November 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This order opens 3.61 acres of reconveyed land to appropriation under the public land laws.

Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (``NAFTA'') provides for the establishment of a roster of individuals to serve on binational panels convened to review final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty (``AD/CVD'') proceedings and amendments to AD/CVD statutes of a NAFTA Party. The United States annually renews its selections for the Chapter 19 roster. Applications are invited from eligible individuals wishing to be included on the roster for the period April 1, 2008, through March 31, 2009.

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA or Agency), through the FCA Board (Board), issued a direct final rule with opportunity for comment under part 627 on September 26, 2007 (72 FR 54525) amending the priority of claims regulations to provide that, when assets of a Farm Credit System institution in liquidation are distributed, the claims of holders of subordinated debt will be paid after all general creditor claims. The opportunity for comment expired on October 26, 2007. The FCA received no comments and therefore, the direct final rule becomes effective without change. In accordance with 12 U.S.C. 2252, the effective date of the final rule is 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register during which either or both Houses of Congress are in session. Based on the records of the sessions of Congress, the effective date of the regulations is November 16, 2007.

The Commission is revising its regulations to provide that all documents will be eligible for filing by means of the Commission's eFiling system, with exceptions to be posted by the Secretary of the Commission on the Commissions Web site.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is soliciting comment about whether to develop mechanisms to facilitate greater access to companies' disclosures concerning their business activities in or with countries designated as State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Section 1936 of the Social Security Act (the Act) (as added by section 6034 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA)) established the Medicaid Integrity Program to promote the integrity of the Medicaid program by requiring CMS to enter into contracts with eligible entities to: Review the actions of individuals or entities furnishing items or services (whether on a fee-for-service, risk, or other basis) for which payment may be made under an approved State plan and/or any waiver of such plan approved under section 1115 of the Act; audit claims for payment of items or services furnished, or administrative services rendered, under a State plan; identify overpayments to individuals or entities receiving Federal funds; and educate providers of services, managed care entities, beneficiaries, and other individuals with respect to payment integrity and quality of care. This proposed rule would provide requirements for an eligible entity to enter into a contract under the Medicaid integrity audit program. The proposed rule would also establish the contracting requirements for eligible entities. The requirements would include procedures for identifying, evaluating, and resolving organizational conflicts of interest that are generally applicable to Federal acquisition and procurement; competitive procedures to be used; and procedures under which a contract may be renewed.

This proposed rule would permit a waiver of nurse aide training disapproval as it applies to skilled nursing facilities, in the Medicare program, and nursing facilities, in the Medicaid program, that are assessed a civil money penalty of at least $5,000 for noncompliance that is not related to quality of care. This is a statutory provision enacted by section 932 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) (Pub. L. 108- 173, enacted December 8, 2003.) In addition, this proposed rule would codify an additional statutory provision enacted by section 4755 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) (Pub. L. 105-33, enacted on August 5, 1997) that requires the State to establish a procedure to permit a nurse aide to petition the State to have a single finding of neglect removed from the nurse aide registry if the State determines that the employment and personal history of the nurse aide does not reflect a pattern of abusive behavior or neglect and the neglect involved in the original finding was a single occurrence.

In this document, the Commission adopts rules and provides guidance to implement section 621(a)(1) of the Communications Act. The Commission solicited and reviewed comments on this section and found that to promote the federal goals of enhanced cable competition and accelerated broadband development, the Commission's rules regarding the local franchising process should be extended to incumbent cable operators. The Commission adopts measures to address a variety of means by which local franchising authorities are unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises. The rules and guidance will facilitate enhanced cable competition and accelerated broadband development.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the requirements for a contractor code of business ethics and conduct and the display of Federal agency Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Fraud Hotline Posters.

This document summarizes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules agreed to by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council in this Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-22. A companion document, the Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), follows this FAC. The FAC, including the SECG, is available via the Internet at https://www.regulations.gov.

This notice announces actions taken by the FHWA and other Federal agencies that are final within the meaning of 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). The actions relate to a proposed highway project, United States Highway 281 (US 281), beginning at Farm-to-Market Road 311 (FM 311) and heading north to FM 306 in Comal County in the State of Texas. Those actions grant licenses, permits, and approvals for the project.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is providing notice of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between FDA and Duke University. The purpose of this MOU is to establish the terms of collaboration between FDA and Duke, beginning with an initiative to strengthen Human Subjects Protection by reexamining and modernizing the conduct of clinical trials to ensure that design, execution, and analysis are of optimal quality. To this end, Duke will be the convener of a Public Private Partnership, to which FDA will be a founding partner, to systematically modernize the clinical trial process.