December 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Board has approved the rebased first quarter 2008 rail cost adjustment factor (RCAF) and cost index filed by the Association of American Railroads. As required by statute, the RCAF is rebased using the fourth quarter 2007 index value as the denominator and first quarter 2008 index value as the numerator (10/1/07 = 1.00). Rebasing is required every five years. The rebased first quarter 2008 RCAF (Unadjusted) is 1.050. The rebased first quarter 2008 RCAF (Adjusted) is 0.486. The rebased first quarter 2008 RCAF-5 is 0.461.

The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) is requesting nominations of individuals to the Census Advisory Committee on the Asian Population. The Census Bureau will consider nominations received in response to this notice, as well as from other sources. The SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice provides Committee and membership criteria.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

The Commander, Fifth Coast Guard District, has approved an additional temporary deviation from the regulations governing the operation of the Figure Eight Swing Bridge, at AIWW mile 278.1, at Scotts Hill, NC. From February 1, 2008 at 6 p.m., until February 29, 2008 at 5:30 p.m., this added deviation allows the drawbridge to remain closed-to-navigation each day from 6 p.m. to 9:30 a.m., from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., to complete sandblasting and painting operations. In addition, commercial vessel openings will be provided at night if at least three hours notice is given by calling (910) 686-0635 or via marine radio on Channel 13.

We are adopting amendments to the eligibility requirements of Form S-3 and Form F-3 to allow certain domestic and foreign private issuers to conduct primary securities offerings on these forms without regard to the size of their public float or the rating of debt they are offering, so long as they satisfy the other eligibility conditions of the respective form, have a class of common equity securities listed and registered on a national securities exchange, and the issuers do not sell more than the equivalent of one-third of their public float in primary offerings over any period of 12 calendar months. The amendments are intended to allow more companies to benefit from the greater flexibility and efficiency in accessing the public securities markets afforded by Form S-3 and Form F-3 without compromising investor protection. The expanded form eligibility does not extend to shell companies, however, which are prohibited from using the new provisions until 12 calendar months after they cease being shell companies. In addition, we are adopting an amendment to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Securities Act to clarify that violations of the one-third restriction will also violate the requirements as to proper registration form, even though the registration statement has been declared effective previously.

The purpose of this document is to republish and update all existing systems of records in their entirety, to retire three systems of records, to publish four new systems of records, and to establish standard disclosures and new routine uses.

Following publication of a March 23, 2007, proposed rule, this final rule relocates HUD's regulations governing nonprocurement debarment and suspension to a new part in title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The relocation is part of a governmentwide initiative to create one location where the public can access both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance for grants and agreements and the associated Federal agency implementing regulations. The new part adopts the OMB guidance on nonprocurement debarment and suspension and supplements it with HUD-specific clarifications and additions. The rule also makes conforming changes to HUD regulations referencing the nonprocurement debarment and suspension regulations. This regulatory action is an administrative simplification that would make no substantive change in HUD policy or procedures for nonprocurement debarment and suspension. This final rule takes into consideration the one public comment received on the March 23, 2007, proposed rule. To conform the rule to reflect the establishment of HUD's Office of Hearings and Appeals and more closely track the language of the OMB guidelines, this final rule adopts the proposed rule with minor changes.

This final rule establishes regulations for seasons, harvest limits, methods, and means related to taking of wildlife for subsistence uses in Alaska during the 2007-08 regulatory year. The rulemaking is necessary because the regulations governing the subsistence harvest of wildlife in Alaska are subject to an annual public review cycle. This rulemaking replaces the wildlife regulations that expired on June 30, 2007. This rule also amends the regulations that establish which Alaska residents are eligible to take specific species for subsistence uses. In addition, this rule revises the regulations for fishing seasons, harvest limits, methods and means related to taking of fish on the Kenai Peninsula for subsistence uses during the 2007-08 regulatory year. This rule also amends the customary and traditional use determinations of the Federal Subsistence Board.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-13, May 22, 1995, this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for review of a revised information collection. SF 2808, Designation of Beneficiary: Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), is used by persons covered by CSRS to designate a beneficiary to receive the lump sum payment due from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund in the event of their death. Approximately 2,000 forms will completed annually. The form takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. The annual burden is estimated at 500 hours. For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey on (202) 606-8358, Fax (202) 418-3251 or via E-mail to MaryBeth.Smith- Toomey@opm.gov. Please include a mailing address with your request.

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is partially rescinding its administrative review of the antidumping duty order on carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from Canada for the period October 1, 2006, to September 30, 2007, with respect to Mittal Canada Inc. (formerly Ispat Sidbec Inc.). This rescission, in part, is based on the timely withdrawal of the request for review.

This notice announces the annual adjustment in the amount in controversy (AIC) threshold amounts for administrative law judge (ALJ) hearings and judicial review under the Medicare appeals process. The adjustment to the AIC threshold amounts will be effective for requests for ALJ hearings and judicial review filed on or after January 1, 2008. The 2008 AIC threshold amounts are $120 for ALJ hearings and $1,180 for judicial review.

Under this notice, the FAA announces that Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) has been designated a Level 3 Coordinated Airport for the summer 2008 scheduling season under the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines. This notice supercedes the September 24, 2007, notice that designated EWR a Level 2 Schedules Facilitated Airport. 72 FR 54317. Based on a recently completed capacity analysis, a review of last summer's demand, the projections for summer 2008, discussions with carriers regarding future schedule plans, and the potential for increased operations at EWR due to operating limits at JFK, the FAA has determined that a Level 3 airport declaration is warranted. The FAA's primary constraint is runway capacity, but the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority), the airport's operator, also will continue to review proposed schedules for gates, facility, customs, immigration, or similar groundside constraints. The FAA and the Port Authority recognize that separate coordination process for runway slots and gate terminal slots is a burden for carriers and, therefore, the process is under review in order to facilitate communication and reduce the administrative workload. IATA will be consulted regarding ``best practices'' in use at other coordinated airports. EWR delays over the last several years have been among the highest in the system. Despite a relatively stable number of daily air traffic operations, the airport is experiencing increased congestion and delay partly as a result of certain peak hours when demand approaches or exceeds the airport's average arrival and departure runway throughput. Comparing the period of October 2006 through September 2007 to the same period in the previous year, the average daily operations at EWR decreased by about one-half percent; the average daily arrivals with delays greater than one hour increased 18 percent; and on-time gate arrivals within 15 minutes of scheduled time decreased from 63.52 percent to 61.72 percent. On-time departures within 15 minutes of scheduled time declined from 71.95 percent to 69.33 percent. The average taxi-out delay remained 28.6 minutes. To determine the airport's throughput, the FAA engaged MITRE's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) to review two years' worth of operational data for weekdays from September 2006 through August 2007. The analysis included hourly arrival and departure counts and the hourly air traffic control (ATC) established rates for those same periods. These rates were combined to develop an ``adjusted'' capacity number to reflect the airport's operational capability. This method compensates for periods when demand during a particular hour was below the ATC acceptance rates and also accounts for actual operations above ATC rates. For the last twelve months of the study period, the average adjusted capacity was 83 operations per hour, down almost five percent from the earlier months analyzed. The FAA is continuing to review ways to improve the airport's capacity and has been engaged in numerous efforts to identify and implement changes that would improve the efficiency of the ATC system. For example, as part of the FAA's New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), over 77 initiatives were identified for the New York City area. A number of these initiatives will benefit the EWR operations. A full copy of the ARC's report to the Secretary of Transpiration is available on the FAA's Web site at https://www.faa.gov. The FAA's review of air carriers' schedule submissions for summer 2008 indicated new planned operations in peak hours as well as the retiming of operations from less congested to more congested periods. About 100 new peak-day flights were requested. Proposed schedules in the afternoon and evening period, which were historically high during summer 2007, are of the greatest concern. These proposed schedules, if implemented, would result in a significant increase of operations at EWR and would exceed the airport's optimal rate for multiple, consecutive hours. Delays would increase on an exponential basis and would likely reach levels that are considered unacceptable to passengers, airlines, and other customers. Under the Level 2 designation, the FAA began discussing carriers' proposed summer 2008 schedules in November at the IATA scheduling Conference in Toronto, Canada. The FAA will grant historic status for foreign flag air carrier and domestic air carrier operations based on their summer 2007 flights if requested for summer 2008. For new requests, the agency identified certain periods that would be beyond the airport's historic throughput and scheduled levels and asked for schedule adjustments from certain carriers to retime operations to other periods of the day where capacity is available. In some cases, carriers responded by withdrawing their new requests for peak hour operations. The FAA is continuing its effort to retime proposed new operation out of peak hours because the agency cannot grant the requests without causing excessive congestion. The FAA plans to finalize summer 2008 schedules with carriers within the next few weeks. Even if the FAA were to be fully successful in reaching agreement on schedule plans under Level 2 for summer 2008, the FAA now believes that an IATA Level 3 Coordinated Airport designation is warranted to ensure there is no exceedance of the level of operations the FAA will allow for summer 2008. The Level 3 status also will set carrier expectations for future coordination needs and for the need to schedule new operations during periods when the airport has the available capacity.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of etoxazole in or on cherry; hop, dried cones; and vegetable, cucurbit subgroup 9A. The Interregional Research Project No. 4 (IR-4) requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

Because EPA received adverse comment, we are making a partial withdrawal and revision of the direct final rule for ``Nonroad Diesel Technical Amendments and Tier 3 Technical Relief Provision'' published on September 18, 2007.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the animal drug regulations to reflect a change of sponsor's name from Altana, Inc., to Nycomed US, Inc.

This final rule amends regulations concerning the reporting requirements for the BE-12, Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States. The BE-12 survey is conducted once every 5 years and covers virtually the entire universe of foreign direct investment in the United States in terms of value. The benchmark survey will be conducted for 2007. BEA is changing the reporting requirements on the BE-12 Benchmark survey to: Increase the exemption level for reporting on the BE-12(LF) (Long Form) from $125 million to $175 million; increase the exemption level for reporting on the BE- 12(SF) (Short Form) from $10 million to $40 million; and increase the exemption level for reporting on the BE-12 Bank Form from $10 million to $15 million. In addition, BEA is amending Form BE-12(X) by: Re-naming it the Form BE-12 Claim for Not Filing and deleting several questions, which will be moved to a new Form BE-12 Mini. The Claim for Not Filing will be completed only by persons that are not subject to the reporting requirements of the BE-12 survey but have been contacted by BEA concerning their reporting status. The BE-12 Mini is an abbreviated form for reporting U.S. affiliates with total assets, sales or gross operating revenues, and net income (loss) less than or equal to $40 million.

The Secretary proposes to amend the Department's regulations regarding the production of information pursuant to demands in judicial or administrative proceedings. The changes are intended to promote consistency in the Department's assertion of privileges and objections, and thereby prevent harm that may result from inappropriate disclosure of confidential information or inappropriate allocation of agency resources. These changes would apply only where employees are subpoenaed in litigation to which the agency is not a party. Former Department employees would be expressly required to seek the Secretary's approval prior to responding to subpoenas that seek non- public materials and information acquired during their employment at the Department.