August 7, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document moves the effective date of the revocation of six inert ingredient tolerance exemptions with insufficient data for reassessment as set forth in the Federal Register on August 4, 2008 (73 FR 45312).

The General Services Administration (GSA) is amending the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to revise sections of GSAR Part 502 that provide definitions for general words and terms. This section will only contain definitions for terms that are used in more than one place in the GSAR.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to revise the list of nonavailable articles at FAR 25.104(a). The Councils also request public comment as to whether some articles on the list of nonavailable articles are now mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory quality and should therefore be removed from the list.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service propose to approve tungsten-iron-fluoropolymer shot alloys for hunting waterfowl and coots. We published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for this group of alloys in the Federal Register on March 3, 2009, under RIN 1018-AW46 (74 FR 9207). Having completed our review of the application materials, we have concluded that these alloys are very unlikely to adversely affect fish, wildlife, or their habitats.

This document proposes to amend Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations to implement certain provisions of the Combat Veterans Debt Elimination Act of 2008 and of the Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 2008. The proposed rule would implement the first statute's provisions granting limited authority to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Secretary) to terminate collection action on certain debts arising from a VA benefit program when the indebted individual is a member of the Armed Forces or a veteran who dies as a result of injury incurred or aggravated in the line of duty while serving in a theater of combat operations in a war or in combat against a hostile force during a period of hostilities after September 11, 2001, and to refund amounts collected after the individual's death. The proposed rule would also implement the second statute's provisions that similarly grants the Secretary discretionary authority to suspend or terminate collection of debts owed to VA by individuals who died while serving on active duty as a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard during a period when the Coast Guard is operating as a service in the Navy, and to refund amounts collected after the individual's death.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (``Commission'') is issuing a final rule providing guidance as to what product components or classes of components will be considered to be ``inaccessible.'' Section 101(b)(2)(A) of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (``CPSIA'') provides that the lead limits shall not apply to any component part of a children's product that is not accessible to a child through normal and reasonably foreseeable use and abuse. Section 101(b)(2)(B) of the CPSIA requires the Commission to issue, by August 14, 2009, a rule providing guidance with respect to what product components, or classes of components, will be considered to be inaccessible. This final rule satisfies the Commission's statutory obligation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing for comment a new rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 that would prohibit an investment adviser from providing advisory services for compensation to a government client for two years after the adviser or certain of its executives or employees make a contribution to certain elected officials or candidates. The new rule would also prohibit an adviser from providing or agreeing to provide, directly or indirectly, payment to any third party for a solicitation of advisory business from any government entity on behalf of such adviser. Additionally, the new rule would prevent an adviser from soliciting from others, or coordinating, contributions to certain elected officials or candidates or payments to political parties where the adviser is providing or seeking government business. The Commission also is proposing rule amendments that would require a registered adviser to maintain certain records of the political contributions made by the adviser or certain of its executives or employees. The new rule and rule amendments would

This document amends the Commission's rules so that providers of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service will be required to comply with the same discontinuance rules as domestic non- dominant telecommunications carriers. These rules protect consumers of interconnected VoIP service from the abrupt discontinuance, reduction or impairment of their service by requiring prior notice to customers and the filing of an application with the Commission.

This final rule updates the payment rates for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2010 (for discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2009 and on or before September 30, 2010) as required under section 1886(j)(3)(C) of the Social Security Act (the Act). Section 1886(j)(5) of the Act requires the Secretary to publish in the Federal Register on or before the August 1 that precedes the start of each fiscal year, the classification and weighting factors for the IRF prospective payment system's (PPS) case-mix groups and a description of the methodology and data used in computing the prospective payment rates for that fiscal year.