2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document directs that a referendum be conducted among eligible Florida avocados growers to determine whether they favor continuance of the marketing order regulating the handling of avocados grown in South Florida.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) issued 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 follows:

This proposed rule would modify two of the medical data code set standards adopted in the Transactions and Code Sets final rule published in the Federal Register. It would also implement certain provisions of the Administrative Simplification subtitle of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Specifically, the proposed rule would modify the standard code sets for coding diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures by concurrently adopting the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) for diagnosis coding, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) for inpatient hospital procedure coding. These new codes would replace the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) Volumes 1 and 2, and the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (CM) Volume 3 for diagnosis and procedure codes, respectively.

This document contains proposed regulations implementing the provisions of the statutory exemption set forth in sections 408(b)(14) and 408(g) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, as amended (ERISA or the Act), and parallel provisions in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code), relating to the provision of investment advice described in the Act by a fiduciary adviser to participants and beneficiaries in participant-directed individual account plans, such as 401(k) plans, and beneficiaries of individual retirement accounts (and certain similar plans). Section 408(b)(14) provides an exemption from certain prohibited transaction provisions in ERISA with respect to the provision of investment advice, the investment transaction entered into pursuant to the advice, and the direct or indirect receipt of fees or other compensation by the fiduciary adviser or an affiliate in connection with the provision of advice or the transaction pursuant to the advice. Section 408(g) describes the conditions under which the investment advice-related transactions are exempt. Upon adoption, the regulations will affect sponsors, fiduciaries, participants and beneficiaries of participant- directed individual account plans, as well as providers of investment and investment advice-related services to such plans.

EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the State Implementation Plan submitted by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources on behalf of the State of North Carolina on April 16, 2001, April 4, 2003, and December 14, 2004. The purpose of these revisions is to require continuous emissions monitoring systems be used to determine compliance; specify a 24-hour block averaging time for sulfur dioxide emissions; make a correction to a cross-reference; provide options for supplying missing data and for determining heat input; and make several revisions to permit exemptions. This action is being taken pursuant to section 110 of the Clean Air Act. In the Final Rules Section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the State's SIP revision as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this rule, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period on this document. Any parties interested in commenting on this document should do so at this time.

EPA is issuing this proposed rule to revise the existing fees for EPA's Lead-Based Paint Activities regulations and establish fees for the Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule. As specified in section 402 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA must establish and implement a fee schedule to recover for the U.S. Treasury the Agency's costs of administering and enforcing the standards and requirements applicable to lead-based paint training programs and contractors. Specifically, this proposed rule establishes the fees that will be charged, in those States and Indian Tribes without authorized programs, for training programs seeking accreditation under 40 CFR 745.225, for firms engaged in renovations seeking certification under 40 CFR 745.89, and for individuals or firms engaged in lead-based paint activities seeking certification under 40 CFR 745.226.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 announces the deletion of the Double Eagle Refinery Co. Superfund Site (Site) located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, from the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is found at Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 which is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of Oklahoma, through the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, have determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA, other than operation, maintenance, and five-year reviews, have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

EPA is withdrawing the July 8, 2008 (73 FR 38925), direct final rule revisions to Indiana's State Plan to control air pollutants from large Municipal Waste Combustors (MWC). The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) submitted the State Plan on August 24, 2007. In the direct final rule, EPA stated that if adverse comments were submitted by August 7, 2008, the rule would be withdrawn and not take effect. On July 29, 2008, IDEM submitted a comment to EPA. EPA believes this comment is adverse and, therefore, EPA is withdrawing the direct final rule. Specifically, IDEM commented that, in the table for particulate matter, there was a typographical error in identifying the appropriate footnotes for the emission limitations. In addition, IDEM stated that it had recently submitted an agency correction for publication in the Indiana Register to correct the footnotes for mercury and sulfur dioxide in the emission limitations table, and requested that these corrections be part of the final federal approval. EPA will address the comment in a subsequent final action based upon the proposed action also published on July 8, 2008 (73 FR 38954). EPA will not institute a second comment period on this action.

This rule amends the general regulations for federal fruit, vegetable and nut marketing agreements and marketing orders by establishing supplemental rules of practice for amendatory formal rulemaking proceedings in accordance with section 1504 of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill). The supplemental rules of practice add procedures to the rulemaking process relating to amendments to fruit, vegetable and nut marketing agreements and marketing orders; authorize the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to impose assessments on affected industries to supplement funds necessary to improve or expedite an amendatory hearing process; and authorize the use of informal rulemaking (5 U.S.C. 553) to amend such agreements and orders. Section 1504 of the 2008 Farm Bill also applies to amendments of federal milk marketing agreements and orders. The supplemental rules of practice for federal milk marketing agreements and orders are addressed in a separate rulemaking document.

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain Cessna Model 560 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires installing new minimum airspeed placards to notify the flightcrew of the proper airspeeds for operating in both normal and icing conditions. The existing AD also requires revising the airplane flight manual to provide limitations and procedures for operating in icing conditions, for operating with anti-ice systems selected ``on'' independent of icing conditions, and for recognizing and recovering from inadvertent stall. The existing AD also provides an optional terminating action for the placard installation. This proposed AD would require the previously optional terminating action. This proposed AD results from an evaluation of in-service airplanes following an accident. The evaluation indicated that some airplanes might have an improperly adjusted stall warning system. We are proposing this AD to prevent an inadvertent stall due to the inadequate stall warning margin provided by an improperly adjusted stall warning system, which could result in loss of controllability of the airplane.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. 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 FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Honeywell FMSs served by Honeywell NZ-2000 navigation computers and IC-800 integrated avionics computers. The existing AD currently requires identifying affected computers by part number and software modification level and revising the Limitations section of applicable airplane flight manuals to provide procedures for retaining optimum position determination and intended navigation. This proposed AD would require uploading new software, which would terminate the existing requirements. This proposed AD results from reports of in-flight unannunciated shifts of computed position in airplanes with the subject FMS computers. We are proposing this AD to prevent a shift in the FMS computed position, which could result in uncommanded deviations from the intended flight path of the airplane and, if those deviations are undetected by the flight crew, compromised terrain/traffic avoidance.

On April 30, 2008, we published in the Federal Register (Volume 73, Number 84, pages 23393-23403) proposed mailing standards to require the use of Intelligent Mail[supreg] barcodes on all letters and flats mailed at automation prices as of May 2010. We described two options for using Intelligent Mail barcodes as of May 2009: The basic option and the full-service option. In this final rule, we summarize comments received in response to our proposed rule and provide our new mailing standards for the use of Intelligent Mail barcodes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region V is publishing a direct final Notice of Deletion of the Waste Inc. Landfill Superfund Site (Site), located in Michigan City, Indiana, from the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300, which is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). This direct final deletion is being published by EPA with the concurrence of the State of Indiana, through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), because EPA has determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA, other than operation, maintenance, and five-year reviews, have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region V is issuing a Notice of Intent to Delete the Waste Inc. Landfill Superfund Site (Site) located in Michigan City, Indiana from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comments on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is found at Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 which is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of Indiana, through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), have determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA, other than operation, maintenance, and five-year reviews, have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

In an effort to financially assist Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) and other certified small and disadvantaged business (SDBs) in their execution of transportation related contracts at the local, state and federal levels, the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) has developed the Short-Term Lending Program (STLP), under which DOT guarantees short-term lines of credit for said businesses. The program is administered through cooperative agreements between DOT's OSDBU and Participating Lenders and under the STLP's governing policies and procedures. This NPRM proposes new rules to govern the STLP.

This proposed rule would make two sets of amendments to improve evaluation and oversight of public housing agencies (PHAs). First, this proposed rule would amend HUD's Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) regulations for the purposes of: Consolidating the regulations governing assessment of a PHA's program in one part of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR); revising certain PHAS regulations based on the Department's experience with PHAS since it was established as the new system for evaluating a PHA in 1998; and updating certain PHAS procedures to reflect recent changes in public housing operations from conversion by PHAs to asset management, including updating and revising the PHAS scoring. PHAS is designed to improve the delivery of services in public housing and to enhance trust in the public housing system among PHAs, public housing residents, and the general public, by providing a management tool for effectively and fairly measuring the performance of a PHA in essential housing operations of its projects, based on standards that are uniform and verifiable. The changes proposed by this rule are intended to enhance the efficiency and utility of PHAS. Second, the proposed rule would establish, in a separate part of the CFR, the regulations that would specify the actions or inactions by which a PHA would be determined to be in substantial default, the procedures for a PHA to respond to such a determination or finding, and the sanctions available to HUD to address and remedy substantial default by a PHA. To date, such regulations have been included in the PHAS regulations, but the actions or inactions that constitute substantial default are not limited to failure to comply with PHAS regulations. Accordingly, the proposed regulations applicable to substantial default are more appropriately codified in a separate CFR part. This proposed rule is also publishing the scoring processes for each of the PHAS scoring categories as appendices to part 902. Although these scoring processes are proposed as appendices, it is also possible that, at the final rule stage, they will be published as separate notices as has been HUD's practice to this point.

EPA is proposing to update a portion of the Outer Continental Shelf (``OCS'') Air Regulations. Requirements applying to OCS sources located within 25 miles of States' seaward boundaries must be updated periodically to remain consistent with the requirements of the corresponding onshore area (``COA''), as mandated by section 328(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act, as amended in 1990 (``the Act''). The portions of the OCS air regulations that are being updated pertain to the requirements for OCS sources by the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (Ventura County APCD). The intended effect of approving the OCS requirements for the Ventura County APCD is to regulate emissions from OCS sources in accordance with the requirements onshore. The change to the existing requirements discussed below is proposed to be incorporated by reference into the Code of Federal Regulations and is listed in the appendix to the OCS air regulations.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is withdrawing the proposed rule, Petitions for Aliens to Perform Nonagricultural Temporary Services or Labor (H-2B), published on January 27, 2005, in the Federal Register at 70 FR 3984. The rule proposed significant changes to USCIS' regulations that were designed to increase the effectiveness of the H-2B nonimmigrant visa classification while providing protections for U.S. workers. The H-2B nonimmigrant visa classification applies to foreign workers to perform nonagricultural temporary labor or services. The proposed rule would have established a one-step petition process for U.S. employers seeking H-2B temporary workers eliminating the need for U.S. employers to apply for a labor certification from the Department of Labor (DOL); required electronic filing of the Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, Form I- 129, within 60 days in advance of the requested employment start date; eliminated the use of agents as H-2B petitioners; and, established new management mechanisms allowing USCIS to maintain the integrity of the program. In light of the public's comments, USCIS is no longer moving forward with the proposed rule as designed and will publish a new proposed rule for public comments.

This final rule amends the Department of State's regulations relating to the application for a nonimmigrant visa, to generally require all applicants, with certain exceptions, to provide a set of ten scanned fingerprints as part of the application process. The scanning of ten fingerprints of nonimmigrant visa applicants has already been implemented. For the purposes of verifying and confirming identity, conducting background checks, and to ensure that an applicant has not received a visa or entered into the United States under a different name, the Department of State may use the fingerprints in order to ascertain from the appropriate authorities whether they have information pertinent to the applicant's eligibility to receive a visa and for other purposes consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Department policy.

On April 29, 2008, we published a final rule entitled ``Long Range Identification and Tracking of Ships'' (LRIT). In it we noted that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had not yet approved a collection of information, ``Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness via Electronic Transmission of Vessel Transit Data,'' associated with the LRIT rule. This document provides notice that on August 12, 2008, OMB approved the referenced collection of information associated with the LRIT final rule.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Greenland turbot in the Aleutian Islands subarea of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2008 Greenland turbot total allowable catch (TAC) in the Aleutian Islands subarea of the BSAI.

The Coast Guard proposes to increase the size of the Boston Inner Harbor Special Anchorage Area ``A'' at the entrance to Fort Point Channel in Boston Harbor, Boston, MA at the request of the Boston Harbormaster and the Boston Harbor Yacht Club. This action will provide additional anchorage space and provide a safe and secure anchorage for vessels of not more than 65 feet in length.

The Coast Guard proposes to create a permanent regulated navigation area on a portion of the Thea Foss and Wheeler-Osgood Waterways, Commencement Bay, Tacoma, Washington. This regulated navigation area would be used to preserve the integrity of a clean sediment cap placed over certain areas of the Thea Foss and Wheeler- Osgood Waterways as part of the remediation process of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Commencement Bay Nearshore/ Tideflats superfund cleanup site. This regulated navigation area would prohibit activities that would disturb the seabed, such as anchoring, dragging, trawling, spudding, or other activities that involve disrupting the integrity of the cap. It would not affect transit or navigation of the area.

The Department of the Navy is amending its certifications and exemptions under the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (72 COLREGS), to reflect that the Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (Admiralty) of the Navy has determined that USS LABOON (DDG 58) is a vessel of the Navy which, due to its special construction and purpose, cannot comply fully with certain provisions of the 72 COLREGS without interfering with its special functions as a naval ship. The intended effect of this rule is to warn mariners in waters where 72 COLREGS apply.