December 17, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Management and Budget revised Circular A-94 in 1992. The revised Circular specified certain discount rates to be updated annually when the interest rate and inflation assumptions used to prepare the budget of the United States Government were changed. These discount rates are found in Appendix C of the revised Circular. The updated discount rates are shown below. The discount rates in Appendix C are to be used for cost-effectiveness analysis, including lease-purchase analysis, as specified in the revised Circular. They do not apply to regulatory analysis.

In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that the Agency has found that the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) motor vehicle emissions budgets in the subsequent NO2 maintenance plan portion of the 2007 South Coast State Implementation Plan (SIP) are adequate for transportation conformity purposes. The 2007 South Coast SIP was submitted to EPA on November 28, 2007 by the California Air Resources Board as a revision to the California state implementation plan. CARB corrected the NO2 motor vehicle emissions budgets from the 2007 South Coast SIP by letter dated May 1, 2009. As a result of our finding, the Southern California Association of Governments and the U.S. Department of Transportation must use the NO2 motor vehicle emissions budgets from the submitted subsequent NO2 maintenance plan for future transportation conformity determinations.

The Regional Administrator of EPA Region 6 is hereby granting a project waiver of the Buy American requirements of ARRA Section 1605 under the authority of Section 1605(b)(2) [manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality] to the Town of Taos (``Taos'') for the purchase of membrane filtrations cassettes, which are an integral component of the Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) system, proposed for the expansion of its existing Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Taos indicates that the MBR system is necessary to achieve the tertiary wastewater treatment levels at the proposed 4 million gallons per day WWTP. The membrane filtration equipment under consideration is manufactured by a company located in Canada and no United States manufacturer produces an alternative that meets Taos' technical specifications. This is a project specific waiver and only applies to the use of the specified product for the ARRA funded project being proposed. Any other ARRA project that may wish to use the same product must apply for a separate waiver based on the specific project circumstances. The Regional Administrator is making this determination based on the review and recommendations of the EPA Region 6, Water Quality Protection Division. Taos has provided sufficient documentation to support its request.

EPA is announcing that Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), an EPA contractor for external scientific peer review, will convene an independent panel of experts and organize and conduct an external peer- review workshop to review the external review draft document titled, ``Toxicological Review of 1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane: In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)'' (EPA/635/R-09/001). The draft document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development. EPA previously announced the 60-day public comment period (ending November 23, 2009) for the draft document in the Federal Register on September 24, 2009 (74 FR 48731). EPA will consider public comments and recommendations from the expert panel workshop as EPA finalizes the draft document.

This document denies two petitions for reconsideration of an April 30, 2008, final rule that made certain modifications to 49 CFR part 565, Vehicle Identification Number Requirements, to enable the 17 character vehicle identification number (VIN) system that has been in place for nearly 30 years to continue to function for at least another 30 years. One of the petitions for reconsideration involved the effective date, which NHTSA believes was resolved by the publication of a correction notice on May 16, 2008. The second petition asked for changes to the VIN system so that, among other things, a person looking at the VIN of a motorcycle will be able to tell whether the vehicle was manufactured in the 30 year period beginning with the 1980 model year or in the 30 year period beginning with the 2010 model year. The agency is denying the petition because the issues it raises were outside of the scope of the rulemaking.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Florida District, in cosponsorship with The Society of Clinical Research Associates, Inc. (SoCRA), is announcing a public workshop entitled ``FDA Clinical Trial Requirements, Regulations, Compliance and GCP.'' This 2-day public workshop is intended to provide information about FDA clinical trial requirements to the regulated industry.

This gives notice of OPM decisions granting authority to make appointments under Schedules A, B, and C in the excepted service as required by 5 CFR 6.6 and 213.103.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is publishing this notice of petitions received under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (``the Program''), as required by Section 2112(b)(2) of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, as amended. While the Secretary of Health and Human Services is named as the respondent in all proceedings brought by the filing of petitions for compensation under the Program, the United States Court of Federal Claims is charged by statute with responsibility for considering and acting upon the petitions.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has examined approximately 5 acres of public land in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, and found them suitable for classification for lease and/or conveyance under the provisions of the Recreation and Public Purposes (R&PP) Act, as amended. The Property Control Division of the New Mexico General Services Department proposes to construct buildings for the Department of Public Safety, New Mexico State Police District 4 Headquarters.

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Arkansas (FEMA-1861-DR), dated 12/03/2009.

The plats of survey of the following described lands are scheduled to be officially filed in the Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington State Office, Portland, Oregon, 30 days from the date of this publication.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the animal drug regulations to reflect approval of a supplemental new animal drug application (NADA) filed by Elanco Animal Health. The supplemental NADA provides for use of two-way combination Type B and C medicated swine feeds formulated with ractopamine hydrochloride and tylosin phosphate following use of tylosin tartrate medicated drinking water consistent with the sequential use approved for single-ingredient tylosin medicated swine feed.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense proposes to add a system of records to its inventory of records systems subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended.