August 22, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA issued a final rule in the Federal Register of June 27, 2007, concerning the establishment of tolerances for residues of buprofezin on various commodities. This document is being issued to correct a typographical omission.

This document contains corrections to the authority citation to the final regulations, 47 CFR Part 54, which were published in the Federal Register of Tuesday, June 17, 1997, 62 FR 32912. The regulations implemented the statutory requirements of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 relating to universal service.

This document requests comments on a petition for rulemaking filed by Kevin J. Youngers requesting the allotment of Channel 249C2 at Blanca, Colorado, as the community's first local aural transmission service. To accommodate the allotment, United States CP, LLC, permittee on Channel 249A at Westcliffe, Colorado, has consented to substitute Channel 269A for Channel 249A at Westcliffe. Channel 249C2 can be allotted at Blanca, Colorado with a site restriction of 6.6 kilometers (4.1 miles) east of the community at coordinates 37-26-35 NL and 105- 26-29 WL .

The Federal Communications Commission initiates a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) to address technical issues related to potential interference unique to the ``reverse band'' operating environment in the 17/24 GHz BSS. In the NPRM in this proceeding, the Commission sought comment on what measures were needed to address issues concerning reverse band operations. These included measures to mitigate against space-path interference between DBS and 17/24 GHz BSS satellites (space-path interference) and to protect 17/24 GHz BSS subscribers from DBS feeder links (ground-path interference). The record on these issues is insufficient to develop requirements. While most commenters advocate certain general approaches, we need more information to build on the generalities and derive specific requirements. Thus, we seek further comment on the issues concerning reverse band operations.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (``Commission'' or DRBC) will hold a public hearing to receive comments on a proposed amendment to the Commission's Water Quality Regulations, Water Code, and Comprehensive Plan to extend through May 15, 2008 the temporary classification of the Lower Delaware River as Significant Resource Waters (SRW). Permanent classification is anticipated following an additional notice and comment rulemaking that is expected to begin shortly. Extending the temporary classification will help to protect the exceptional scenic, recreational and water quality values of the Lower Delaware from degradation pending completion of that process.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary security zone in certain waters of the Upper Potomac River surrounding the motor vessel Odyssey III, a 230-foot passenger vessel. This action is necessary in order to ensure the security of high-ranking public officials and safeguard the public at large against terrorist acts or incidents during activities associated with a dinner cruise held in conjunction with the Global Air Chiefs Conference, in Washington, DC, on September 23, 2007. This rule prohibits vessels and people from entering the security zone and requires vessels and persons in the security zone to depart the zone, unless specifically exempt under the provisions in this rule or granted specific permission from the Coast Guard Captain of the Port Baltimore, Maryland, or his designated representative.

EPA is approving revisions to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) on November 19, 2004, for the purpose of incorporating EPA's July 18, 1997, revisions to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and to ensure consistency between state and Federal regulations. The revisions consist of the amendments published in the South Carolina State Register on September 24, 2004, revising Regulation 61-62.5, Standard Number 2, Ambient Air Quality Standards.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issues Permanent Resident Cards (Forms I-551) to lawful permanent residents to serve as evidence of immigration status, registration, identity, and employment authorization, and as an entry document upon return from a trip outside of the United States. Currently, there are numerous lawful permanent residents who possess cards without expiration dates. USCIS intends to terminate the validity of such Forms I-551. This rule proposes to establish a 120-day period for lawful permanent residents who have Forms I-551 that do not bear expiration dates to apply for replacement cards. This rule also proposes to amend USCIS regulations to remove references to outdated application procedures for Forms I- 551. The application process proposed by this rule will enable USCIS to issue more secure Forms I-551 to affected aliens, update cardholder information, conduct background checks, and electronically store applicants' biometric information that can be used for biometric comparison and authentication purposes consistent with the goals of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002. In addition, USCIS proposes to notify the public of the termination date for Forms I-551 without expiration dates by a subsequent Notice published in the Federal Register. This rule also proposes to correct the title and edition date of the ``Application to Replace Lawful Permanent Resident Card,'' Form I-90.

This document contains regulations that provide rules concerning the application of sections 704(c)(1)(B) and 737 to distributions of property after two partnerships engage in an assets- over merger. The proposed regulations affect partnerships and their partners. This document also provides a notice of public hearing on these proposed regulations.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Section 857 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (Pub. L. 109-364).

We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems, and to implement certain provisions made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-171), the Medicare Improvements and Extension Act under Division B, Title I of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-432), and the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (Pub. L. 109-417). In addition, in the Addendum to this final rule with comment period, we describe the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the rates for Medicare hospital inpatient services for operating costs and capital-related costs. We also are setting forth the rate of increase limits for certain hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS that are paid on a reasonable cost basis subject to these limits, or that have a portion of a prospective payment system payment based on reasonable cost principles. These changes are applicable to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2007. In this final rule with comment period, as part of our efforts to further refine the diagnosis related group (DRG) system under the IPPS to better recognize severity of illness among patients, for FY 2008, we are adopting a Medicare Severity DRG (MS DRG) classification system for the IPPS. We are also adopting the structure of the MS-DRG system for the LTCH prospective payment system (referred to as MS-LTC-DRGs) for FY 2008. Among the other policy decisions and changes that we are making, we are making changes related to: limited revisions of the reclassification of cases to MS-DRGs, the relative weights for the MS- LTC-DRGs; applications for new technologies and medical services add-on payments; the wage data, including the occupational mix data, used to compute the FY 2008 wage indices; payments to hospitals for the indirect costs of graduate medical education; submission of hospital quality data; provisions governing the application of sanctions relating to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986 (EMTALA); provisions governing the disclosure of physician ownership in hospitals and patient safety measures; and provisions relating to services furnished to beneficiaries in custody of penal authorities.