July 8, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Coast Guard is temporarily changing the drawbridge operating regulations governing the operation of the 103rd Street (Wards Island) Pedestrian Bridge at mile 0.0, across the Harlem River at New York City, New York. This interim rule is necessary to facilitate the completion of a major bridge rehabilitation project at the 103rd Street (Wards Island) Pedestrian Bridge while soliciting comments from the public.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

On March 12, 2010, EPA published a final rule making a determination that the entire Chicago-Gary-Lake County, Illinois- Indiana (IL-IN) 1997 eight-hour ozone nonattainment area has attained the 1997 eight-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). This action corrects an omission in the regulatory text of the aforementioned Federal Register document.

EPA is proposing to approve Indiana's modifications to its Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR) rules. The amendments include grammatical changes, corrections to numbering, addition of definitions consistent with Federal PSD and NNSR regulations, and removal of references to provisions which were vacated in the Federal rules. Indiana submitted these rule revisions for approval on November 24, 2010. They are consistent with the current Federal PSD and NNSR regulations.

EPA is approving submittals from the States of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. These submittals outline how each state's State Implementation Plan (SIP) meets the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). Section 110(a) of the CAA requires that each state adopt and submit a SIP for the implementation, maintenance and enforcement of each NAAQS promulgated by the EPA. This SIP is commonly referred to as an infrastructure SIP. Specifically, EPA is taking final action to fully approve the submittals from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with one exception. EPA is taking direct final action to conditionally approve one element of Connecticut's submittal. These actions are being taken under the Clean Air Act.

FRA is announcing public hearings to provide interested persons an opportunity to discuss the development of a regulation requiring certain railroads to develop a Risk Reduction Program (RRP). The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 requires the development and implementation of railroad safety risk reduction programs. Risk reduction is a comprehensive, system-oriented approach to safety that (1) determines an operation's level of risk by identifying and analyzing applicable hazards and (2) develops plans to mitigate that risk. Each RRP is statutorily required to be supported by a risk analysis and a Risk Reduction Program Plan (RRPP), which must include a Technology Implementation Plan and a Fatigue Management Plan.

The Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce has approved the ACE Basin, SC National Estuarine Research Reserve and Old Woman Creek, OH National Estuarine Research Reserve Management Plan Revisions. The revised management plan for the ACE Basin, SC National Estuarine Research Reserve outlines the administrative structure; the education, training, stewardship, and research programs of the reserve; and the plans for future land acquisition and facility development to support reserve operations. The objectives described in this plan address the most critical coastal issues in ACE Basin related to habitat conservation, water quality, community resilience, and public access. Since the last approved management plan in 1992, the reserve has become fully staffed; added a Coastal Training Program that delivers science-based information to key decision makers; and added significant monitoring of emergent marsh vegetation, water quality, and invasive species. In addition to programmatic and staffing advances, the reserve has constructed an interpretive center that houses educational exhibits, classrooms, offices, conference space, trails and dock with public access. A field station with lab facilities, research dock, and accommodations for visiting researchers has also been constructed. This management plan amends the boundary to include 4,687 acres of the Botany Bay Plantation located adjacent to the northeastern corner of Edisto Island in lower Charleston County, SC. South Carolina Budget and Control Board is the property owner and has a cooperative partnership with South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to manage the Botany Bay Plantation as a Wildlife Management Area and Heritage Preserve property. The undeveloped coastal habitats of the plantation include maritime forest, coastal shrub, wetlands, tidal marshes and sand beaches. The property provides important habitat for numerous wildlife species, including critical nesting habitat for the Federally threatened loggerhead sea turtle and the state threatened least tern. The lands contain significant cultural resources and list several sites on the National Register of Historic Places. This management plan amends the boundary by also removing 40,089 acres of private lands previously counted in error. In total, the ACE Basin Reserve includes 99,308 acres designated for long term research, education and stewardship. The revised management plan is available at: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/NERR/. The revised management plan for the Old Woman Creek, OH National Estuarine Research Reserve contains the collective vision, mission, goals, and objectives of the reserve; updates the reserve boundary; as well as outlines plans for facility use and development to support reserve operations. The objectives described in this plan address the most critical coastal issues of the reserve related to water quality (non-point source pollution), invasive species, habitat loss and regional ecosystem impacts of climate change. Since the last approved management plan in 2000, the reserve has all core staff; added a Coastal Training Program that delivers science-based information to key decision makers; and developed partnerships to continue to restore and protect land and waters in the Old Woman Creek watershed. In addition to programmatic and staffing advances, the reserve has completed construction of a new dormitory, boathouse, and administrative spaces. This management plan includes a boundary expansion of 2.2 acres. This land was incorporated with the state nature preserve in 2004 and is subject to all protection afforded by Ohio laws governing state nature preserves. The additional parcel is adjacent to the reserve's southwestern boundary and consists of early successional habitat (e.g., various Cornus sp.) and will become an area dominated by mixed hardwoods. Incorporating these lands increases the size of the reserve to 573 acres. The revised management plan is available at: https:// www.oldwomancreek.org.

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:

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for use to assist the homeless.

This proposed rule would update and make certain revisions to the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) prospective payment system (PPS) for calendar year (CY) 2012. This proposed rule would also set forth proposed requirements for the ESRD quality incentive program (QIP) for payment years (PYs) 2013 and 2014. In addition, this proposed rule would revise the ambulance fee schedule regulations to conform with statutory changes. Finally, this proposed rule would revise the definition of durable medical equipment (DME) by adding a 3-year minimum lifetime criterion that must be met by an item or device in order to be considered durable for the purpose of classifying the item under the Medicare benefit category for DME. (See the Table of Contents for a listing of the specific issues addressed in this proposed rule.)

Section 1104 of the Administrative Simplification provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (hereafter referred to as the Affordable Care Act) establishes new requirements for administrative transactions that will improve the utility of the existing HIPAA transactions and reduce administrative costs. Specifically, in section 1104(b)(2) of the Affordable Care Act, Congress required the adoption of operating rules for the health care industry and directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ``adopt a single set of operating rules for each transaction * * * with the goal of creating as much uniformity in the implementation of the electronic standards as possible.'' This interim final rule with comment period adopts operating rules for two Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) transactions: eligibility for a health plan and health care claim status. This rule also defines the term ``operating rules'' and explains the role of operating rules in relation to the adopted transaction standards. In general, transaction standards adopted under HIPAA enable electronic data interchange through a common interchange structure, thus minimizing the industry's reliance on multiple formats. Operating rules, in turn, attempt to define the rights and responsibilities of all parties, security requirements, transmission formats, response times, liabilities, exception processing, error resolution and more, in order to facilitate successful interoperability between data systems of different entities.