August 25, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Indian Gaming Commission (``NIGC'') announces the extension of the effective date on the final rule concerning various amendments to the National Indian Gaming Commission regulations. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on July 27, 2009. The Commission has changed the effective date to December 31, 2009, in order to extend the transition time.

NMFS issues new and revised definitions for certain regulatory terms, and procedural and technical changes to the regulations

The Department of Health and Human Services amends the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Rule by adjusting for inflation the maximum civil money penalty amount for violations of the confidentiality provisions of the Rule. We are amending the penalty amount to comply with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990. We are using direct final rulemaking for this action because we expect that there will be no significant adverse comment on the rule.

DoD is making technical amendments to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to update the list of DoD contracting activities and other references within the DFARS text.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is implementing a direct final rule correcting the regulation classifying herpes simplex virus (HSV) serological assays by removing the reference to HSV serological assays other than type 1 and type 2. When reclassifying this device, FDA mistakenly distinguished between HSV serological assays type 1 and type 2 and all other HSV serological assays. At that time, and today, the only preamendments HSV serological assays which FDA was aware of were type 1 and type 2 and, therefore, the classification of HSV assays other than type 1 and type 2 was incorrect. FDA is correcting the classification of this device to eliminate possible confusion resulting from this error. Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, we are publishing a companion proposed rule under FDA's usual procedure for notice and comment to provide a procedural framework to finalize the rule in the event we receive significant adverse comment and withdraw this direct final rule.

This rule prescribes final early-season frameworks from which the States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands may select season dates, limits, and other options for the 2009-10 migratory bird hunting seasons. Early seasons are those that generally open prior to October 1, and include seasons in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The effect of this final rule is to facilitate the selection of hunting seasons by the States and Territories to further the annual establishment of the early-season migratory bird hunting regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing action on portions of a State Implementation Plan revision submitted by New York State that are intended to meet some Clean Air Act requirements for attaining the 0.08 parts per million 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standards. EPA is proposing to disapprove the reasonably available control technology requirement as it relates to the entire State of New York, including the New York portion of the New York- Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT and the Poughkeepsie 8-hour ozone moderate nonattainment areas.

This document makes permanent an existing requirement that trailers with antilock brake systems (ABS) be equipped with an external malfunction indicator lamp. The indicator lamp requirement, which is included in the Federal motor vehicle safety standard that governs air- braked vehicles, was originally scheduled to sunset on March 1, 2009, but had previously been extended to September 1, 2009. The agency had established a sunset date for this requirement in light of the increasing numbers of post-2001 tractors which have an in-cab trailer ABS malfunction lamp, making the external trailer lamp redundant. We are making the requirement permanent in light of additional safety purposes served by the external lamp, including: it not only warns the driver of a malfunctioning trailer ABS, but, unlike the in-cab lamps, indicates which trailer in double and trailer applications has a malfunction, and it assists Federal and State roadside inspectors and maintenance personnel in identifying a malfunctioning trailer ABS. This rulemaking was conducted in response to petitions from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Boeing Model 747 airplanes. This proposed AD would require one-time detailed and high frequency eddy current inspections for cracks in the wing and horizontal stabilizer side-of-body joints and the fuselage skin circumferential splices, and repair if necessary. This proposed AD would also require, for certain airplanes, repetitive detailed inspections for cracks of the fuselage skin circumferential splices, and repair if necessary. This proposed AD results from Boeing analysis indicating that the wing and horizontal stabilizer side-of-body joints, and the fuselage skin circumferential splices are susceptible to fatigue cracking due to high cyclic loads on the airplane. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct fatigue cracking at multiple adjacent locations in the subject areas, which could connect to form large cracks and result in reduced structural integrity leading to rapid decompression and consequent loss of control of the airplane.

The Criminal Division (CRM), Department of Justice, issued a proposed rule to amend its Privacy Act regulations (Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 16), to revise the exemptions for the following newly modified Privacy Act system of records entitled ``Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Fusion Center and International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center System,'' JUSTICE/CRM-028, 74 FR 26598 (June 3, 2009). The ``Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Fusion Center and International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center System,'' JUSTICE/ CRM-028, is exempt from the subsections of the Privacy Act listed below for the reasons set forth in the following text. Information in this system of records relates to matters of law enforcement, and the exemptions are necessary to avoid interference with law enforcement responsibilities and to protect the privacy of third parties.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 reauthorizes and modifies the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers program as established by Subtitle C of Title I of the Trade Act of 2002, which amended the Trade Act of 1974. Under this program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides technical assistance and cash benefits to eligible producers of raw agricultural commodities and fishermen (jointly referred to as ``producers'') when the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Administrator determines that increased imports of raw agricultural commodities, aquaculture products, or wild- caught aquatic species (jointly referred to as ``agricultural commodities'') have contributed importantly to a greater than 15 percent decrease in the national average price, or quantity of production, or value of production, or cash receipts for the agricultural commodity specified in the certified petition compared to the average of the three preceding marketing years. The rule establishes the procedure by which a group can submit a petition for certification of eligibility and individual producers of agricultural commodities can apply for technical assistance and cash benefits for the development and implementation of approved business adjustment plans.

The Federal Trade Commission (the ``Commission'' or ``FTC'') is amending its Telemarketing Sales Rule (``TSR'') by updating the fees charged to entities accessing the National Do Not Call Registry (the ``Registry'') as required by the Do-Not-Call Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007.