December 30, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On November 12, 2008, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or the ``Commission'') published for public comment in the Federal Register \1\ a proposal to exempt the trading and clearing of certain contracts called ``options'' and other contracts called ``security futures'' on each of iShares[supreg] COMEX Gold Trust Shares (``Gold Products'') and iShares[supreg] Silver Trust Shares (``Silver Products'') (collectively, ``Gold and Silver Products'') from the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'') \2\ and the regulations thereunder to the extent necessary to permit them to be traded and cleared as described below. The contracts are proposed to be traded on national securities exchanges (as to options) and designated contract markets registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'') as limited purpose national securities exchanges (as to security futures), and in both cases to be cleared through the Options Clearing Corporation (``OCC'') in its capacity as a registered securities clearing agency. Authority for this exemption is found in Section 4(c) of the CEA.\3\

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Due to an administrative error, this document is being republished.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of the information collections and their expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period was published on October 22, 2008 [73 FR 63049]. This is a request for a new collection.

The Commission grants a petition for rulemaking filed by Local TV Alabama License, LLC (``Local TV''), the licensee of station WHNT- DT, to substitute DTV channel 46 for its assigned post-transition DTV channel 19 at Huntsville, Alabama.

The Federal Election Commission (``Commission'') is removing its rules on increased contribution limits and coordinated party expenditure limits for Senate and House of Representatives candidates facing self-financed opponents. These rules were promulgated to implement sections 304 and 319 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as the ``Millionaires' Amendment.'' In Davis v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court held that sections 319(a) and (b), regarding House of Representatives elections, were unconstitutional. The Court's analysis also applies to the contribution and spending limits in section 304 regarding Senate elections. The Commission, therefore, is removing its rules that implement the Millionaires' Amendment. However, the Commission is retaining certain other rules that were not affected by the Davis decision. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.

The Commission grants a petition for rulemaking filed by Colins Broadcasting Corporation, the permittee of station KSNB-DT, to substitute DTV channel 4 for its assigned post-transition DTV channel 34 at Superior, Nebraska.

The Commission requests comments on a channel substitution proposed by Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, Inc., d/b/a Trinity Broadcasting Network (``Trinity''), the licensee of KTBN-DT, post- transition DTV channel 23, Santa Ana, California. Trinity requests the substitution of DTV channel 33 for post-transition DTV channel 23 at Santa Ana.

We, NMFS, announce a 12-month finding on a petition to list the ribbon seal (Histriophoca fasciata) as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as amended (ESA). After a formal review of the best available scientific and commercial information, we find that listing of the ribbon seal is not warranted at this time. Although the ribbon seal population abundance is likely to decline gradually for the foreseeable future, primarily from slight but chronic impacts on reproduction and survival caused by reduced frequency of years with sea ice of suitable extent, quality, and duration of persistence, it is not in danger of extinction or likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

NMFS issues this final rule to adopt regulations to implement the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA).The regulations establish a national registry of recreational anglers fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), for anadromous species in tidal waters or for Continental Shelf fishery resources beyond the EEZ. Persons will not be required to register with NMFS if they are licensed by a state that provides data determined to be sufficient for the agency's needs. The requirement is intended to improve existing angling effort surveys in order to improve their efficiency, to reduce possible sources of bias and to improve confidence in survey results by anglers and fishery managers.

NMFS proposes regulations to implement Amendment 92 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area and Amendment 82 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska. This proposed action would remove trawl gear endorsements on licenses issued under the license limitation program in specific management areas if those licenses have not been used on vessels that met minimum recent landing requirements using trawl gear. This proposed action would provide exemptions to this requirement for licenses that are used in trawl fisheries subject to certain limited access privilege programs. This proposed action would issue new area endorsements for trawl catcher vessel licenses in the Aleutian Islands if minimum recent landing requirements in the Aleutian Islands were met. This proposed action is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Fishery Management Plans, and other applicable law.

This final rule amends PBGC's regulation on Allocating Unfunded Vested Benefits to Withdrawing Employers (29 CFR part 4211) to implement provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that provide for changes in the allocation of unfunded vested benefits to withdrawing employers from a multiemployer pension plan, and that require adjustments in determining an employer's withdrawal liability when a multiemployer plan is in critical status. Pursuant to PBGC's authority under section 4211(c)(5) of ERISA to prescribe standard approaches for alternative withdrawal liability methods, the final rule also amends this regulation to provide additional modifications to the statutory methods for determining an employer's allocable share of unfunded vested benefits. In addition, pursuant to PBGC's authority under section 4219(c)(1)(D) of ERISA, this final rule amends PBGC's regulation on Notice, Collection, and Redetermination of Withdrawal Liability (29 CFR part 4219) to improve the process of fully allocating a plan's total unfunded vested benefits among all liable employers in a mass withdrawal. Finally, this final rule amends PBGC's regulation on Terminology (29 CFR part 4001) to reflect the definition of a ``multiemployer plan'' added by the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

This document corrects errors that appeared in the correction notice published in the October 3, 2008 Federal Register entitled ``Medicare Program; Changes to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Fiscal Year 2009 Rates; Payments for Graduate Medical Education in Certain Emergency Situations; Changes to Disclosure of Physician Ownership in Hospitals and Physician Self- Referral Rules; Updates to the Long-Term Care Prospective Payment System; Updates to Certain IPPS-Excluded Hospitals; and Collection of Information Regarding Financial Relationships Between Hospitals; Correction.''

The following permits were issued.

The Commission grants a petition for rulemaking filed by Mitts Telecasting Company, licensee of station KXVO-DT, to substitute DTV channel 38 for its assigned post-transition DTV channel 15 at Omaha, Nebraska.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'') is amending certain provisions of its part 140 regulations to add the Chief Economist and the Deputy Chief Economist of the Office of the Chief Economist as persons to whom certain authorities are delegated. The Commission is also amending part 140 to reflect a change in position title from ``Regional Coordinators'' to ``Regional Administrators.''

The Commission addressed several issues relating to the Commission's Internet-based TRS Order, which adopted a system to assign users of Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS), specifically Video Relay Service (VRS) and Internet-Protocol (IP) Relay, ten-digit numbers linked to the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an administrative review of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India for the period January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007, the period of review (POR). These preliminary results cover one company Essar Steel Ltd. (Essar). For the information on the net subsidy rate for the reviewed company, see the ``Preliminary Results of Review'' section. We are preliminarily rescinding the administrative review regarding Ispat Industries Limited (Ispat), JSW Steel Limited (JSW), and Tata Steel Limited (Tata) due to the fact that they had no shipments during the POR. For more information on Ispat, JSW, and Tata's shipments during the POR, see the ``Background'' section of this notice.

The Department of Commerce (Department) published its preliminary results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on chlorinated isocyanurates (chlorinated isos) from Spain on July 10, 2008. See Chlorinated Isocyanurates from Spain: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review, 73 FR 39650 (July 10, 2008) (Preliminary Results). The period of review (POR) is June 1, 2006 through May 31, 2007. We invited interested parties to comment on our Preliminary Results. Based on our analysis of the comments received, we have made changes to our calculations. The final dumping margin for this review is listed in the ``Final Results of Review'' section below.

On May 17, 2006, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') revoked in part the antidumping duty order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products (``hot-rolled steel'') from Thailand with respect to Sahaviriya Steel Industries Public Company Limited (``SSI'') after having determined that SSI sold the merchandise at not less than normal value (``NV'') for a period of at least three consecutive years. See Certain Hot-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Thailand: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review, Partial Revocation of Antidumping Duty Order and Partial Rescission of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review, 71 FR 28659 (May 17, 2006) (``Revocation''). As the result of an adequate allegation from a domestic interested party in this proceeding, the Department, pursuant to section 751(b)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the Act''), is now conducting a changed circumstances review to determine whether SSI has resumed dumping hot-rolled steel and whether the antidumping order should be reinstated for hot-rolled steel from Thailand manufactured and exported by SSI. See Initiation of Antidumping Duty Changed Circumstances Review: Certain Hot-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Thailand, 73 FR 18766 (April 7, 2008) (``Initiation Notice''). We preliminarily determine that SSI has sold hot-rolled steel at less than NV and that hot-rolled steel produced and exported by SSI should be reinstated in the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel from Thailand. We will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') to suspend liquidation of all entries of hot-rolled steel manufactured and exported by SSI and entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces that the Information Collection abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The nature of the information collection is described as well as its expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following collection of information was published on September 23, 2008. No comments were received.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a teleconference call meeting of the Council's archipelagic Plan Teams (PTs).

The Department of Energy (DOE) will hold an informal public meeting to discuss and receive comments on the equipment classes that DOE plans to analyze for purposes of establishing energy conservation standards for small electric motors; the analytical framework, models, and tools that DOE is using to evaluate standards for these products; the results of preliminary analyses performed by DOE for these products; and potential energy conservation standard levels derived from these analyses that DOE could consider for these products. Also, DOE encourages written comments on these subjects. To inform stakeholders and facilitate this process, DOE has prepared an agenda, a preliminary Technical Support Document (preliminary TSD), and briefing materials, which are available at: https://www1.eere.energy.gov/ buildings/appliancestandards/commercial/smallelectricmotors.h tml.