Docket No. 04-435, involving the Commission's ban on the airborne use of cellular telephones as set out in the Commission's prohibition on airborne operation of cellular telephones rules.

This document contains a correction to final regulations (TD 9315) that were published in the Federal Register on Monday, March 19, 2007 (72 FR 12902) regarding dual consolidated losses. Section 1503(d) generally provides that a dual consolidated loss of a dual resident corporation cannot reduce the taxable income of any other member of the affiliated group unless, to the extent provided in regulations, the loss does not offset the income of any foreign corporation.

EPA is proposing to move existing active and inert ingredient plant-incorporated protectant tolerance exemptions from 40 CFR part 180 (Tolerances and Exemptions from Tolerances for Pesticide Chemicals in Food) to 40 CFR part 174 (Procedures and Requirements for Plant- Incorporated Protectants) subpart W (Tolerances and Tolerance Exemptions). EPA is also proposing some conforming changes to the text of the individual exemptions, so that they are consistent with part 174, as well as some minor technical corrections to the wording of certain individual exemptions. This action is administrative in nature and no substantive changes are intended. We are proposing these administrative revisions to plant-incorporated protectant tolerance exemptions to take into account the promulgation of 40 CFR part 174, 66 FR 37814, July 19, 2001.

This rule proposes to amend U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regulations regarding the special immigrant and nonimmigrant religious worker visa classifications. This rule addresses concerns about the integrity of the religious worker program by proposing a petition requirement for religious organizations seeking to classify an alien as an immigrant or nonimmigrant religious worker. This rule also addresses an on-site inspection for religious organizations to ensure the legitimacy of petitioner organizations and employment offers made by such organizations. This rule also would clarify several substantive and procedural issues that have arisen since the religious worker category was created. This notice proposes new definitions that describe more clearly the regulatory requirements, and the proposed rule would add specific evidentiary requirements for petitioning employers and prospective religious workers. Finally, this rule also proposes to amend how USCIS regulations reference the sunset date, the statutory deadline by which special immigrant religious workers, other than ministers, must immigrate or adjust status to permanent residence, so that regular updates to the regulations are not required each time Congress extends the sunset date.