December 7, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3521), this notice announces that the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The PRA submission describes the nature of the information collection and its expected cost and burden; it includes the actual data collection instrument.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-21), this notice announces that the Veterans Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The PRA submission describes the nature of the information collection and its expected cost and burden; it includes the actual data collection instrument.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is affirming without changes, its interim rule to promulgate rules and regulations establishing a National Sheep Industry Improvement Center (NSIIC) program, consistent with the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Farm Bill). This rule establishes the NSIIC and a Board of Directors (Board) that will manage and be responsible for the general supervision of the activities of the NSIIC, with oversight from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The NSIIC is authorized to use funds to make grants to eligible entities in accordance with a strategic plan. No comments were received. Accordingly, AMS is issuing this final rule without changes.

This document contains temporary and final regulations relating to Federal tax deposits (FTDs) by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). In response to the decision of the Financial Management Service to discontinue the system that processes FTD coupons, the temporary and final regulations provide rules under which depositors must use EFT for all FTDs and eliminate the rules regarding FTD coupons. The temporary and final regulations affect all taxpayers that are required to make FTDs, in particular those taxpayers that currently use FTD coupons.

Pursuant to the Information Security Oversight Offices Classified National Security Information Directive No. 1, this notice provides the U.S. Agency for International Developments address to which Mandatory Declassification Review requests may be sent. This notice benefits the public in advising them where to send such requests for declassification review.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation airplanes listed above. This AD requires modifying the fuel boost pumps for the center wing, and forward or aft auxiliary fuel tanks. This AD results from fuel system reviews conducted by the manufacturer. We are issuing this AD to prevent possible sources of ignition in a fuel tank caused by an electrical fault in the fuel boost pumps. An ignition source in the fuel tank could result in a fire or an explosion and consequent loss of the airplane.

The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 directs NHTSA to issue a final rule amending the agency's Federal motor vehicle safety standard on rearview mirrors to improve the ability of a driver to detect pedestrians in the area immediately behind his or her vehicle and thereby minimize the likelihood of a vehicle's striking a pedestrian while its driver is backing the vehicle. Pursuant to this mandate, NHTSA is proposing to expand the required field of view for all passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles, buses, and low-speed vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less, gross vehicle weight. Specifically, NHTSA is proposing to specify an area immediately behind each vehicle that the driver must be able to see when the vehicle's transmission is in reverse. It appears that, in the near term, the only technology available with the ability to comply with this proposal would be a rear visibility system that includes a rear- mounted video camera and an in-vehicle visual display. Adoption of this proposal would significantly reduce fatalities and injuries caused by backover crashes involving children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and other pedestrians. In light of the difficulty of effectively addressing of the backover safety problem through technologies other than camera systems and given the differences in the effectiveness and cost of the available technologies, we developed several alternatives that, compared to the proposal, offer less, but at least in one case still substantial, benefits and do so at reduced cost. We seek comment on those alternatives and on other possible ways to achieve the statutory objective and meet the statutory requirements at lower cost.

We are adding a new subpart to our regulations, which contains the rules we will apply to determine the income-related monthly adjustment amount for Medicare prescription drug coverage premiums. This new subpart implements changes made to the Social Security Act (Act) by the Affordable Care Act. These rules parallel the rules in subpart B of this part, which describes the rules we apply when we determine the income-related monthly adjustment amount for certain Medicare Part B (medical insurance) beneficiaries. These rules describe the new subpart; what information we will use to determine whether you will pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount and the amount of the adjustment when applicable; when we will consider a major life- changing event that results in a significant reduction in your modified adjusted gross income; and how you can appeal our determination about your income-related monthly adjustment amount. These rules will allow us to implement the provisions of the Affordable Care Act on time that relate to the income-related monthly adjustment amount for Medicare prescription drug coverage premiums, when they go into effect on January 1, 2011.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This 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:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), designate critical habitat for polar bear (Ursus maritimus) populations in the United States under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). In total, approximately 484,734 square kilometers (km\2\) (187,157 square miles (mi\2\)) fall within the boundaries of the critical habitat designation. The critical habitat is located in Alaska and adjacent territorial and U.S. waters.