October 17, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Committee is proposing to delete a product from the Procurement List previously furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities. Comments Must Be Received on or Before: 11/16/2008.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability of the Draft Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft GNEP PEIS, DOE/EIS-0396). The Draft GNEP PEIS provides an analysis of the potential environmental consequences of the reasonable alternatives to support expansion of domestic and international nuclear energy production while reducing the risks associated with nuclear proliferation and reducing the impacts associated with spent nuclear fuel disposal (e.g., by reducing the volume, thermal output, and/or radiotoxicity of waste requiring geologic disposal). Based on the GNEP PEIS and other information, DOE could decide to support the demonstration and deployment of changes to the existing commercial nuclear fuel cycle in the United States. Alternatives analyzed include the existing open fuel cycle and various alternative closed and open fuel cycles. In an open (or once-through) fuel cycle, nuclear fuel is used in a power plant one time and the resulting spent nuclear fuel is stored for eventual disposal in a geologic repository. In a closed fuel cycle, spent nuclear fuel would be recycled to recover energy-bearing components for use in new nuclear fuel. Six programmatic domestic alternatives are assessed: No Action AlternativeExisting Once-Through Uranium Fuel Cycle (open fuel cycle); Fast Reactor Recycle Fuel Cycle Alternative (closed fuel cycle); Thermal/Fast Reactor Recycle Fuel Cycle Alternative (closed fuel cycle); Thermal Reactor Recycle Fuel Cycle Alternative (closed fuel cycle); Once-Through Fuel Cycle Alternative using Thorium (open fuel cycle); and Once-Through Fuel Cycle Alternative using Heavy Water Reactors (HWRs) or High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors (HTGRs) (open fuel cycle). DOE's preference is to close the nuclear fuel cycle, although it has not yet identified a specific preferred alternative.

This document provides notice of public hearing on a notice of proposed rulemaking relating to the return and information statement requirements under section 6039 of the Internal Revenue Code. These regulations reflect changes to section 6039 made by section 403 of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. These proposed regulations affect corporations that issue statutory stock options and provide guidance to assist corporations in complying with the return and information statement requirements under section 6039.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA, 43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the South Gillette Area Coal project that contains four Federal Coal Lease By Applications (LBAs), and by this Notice is announcing a public hearing requesting comments on the DEIS, Maximum Economic Recovery (MER), and Fair Market Value (FMV) pursuant to 43 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 3425.4.

The FDIC is adopting an interim rule to amend its deposit insurance regulations to reflect Congress's recent action to temporarily increase the standard deposit insurance amount from $100,000 to $250,000 and to simplify the deposit insurance rules for funds maintained in mortgage servicing accounts. The FDIC's main goals in revising its insurance rule on mortgage servicing accounts are to simplify a rule that has become increasingly complex in application due to developments in securitizations and to provide additional certainty with respect to the deposit insurance coverage of these accounts at a time of turmoil in the housing and financial markets. The FDIC believes this regulatory change will help improve public confidence in the banking system.

In accordance with the procedures governing the application for, and the processing of, special permits from the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Material Regulations (49 CFR Part 107, Subpart B), notice is hereby given that the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety has received the application described herein. Each mode of transportation for which a particular special permit is requested is indicated by a number in the ``Nature of Application'' portion of the table below as follows: 1Motor vehicle, 2Rail freight, 3Cargo vessel, 4Cargo aircraft only, 5Passenger-carrying aircraft.

The subject five-year review was initiated in July 2008 to determine whether revocation of the countervailing duty order on DRAMs and DRAM modules from Korea would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury. On October 3, 2008, the Department of Commerce published notice that it was revoking the order effective August 11, 2008, ``{b{time} ecause the domestic interested party did not file a substantive response by the applicable deadline and has withdrawn its notice of intent to participate in this sunset review * * *'' (73 FR 57594). Accordingly, pursuant to section 751(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1675(c)), the subject review is terminated.

In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 30 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection project was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 29520) on May 21, 2008 and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted directly to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-0014, ``Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program.'' Type of Information Collection Request: Extension, without revision, of currently approved information collection, 0917- 0014, ``Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program.'' Form Number(s): The IHS Loan Repayment Program Information Booklet contains the instructions and the application formats. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS Loan Repayment Program (LRP) identifies health professionals with pre-existing financial obligations for education expenses that meet program criteria and who are qualified and willing to serve at, often remote, IHS health care facilities. Under the program, eligible health professionals sign a contract under which the IHS agrees to repay part or all of their indebtedness for professional training education. In exchange, the health professionals agree to serve for a specified period of time in IHS health care facilities. This program is necessary to augment the critically low health professional staff at IHS health care facilities. Any health professional wishing to have their health education loans repaid may apply to the IHS Loan Repayment Program. A two-year contract obligation is signed by both parties, and the individual agrees to work at an IHS location and provide health services to Native American and Alaska Native individuals. The information collected from individuals is analyzed and a score is given to each applicant. This score will determine which applicants will be awarded each fiscal year. The administrative scoring system assigns a score to the geographic location according to vacancy rates for that fiscal year and also considers whether the location is in an isolated area. When an applicant takes employment at a location, they in turn ``pick-up'' the score of that location. Affected Public: Individuals and households. Type of Respondents: Individuals. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, Estimated number of respondents, Number of responses per respondent, Annual number of responses, Average burden hour per response, and Total annual burden hour(s).

The Commission is adding several recently-negotiated Global Expedited Package Service contracts to the competitive product list. This action is consistent with changes in a recent law governing postal operations. Re-publication of the lists of market dominant and competitive products is also consistent with new requirements in the law.

This proposed rule would make changes to several sections of the regulations for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for states (State CDBG). This proposed rule would streamline and update the regulations to reflect statutory changes, clarify the program income requirements, provide other clarifications to the State CDBG regulations, and make a conforming change to the regulations applicable to the CDBG Entitlement program. This proposed rule would also provide states additional flexibility in their administration of the program.

This document sets forth the views of the Department of Labor concerning the legal standards imposed on fiduciaries of employee benefit plans by sections 403 and 404 of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) when considering investments in ``economically targeted investments.'' These guidelines affect fiduciaries of employee benefit plans, including trustees, investment managers and others responsible for the management of employee benefit plan assets.

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for possible use to assist the homeless.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.