June 22, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On behalf of the President's Pay Agent, the Office of Personnel Management is issuing interim regulations on the locality pay program for General Schedule and certain other employees. The interim regulations add Whatcom County, WA, to the Seattle locality pay area, remove the reference to a January effective date for changes made by the President's Pay Agent in locality pay area boundaries, and make a number of changes in the official names of locality pay areas to correspond to revised names of Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Combined Statistical Areas as established by the Office of Management and Budget.

The Coast Guard is expanding the boundary of a Special Anchorage Area on the Hudson River at Nyack, NY. This action is necessary to facilitate safe navigation in that area and provide safe and secure anchorages for vessels not more than 20 meters in length. This action is intended to increase the safety of life and property on the Hudson River, improve the safety of anchored vessels, and provide for the overall safe and efficient flow of recreational vessel traffic and commerce.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone encompassing the navigable waters of the St. Lawrence River, Ogdensburg, NY. This safety zone is necessary to ensure the safety of spectators and vessels from the hazards associated with a powerboat race. This safety zone restricts vessel traffic from a portion of the St. Lawrence River, Ogdensburg, NY.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on the Genesee River and Lake Ontario near Rochester, NY. This zone is intended to restrict vessels from a portion of the Genesee River and Lake Ontario during the Rochester Harborfest Fireworks display on June 23, 2007. This temporary safety zone is necessary to protect spectators and vessels from the hazards associated with fireworks displays.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on the Seneca River, Papermill Island, Baldwinsville, NY. This zone is intended to restrict vessels from a portion of the Seneca River during the Papermill Island Fireworks display on June 30, 2007. This temporary safety zone is necessary to protect spectators and vessels from the hazards associated with fireworks displays.

Commission Regulation 18.05 requires that a person holding or controlling a futures or option position in a commodity above a certain level (reportable position) on a designated contract market or registered derivatives transaction execution facility (reporting markets) must retain books and records and make available to the Commission upon request any pertinent information with respect to other positions, transactions or activities in the commodity in which the trader has a reportable position. The Commission is proposing to amend Regulation 18.05 in two respects: To make it explicit that persons holding or controlling reportable positions on a reporting market must retain books and records and make available to the Commission upon request any pertinent information with respect to all other positions and transactions in the commodity in which the trader has a reportable position, including positions held or controlled or transactions executed over-the-counter and/or pursuant to Sections 2(d), 2(g) or 2(h)(1)-(2) of the Commodity Exchange Act (Act) or Part 35 of the Commission's regulations, on exempt commercial markets operating pursuant to Sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Act, on exempt boards of trade operating pursuant to Section 5d of the Act, and on foreign boards of trade (hereinafter referred to collectively as non-reporting transactions); and to make the regulation clearer and more complete with respect to hedging activity. The purpose of the amendments is to enhance the Commission's ability to deter and prevent price manipulation or any other disruptions to the integrity of the regulated futures markets, to ensure the avoidance of systemic risk, and to clarify the meaning of the regulation.

In April 2007, the agency published a final rule establishing a new Federal motor vehicle safety standard on electronic stability control (ESC) systems for light vehicles. As part of that rulemaking, the final rule notice stated that NHTSA had decided to defer the standard's requirements related to the ESC telltales and controls until the end of the phase-in period (i.e., until September 1, 2011). Accordingly, most of the paragraphs containing ESC telltale and control requirements were prefaced with the phrase ``as of September 1, 2011.'' However, that phrase was inadvertently omitted from two of the paragraphs setting forth ESC telltale and control requirements. These amendments correct this administrative error by adding the phrase ``as of September 1, 2011'' to those paragraphs.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Eclipse Aviation Corporation (Eclipse) Model EA500 airplanes. This AD requires you to incorporate information into the Limitations section of the airplane flight manual (AFM) that will require operation only in day visual flight rules (VFR), allow only a VFR flight plan, and maintain operation with two pilots. This AD is being issued because of three instances of loss of primary airspeed indication due to freezing condensation within the pitot system. The loss of air pressure in the pitot system could cause the stall warning to become unreliable and the stick pusher, overspeed warning, and autopilot to not function. The concern is heightened by the aerodynamic characteristics of the Eclipse Model EA500 airplane, which relies on the stall warning and the stick pusher to alert the pilot prior to the loss of aircraft control. The standby airspeed is reliable and not affected by this failure mode. A temporary AFM revision prohibits operation in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), requires two pilots, and limits the airspeed and altitude envelope if the event occurs in flight. The AFM limitations and FAA operational rules allow Model EA500 flight crews to file an instrument flight rule (IFR) flight plan even though the airplane is not approved for flight in IMC. This potentially causes an undue workload burden and confusion when the pilot has to refuse any instructions that take them into IMC. We are issuing this AD to prevent an unsafe condition when Air Traffic Control's (ATC's) ability to maintain traffic separation is compromised because an airplane on an IFR flight plan cannot accept a flight plan into IMC.

This regulation establishes tolerances for combined residues of thiamethoxam and its metabolite (CGA-322704) in or on artichoke, globe; caneberry subgroup 13-A, hop, dried cones; grape; grape, raisin; brassica, head and stem, subgroup 5-A; brassica, leafy greens, subgroup 5-B; vegetable, leafy, except brassica group 4. Additionally, tolerance levels for barley, grain; barley, hay and barley, straw will be amended. Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4) and Syngenta Crop Protection Inc. requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') regulations on an interim basis to implement the duty-free provisions of the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (``HOPE'') Act of 2006.

NMFS announces a temporary closure of the Eastern U.S./Canada Area to limited access NE multispecies days-at-sea (DAS) vessels. Based upon Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) reports and other available information, the Administrator, Northeast Region, NMFS (Regional Administrator) has projected that 100 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC) of Georges Bank (GB) cod allocated to be harvested from the Eastern U.S./Canada Area would be harvested by July 12, 2007, if current catch rates continue. This action is being taken to prevent the 2007 TAC for GB cod in the Eastern U.S./Canada Area from being exceeded during the 2007 fishing year, and to minimize the impacts of discards of undersized haddock, in accordance with the regulations implemented under Amendment 13 to the NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. This area will be reopened at a later date during the 2007 fishing year to provide access to the shared U.S./Canada Stocks of cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder, if NMFS determines that the area can be reopened without exceeding the GB cod TAC for the 2007 fishing year.