June 17, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) are interested in determining if, when, and how service contractor employees' personal conflicts of interest (PCI) need to be addressed and whether greater disclosure of contractor practices, specific prohibitions, or reliance on specified principles would be most effective and efficient in promoting ethical behavior. The comment period is reopened for anadditional 30 days to provide additional time for interested parties to review and comment on the Advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the animal drug regulations to reflect approval of a supplemental abbreviated new animal drug application (ANADA) filed by Cross Vetpharm Group Ltd. The supplemental ANADA adds effectiveness claims against various species of internal parasites when horses are treated with ivermectin paste.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is proposing to amend the General Services Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to update the text addressing the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation System. This rule is a result of the General Services Administration Acquisition Manual (GSAM) Rewrite Initiative undertaken by GSA to revise the GSAM to maintain consistency with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and to implement streamlined and innovative acquisition procedures that contractors, offerors and GSA contracting personnel can utilize when entering into and administering contractual relationships. The GSAM incorporates the GSAR as well as internal agency acquisition policy. GSA will rewrite each part of the GSAR and GSAM, and as each GSAR part is rewritten, will publish it in the Federal Register. This rule covers the rewrite of GSAR Part 501, General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation System.

We are revising an original NPRM for the products listed above. This action revises the original NPRM by expanding the scope. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as: * * * * * The aim of * * * [Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) 88] is to require all holders of type certificates * * * to carry out a definition review against explosion hazards.

On May 20, 2008, the Coast Guard published in the Federal Register an interim rule with request for comments to amend its regulations to implement the vessel security officer training and certification amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended, and the Seafarers' Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code. In the interim rule a clerical error was made stating as an option that to qualify for a VSO endorsement, a person must ``have approved sea service of not less than 90 days on any vessel subject to section 104.215 of this part * * *.'' Instead, the option should have stated that a person must have not less than six months to qualify for a VSO endorsement, not 90 days. This document corrects that error.

This final rule adopts amendments to the Dairy Product Mandatory Reporting Program that was established on August 2, 2007 on an interim final basis. The Dairy Market Enhancement Act of 2000, and certain provisions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, amended the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to provide for timely, accurate, and reliable market information to facilitate more informed marketing decisions and promote competition in the dairy product manufacturing industry.

We are proposing to revise and reorganize the regulations pertaining to the interstate movement of fruits and vegetables from Hawaii and the territories to consolidate requirements of general applicability and eliminate redundant requirements, update terms and remove outdated requirements and references, and make various editorial and nonsubstantive changes to the regulations to make them easier to use. We are also proposing to make substantive changes to the regulations including establishing criteria within the regulations that, if met, would allow us to approve certain new fruits and vegetables for interstate movement in the United States and to acknowledge pest-free areas in Hawaii and U.S. territories expeditiously, and removing the listing in the regulations of some specific commodities as regulated articles. These changes are intended to simplify and expedite our processes for approving certain regulated articles for interstate movement and pest-free areas while continuing to allow for public participation in the processes. This proposal, if adopted, would not allow for the interstate movement of any specific new fruits or vegetables, nor would it alter the conditions for interstate movement of currently approved fruits or vegetables. These proposed changes would make our domestic interstate movement regulations more consistent with our fruits and vegetables import regulations. The proposed changes would not alter the manner in which the risk associated with a regulated article interstate movement request is evaluated, nor would it alter the manner in which those risks are ultimately mitigated.

The Forest Service published in the Federal Register a proposed rule to revise the regulations for locatable minerals operations conducted on National Forest System lands. The proposed rule considered impacts to small entities under Executive Order 13272 and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA). However, the proposed rule did not make available nor seek comment on the small entities flexibility assessment. This notice allows for review and seeks comment on the flexibility assessment.

NCUA seeks public comment on four proposals to modify its Chartering and Field of Membership Manual to update and clarify the process of approving credit union service to ``underserved areas.'' The first proposal clarifies the procedure for establishing that an ``underserved area'' qualifies as a local community. The second addresses the application of the economic distress criteria that determine whether an area combining multiple geographic units is sufficiently ``distressed'' to qualify as ``underserved.'' The third would update the documentation and clarify the scope requirements for demonstrating that a proposed area has ``significant unmet needs'' for loans and applicable financial services. The final proposal recognizes that meaningful data from NCUA and the federal banking agencies will be available to assess whether an area is ``underserved by other depository institutions.''

The Department of Justice (Department) is issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in order to: Adopt enforceable accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) that are ``consistent with the minimum guidelines and requirements issued by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board'' (Access Board); and perform periodic reviews of any rule judged to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, and a regulatory assessment of the costs and benefits of any significant regulatory action as required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act, as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA). In this NPRM, the Department proposes to adopt Parts I and III of the Americans With Disabilities Act and Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines (2004 ADAAG), which were published by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers and Compliance Board (Access Board) on July 23, 2004. Prior to its adoption by the Department, the 2004 ADAAG is effective only as guidance to the Department; it has no legal effect on the public until the Department issues a final rule adopting the revised ADA Standards (proposed standards). Concurrently with the publication of this NPRM, the Department is publishing an NPRM to amend its title II regulation, which covers state and local government entities, in order to adopt the 2004 ADAAG as its proposed standards for title II entities, to make amendments to the title II regulation for consistency with title III, and to make amendments that reflect the collective experience of 16 years of enforcement of the ADA.

The Coast Guard is establishing regulated navigation areas around a recently constructed deepwater port facility in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean near the entrance to Boston Harbor as well as safety and security zones around liquefied natural gas carriers (LNGCs) calling on these deepwater port facilities. The purpose of these regulated navigation areas, as well as safety and security zones, is to protect vessels and mariners from the potential safety hazards associated with deepwater port operations and to protect the LNGCs and deepwater port infrastructure from security threats or other subversive acts. All vessels, with the exception of LNGCs and deepwater port support vessels, are prohibited from anchoring or otherwise deploying equipment which could become entangled in submerged infrastructure within 1000 meters of the submerged turret loading (STL) buoys associated with the deepwater port, and are prohibited from entering waters within 500 meters of the deepwater port STL buoys or the LNGCs using them. Additionally, this rule makes minor amendments to the existing LNG security regulations for the Boston Captain of the Port (COTP) Zone to reflect multi-agency enforcement of those regulations.

This document contains final and temporary regulations relating to the election and calculation of the alternative simplified credit under section 41(c)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code. The final and temporary regulations implement changes to the credit for increasing research activities under section 41 made by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. The final and temporary regulations will affect certain taxpayers claiming credit under section 41. The text of these temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations (REG-149405-07) published in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.