January 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the withdrawal of a draft guidance entitled ``Draft Guidance for Industry: Questions and Answers Regarding Implementation of the Menu Labeling Provisions of Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010'' dated August 2010, that was announced in the Federal Register of August 25, 2010. FDA now intends to complete the notice and comment rulemaking process for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (hereinafter ``section 4205'') before initiating enforcement activities based, in part, on extensive comments on the draft guidance submitted to the Agency. FDA believes that this approach to implementing section 4205 will minimize uncertainty and confusion among all interested persons.

NMFS has received an application from the U.S. Navy (Navy) for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to pile driving activities as part of a test pile program. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to the Navy to take, by Level B Harassment only, five species of marine mammals during the specified activity.

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (Privacy Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a, the Department of Education (Department) publishes this notice of a new system of records entitled ``Indian EducationIndividual Reporting on Regulatory Compliance Related to the Indian Education Professional Development Program's Service Obligation and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA)'' (18-14- 05). The Indian Education Professional Development program, authorized under title VII, part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA), is designed to increase the number of, provide training to, and improve the skills of American Indian or Alaska Natives serving as teachers and school administrators in schools serving American Indian or Alaska Native students. Section 7122(h) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 7442(h)) requires that individuals who receive financial assistance through the Indian Education Professional Development program subsequently complete a service obligation equivalent to the amount of time for which the participant received financial assistance. Participants who do not satisfy the requirements of the regulations must repay all or a pro- rated part of the cost of assistance, in accordance with 20 U.S.C. 7442(h) and 34 CFR 263.8(a)(3). The regulations in part 263 implement requirements governing, among other things, the service obligation and reporting requirements of the participants in the Indian Education Professional Development program, and repayment of financial assistance by these participants. In order for the Federal Government to ensure that the goals of the program are achieved, certain data collection, recordkeeping, and documentation are necessary. In addition, GPRA requires Federal agencies to establish performance measures for all programs, and the Department has established performance measures for the Indian Education Professional Development program. Data collection from participants who have received financial assistance under the Indian Education Professional Development program is a necessary element of the Department's effort to evaluate progress on these measures. The Department tracks participants who are receiving or have previously received support through the Indian Education Professional Development program. Participants must sign a payback agreement that includes contact information. Additionally, the Department receives information about participants from institutions of higher education (IHEs) and other eligible grantees when participants are no longer receiving assistance through the Indian Education Professional Development program. When the performance period is complete, the participant data are collected from the grantee and also from the participants. Records in the system pursuant to this notice may include the name, social security number, date of birth, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, and alternate contact information for each participant in the grant, as well as the name and contact information of a person through whom the participant can be contacted, the number of semesters or months for which the participant needs to provide service in order to satisfy the service payback obligation, the total amount of financial assistance the participant received, the time period during which the participant must satisfy the service payback obligation, eligible employment to fulfill the service payback obligation, contact information for employers, and grant identification numbers. In addition, participants may request an educational deferment, which requires verification of acceptance in a university/ college program, enrollment as a full-time student, registration each semester, timely submission of semester transcripts, and documentation of the participant as a student in good standing. Participants also provide information about specific areas of training, certifications or licensures obtained, reasons for leaving the program before completion, gender, ethnic origin, and education history. Participants are responsible for obtaining letters signed by the participant's supervisor that verify the employment information provided by the participant. These letters must be submitted to the Department every six months until service payback is completed.

This rule adds an exemption to the marketing order for Oregon- Washington pears that provides for the sale of fresh pears directly to consumers without regard to regulation. The marketing order regulates the handling of pears grown in Oregon and Washington. Local administration of the marketing order for the fresh pear industry is provided by the Fresh Pear Committee (Committee). For each customer, this rule exempts consumer-direct sales of up to 220 pounds of fresh pears per transaction, for home use only, made directly at orchards, packing facilities, roadside stands, or farmers' markets without regard to the marketing order's assessment, reporting, handling, and inspection requirements. This action is intended to provide regulatory flexibility to small pear handlers, while facilitating the sale of fresh, local pears directly to consumers.

BOEMRE is withdrawing the direct final rule to amend BOEMRE's renewable energy regulatory provisions that pertain to noncompetitive acquisition of leases, published on November 26, 2010 (75 FR 72679), under Docket ID: BOEM-2010-0045. In the direct final rule, BOEMRE stated that if it received significant adverse comments during the rule's 30-day comment period, it would publish a notice of withdrawal in the Federal Register. BOEMRE has determined that it has received significant adverse comments during the comment period and, therefore, is withdrawing the direct final rule. BOEMRE intends to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking within 30 days of the date of this notice in order to reinitiate rulemaking. The proposed rule will have a 30-day public comment period. All comments received in response to the original November 26, 2010, notice will be considered in relation to the proposed rule unless they are withdrawn by the commenters, so those who commented on the original November 26, 2010, direct final rule need not re-submit their comments. However, parties who responded to the November 26, 2010, notice may submit additional comments on the proposed rulemaking.

The Federal Trade Commission announces the revised thresholds for the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 required by the 2000 amendment of Section 7A of the Clayton Act. Section 7A of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. 18a, as added by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, Public Law 94-435, 90 Stat. 1390 (``the Act''), requires all persons contemplating certain mergers or acquisitions, which meet or exceed the jurisdictional thresholds in the Act, to file notification with the Commission and the Assistant Attorney General and to wait a designated period of time before consummating such transactions. Section 7A(a)(2) requires the Federal Trade Commission to revise those thresholds annually, based on the change in gross national product, in accordance with Section 8(a)(5). The new thresholds, which take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, are as follows:

The Systems Integration group of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in conjunction with the Hydrogen Storage team of the EERE Fuel Cell Technologies Program, will be hosting two days of workshops on compressed and cryo-compressed hydrogen storage in the Washington, DC metro area.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is publishing a summary of legal interpretations issued by the Office of General Counsel involving Veterans' benefits under laws administered by VA. This interpretation is considered precedential by VA and will be followed by VA officials and employees in future claim matters involving the same legal issues. The summary is published to provide the public, and, in particular, Veterans' benefits claimants and their representatives, with notice of VA's interpretations regarding the legal matters at issue.

FMCSA announces its decision to renew the exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for 7 individuals. FMCSA has statutory authority to exempt individuals from the vision requirement if the exemptions granted will not compromise safety. The Agency has concluded that granting these exemption renewals will provide a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.

On January 13, 2011, the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a notice in the Federal Register (76 FR 2425) announcing the reissuance and availability of Draft Regulatory Guide (DG)-1229, titled ``Assuring the Availability of Funds for Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors.'' This Federal Register notice stated that electronic copies of DG-1229 were available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) (https:// www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html), under Accession No. ML103350136 and that the regulatory analysis was available under ML103350166. The ADAMS accession numbers assigned to DG-1229 and noted in 76 FR 2425 are incorrect. Due to this error, the comment period has been extended to allow the public access the correct version.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a request to renew an existing approved Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This ICR is scheduled to expire on May 31, 2011. Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public face-to-face meeting of the SAB Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Air Monitoring and Methods Subcommittee (AMMS) to conduct a review of EPA's draft monitoring documents for Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX) and Sulfur (SOX).

EPA is notifying the public that it has found that the motor vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs) in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Texas (HGB) Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) and Attainment Demonstration State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions, submitted on April 1st and April 6th, 2010 respectively, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) are adequate for transportation conformity purposes. As a result of EPA's finding, the HGB area must use these budgets for future conformity determinations for the 1997 8-hour ozone standard.

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, ``A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application in the Chesapeake Bay'' (EPA/600/R-10/096a). The draft document was prepared by EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), which is situated in the Office of Research and Development. EPA will forward public comments that were submitted in accordance with a previous notice (Federal Register Volume 75, Number 168 [Tuesday, August 31, 2010]) to the external peer-review panel for consideration prior to the meeting. When finalizing the draft document, EPA will consider any public comments that EPA received in accordance with the August 31, 2010 Federal Register Notice. EPA released this draft document solely for the purpose of peer review under applicable information quality guidelines. This document has not been formally disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. EPA invites the public to register and attend this workshop and to give oral and/or provide written comments of the draft document under review. The draft document and EPA's peer review charge are available via the Internet on NCEA's home page under the Recent Additions and the Data and Publications menus at https://www.epa.gov/ncea. In preparing a final report, EPA will consider the comments and recommendations from the external peer review workshop and any public comments received in accordance with this notice.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), as part of its continuing effort to reduce the paperwork burden of grant applicants and awardees in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, invites the general public and other Federal Agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection. The information collection requests are FMCS forms: Application for Federal Assistance (SF-424), Accounting System and Financial Capability Questionnaire (LM-3), Request for Advance or Reimbursement SF-270 (LM- 6), Financial Status Report SF-269a (LM-7), Project Performance (LM-8), and Grants Program Grantee Evaluation Questionnaire (LM-9). This information collection activity was previously approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and is requesting a reinstatement without change to the collection. This collection was assigned the control number 3076-0006.

The Commission is noticing a recently-filed Postal Service request to add a Discover Financial Services negotiated service agreement to the market dominant product list. This notice addresses procedural steps associated with this filing.

The Manti-La Sal National Forest Resource Advisory Committee will meet in Price, Utah. The committee is meeting as authorized under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (Pub. L. 110-343) and in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The purpose of the meeting is to consider project proposals.