September 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

To support its objective of accelerating the diffusion and adoption of innovative health care delivery changes, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently launched version 1.0 of the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange (HCIE) Web site, https:// www.innovations.ahrq.gov. The HCIE is a new initiative designed to support health care professionals in sharing and adopting innovations that improve health care quality. Version 1.0 of the Web site is focused on stimulating creativity and innovation and will serve as a virtual place to which innovators will be encouraged to submit their innovations and experiences from which potential adopters can begin learning about the nuances of implementation. In Spring 2008, AHRQ will deploy version 2.0 of its Health Care Innovations Exchange site making hundreds of profiles of health care service innovations of varying degrees of novelty and scientific rigor accessible to the public. Version 2.0 will also offer expert commentary; stories; tools; lessons learned; ``change packages''sets of innovations implemented simultaneously; expanded content on implementation; and opportunities to learn and network. To build the database of innovations profiles, AHRQ invites submissions of health service innovations to its Health Care Innovations Exchange. The AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange database will cover the broad spectrum of health care settings, systems, and providers. Public health priority diseases/conditions, priority populations, and efforts to reduce disparities in quality will be highlighted. The AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange is seeking a broad range of novel health care strategies, activities, and tools. AHRQ invites participation in its Health Care Innovations Exchange by submitting descriptions of innovative efforts to improve the delivery of health care services.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an Agency delivering the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Utilities Programs, hereinafter referred to as Rural Development, consolidates and amends the regulations utilized to service water and waste loan and grant programs. The rule will combine the water and waste loan and grant servicing regulations found in 7 CFR parts 1951, 1955, and 1956 into one regulation. Unnecessary and burdensome requirements for water and waste loan and grant servicing under the program will be eliminated. The streamlining of the water and waste loan and grant servicing regulation will allow the Agency to provide better service to entities needing assistance in resolving financial and economic problems in their communities and, in general, improve the quality of life in rural areas. Additionally, this rule implements Section 6018 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 1936a) for Rural Development's Business, Housing and Utilities programs.

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 amend provisions of its previously issued final rule, to allow for greater participation in the TWIC program and codify final fees to obtain a TWIC. This final rule continues to further secure our Nation's ports and modes of transportation, and also implements the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) and the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 (SAFE Port Act). Those statutes require credentialed merchant mariners and individuals 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). With this final rule, the Coast Guard amends its regulations on vessel and facility security, requiring the use of the TWIC as an access control measure. Specifically, the Coast Guard is amending its definition of secure areas, to take into account facilities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, whose workers are not required to obtain work visas from the United States before being allowed to work. With this final rule, TSA amends its regulations on TWIC to allow additional non-resident aliens to apply for a TWIC if they are working in a job that requires them to have unescorted access to a maritime facility regulated under 33 CFR parts 105 or 106. TSA also amends the scope provision of the rule to include additional non-resident aliens that may apply for TWIC. TSA amends its regulations to clarify those credentialed merchant mariners who may receive a TWIC at a reduced fee. TSA amends the fee portion of the regulation, increasing the replacement credential fee from $36 to $60 and codifying the other fees that were announced in the Federal Register on March 20, 2007. Finally, TSA announces a reduction in the fee charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct fingerprint-based criminal history record checks (CHRCs) that are submitted to the FBI electronically. Therefore, the standard fee for a TWIC is $132.50 and the reduced TWIC fee for applicants who have completed a comparable threat assessment is $105.25.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'') published on August 23, 2007, a notice of proposed order and request for comment regarding a petition filed with the Commission by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (``CME'') applying for exemptive relief, pursuant to Section 4(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act.\1\ CME's petition applies for exemptive relief from the requirement that the China Foreign Exchange Trade system and National Interbank Funding Center (``CFETS'') or its members register as futures commission merchants (``FCMs''). An interested party has requested that the comment period be extended by two weeks due to the novelty of the issues involved. The Commission is extending the comment period to October 9, 2007.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), are approving Mississippi's abandoned mine land reclamation plan (Mississippi Plan) submitted to us under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). The purpose of the plan is to demonstrate the State's intent and capability to assume responsibility for administering the abandoned mine land reclamation (AML) program established by Title IV of SMCRA. As part of the plan, Mississippi submitted policies and procedures to be followed in conducting reclamation of abandoned coal mine lands in Mississippi. These policies and procedures, along with the State's AML statutes that we approved on August 25, 2006, constitute the complete Mississippi plan.

We (Fish and Wildlife Service) have sent an Information Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. The ICR, which is summarized below, describes the nature of the collection and the estimated burden and cost. This ICR is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2007. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. However, under OMB regulations, we may continue to conduct or sponsor this information collection while it is pending at OMB.

Under the Acid Rain Program, affected units must hold enough allowances to cover their sulfur dioxide emissions and meet an emission limit for nitrogen oxides. Under 40 CFR 77.6, units that do not meet these requirements must pay a penalty without demand to the Administrator based on the number of excess tons emitted times $2000 as adjusted by an annual adjustment factor that must be published in the Federal Register. The annual adjustment factor for adjusting the penalty for excess emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides under 40 CFR part 77 for compliance year 2007 is 1.6364. This value is derived using the Consumer Price Index (``CPI'') for 1990 and 2007 (as defined at 40 CFR part 72, the 2007 CPI is based on the August 2006 CPI for all urban consumers), and corresponds to a penalty of $3273 per excess ton of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides emitted. The annual adjustment factor for adjusting the penalty for excess emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides under 40 CFR part 77 for compliance year 2008 is 1.6687. This value is derived using the Consumer Price Index (``CPI'') for 1990 and 2008 (as defined at 40 CFR part 72, the 2008 CPI is based on the August 2007 CPI for all urban consumers), and corresponds to a penalty of $3337 per excess ton of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides emitted.

The Department of Commerce (``the Department'') has received a request from Dujiangyan Xingda Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (``Xingda''), a producer and exporter of preserved mushrooms, to conduct a new shipper review (``NSR'') of the antidumping duty order on certain preserved mushrooms from the People's Republic of China (``PRC''). Since this request meets the statutory and regulatory requirements for initiation, the Department is initiating a NSR of Xingda, in accordance with section 751(a)(2)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the Act''), and 19 CFR 351.214(d).

The Department of Justice (DOJ), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), is exempting a Privacy Act system of records from the following subsections of the Privacy Act: (c)(3) and (4), (d)(1), (2), (3), and (4); (e)(1), (2), (3), (5), and (8); and (g), pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a (j) and (k). The Privacy Act system of records is the ``El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) Seizure System, (JUSTICE/DEA- 022).'' The exemptions are necessary to prevent the compromise of ongoing investigative efforts, to help ensure the integrity of law enforcement and investigatory information, to ensure third party privacy, and to protect the physical safety of sources of information and law enforcement personnel.

The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA or Agency) Office of the Science Advisor (OSA) announces a public meeting of the Human Studies Review Board (HSRB) to advise the Agency on EPA's scientific and ethical reviews of human subjects' research.

Before a Federal agency can collect certain information from the public, the agency must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB''). Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit public comment on proposed collections of information, including extensions and reinstatements of previously approved collections. In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice describes one collection of information for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval, relating to confidential business information.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 60- day public comment period for the External Review Draft of the ``Framework for Determining a Mutagenic Mode of Action for Carcinogenicity: Using EPA's 2005 Cancer Guidelines and Supplemental Guidance for Assessing Susceptibility from Early-Life Exposure to Carcinogens'' (or Framework). EPA is releasing this draft document solely for the purpose of seeking public comment prior to external peer review. Following the period for public comment, the document will be reviewed by an external panel of experts. The date and other details about the external review will be published in a separate Federal Register notice. EPA will consider both the public and the external peer review comments when revising the draft Framework. Members of the public may obtain the draft guidance from https://www.regulations.gov; or https://www.epa.gov/osa/mmoaframework; or from Dr. Resha Putzrath via the contact information below. The purpose of the Framework is to expand and clarify discussions found in the Cancer Guidelines and Supplemental Guidance on characteristics to be evaluated for a chemical's potential for a mutagenic mode of action (MOA). These documents can be obtained from https://www.epa.gov/cancerguidelines. This Framework document is not a prescriptive guide on how any particular type of assessment should be conducted within an EPA program or regional office. Rather, it is a science-based document that is intended to help EPA's risk assessors determine whether data support a finding of a mutagenic MOA for carcinogenicity. It discusses mutagenicity only within the context of a mutagenic MOA for carcinogenicity and not for other adverse endpoints that involve mutations. EPA's Risk Assessment Forum oversaw the development of this draft document. EPA's Cancer Guidelines emphasize using MOA information in interpreting and quantifying the potential cancer risk to humans. The Supplemental Guidance discusses the use of age-dependent adjustment factors (ADAFs) with the derived cancer slope factors (and appropriate age-specific estimates of exposure) in the development of risk estimates if the weight of evidence supports a mutagenic MOA. This default approach is used only when appropriate chemical-specific data are not available on susceptibility from early-life exposures.

The United States Sentencing Commission submitted a series of amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines to Congress on May 1, 2007. Notice of such amendments was published in the Federal Register on May 21, 2007 (72 FR 28558). On July 31, 2007, the Commission published a notice (72 FR 41794) requesting comment regarding whether either Amendment 9, which pertains to offenses involving cocaine base (``crack''), or Amendment 12, which pertains to certain criminal history rules, should be included in subsection (c) of Sec. 1B1.10 [Reduction in Term of Imprisonment as a Result of Amended Guideline Range (Policy Statement)] as amendments that may be applied retroactively to previously sentenced defendants. The Commission further requested comment regarding whether, if it amends Sec. 1B1.10(c) to include either amendment, it also should amend Sec. 1B1.10 to provide guidance to the courts on the procedure to be used when applying an amendment retroactively under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2). The Commission is issuing this notice to advise the public that the period for public comment regarding retroactivity has been extended to November 1, 2007. The deadline was initially October 1, 2007. The Commission plans to publish on its Web site, https:// www.ussc.gov, data related to possible retroactivity that may assist interested parties in preparing their comment. This comment period is extended to ensure sufficient time for interested parties to consider any such data and to submit comment for Commission review and consideration.

FMCSA announces its decision to exempt 19 individuals from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). The exemptions will enable these individuals to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce without meeting the prescribed vision standard. The Agency has concluded that granting these exemptions will provide a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these CMV drivers.

FMCSA announces its decision to renew the exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for 25 individuals. FMCSA has statutory authority to exempt individuals from the vision requirement if the exemptions granted will not compromise safety. The Agency has concluded that granting these exemption renewals will provide a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.

The Office of Global Educational Programs, Educational Information and Resources Branch, of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announces an open competition for EducationUSA Advising Services in Eurasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan). The amount anticipated to support these services in Eurasia in FY 2008 is $530,000; the amount anticipated for Central Asia is $120,000. Public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code section 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3) may submit proposals to operate EducationUSA advising centers in Bureau- specified locations. These advising centers would be a part of the network of approximately 470 Department of State- affiliated advising centers worldwide. Advising centers provide comprehensive and unbiased information to students, scholars, and other individuals about study opportunities in the U.S.

The Department of State has submitted the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Title of Information Collection: Voluntary Disclosures. OMB Control Number: 1405-XXXX. Type of Request: Existing Collection in Use Without an OMB Control Number. Originating Office: Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, PM/DDTC. Form Number: No Form. Respondents: Business organizations. Estimated Number of Respondents: 400. Estimated Number of Responses: 400. Average Hours per Response: 10 hours. Total Estimated Burden: 4,000 hours. Frequency: On Occasion. Obligation to Respond: Voluntary.

On October 12, 2005, pursuant to section 112(d) of the Clean Air Act, EPA issued national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) emitted by various types of hazardous waste combusters. EPA subsequently granted reconsideration petitions relating to certain issues presented by the rules. 71 FR 14665, 52564, but has not yet issued a final determination on reconsideration. Following the close of the comment period on the proposed reconsideration rule, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has issued several opinions construing section 112 (d) of the Clean Air Act, and one of those opinions has called into question the legality of some of the standards for hazardous waste combusters. This notice discusses the standards that EPA promulgated in October 2005, and specifically identifies which standards EPA believes are consistent with the Act and caselaw, and which standards are not and need to be reexamined through a subsequent rulemaking. With respect to those standards EPA intends to retain, this notice indicates the portions of the rationale upon which EPA intends to rely, and which portions EPA would no longer rely upon as a justification for the October 2005 standards. EPA is seeking public comment on this analysis. EPA has also placed edited versions of various support documents in the public docket, edited to remove portions of the rationale on which EPA no longer plans to rely, and seeks public comment on these edits.