July 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to its authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA), EPA is taking final action to disapprove the portions of submittals by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) that pertain to requirements in the CAA to address interstate transport for the 2006 24-hour fine particle (PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). EPA is not, however, currently taking action on the remainder of the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submittals from IDEM and Ohio EPA concerning other basic or ``Infrastructure'' elements required under the CAA. The proposed rule associated with this final action was published on February 4, 2011. The effect of this action will be an obligation for EPA to promulgate a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for Indiana and Ohio no later than two years from the date of disapproval. The Transport Rule, when final, is the FIP that EPA intends to implement for Indiana and Ohio.

PHMSA is amending the Hazardous Materials Regulations to make miscellaneous amendments to update and clarify certain regulatory requirements. These amendments are intended to: promote safer transportation practices; eliminate unnecessary regulatory requirements; finalize outstanding petitions for rulemaking; facilitate international commerce; and simplify the regulations. PHMSA anticipates that the amendments contained in this rule will generate economic benefits to the regulated community.

The Board is publishing a final rule, Regulation II, Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing. This rule implements the provisions of Section 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, including standards for reasonable and proportional interchange transaction fees for electronic debit transactions, exemptions from the interchange transaction fee limitations, prohibitions on evasion and circumvention, prohibitions on payment card network exclusivity arrangements and routing restrictions for debit card transactions, and reporting requirements for debit card issuers and payment card networks. An interim final rule, with a request for comment, on standards for receiving a fraud-prevention adjustment to interchange transaction fees is published separately in the Federal Register.

On June 17, 2011, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or the ``Commission'') published for public comment in the Federal Register a proposed order that would grant, pursuant to the Commission's exemptive authority pursuant to the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA''), certain temporary relief from the provisions of the CEA added or amended by title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act'') that reference one or more terms regarding entities or instruments that title VII requires be ``further defined,'' such as the terms ``swap,'' ``swap dealer,'' ``major swap participant,'' or ``eligible contract participant,'' to the extent that requirements or portions of such provisions specifically relate to such referenced terms and do not require a rulemaking. The CFTC also proposed to grant temporary relief from certain provisions of the CEA that will or may apply to certain agreements, contracts, and transactions in exempt or excluded commodities as a result of the repeal of various CEA exemptions and exclusions as of the general effective date set forth in section 754 of the Dodd-Frank Act, July 16, 2011. Upon consideration of the full record, the Commission has determined to issue this final exemptive order (``Final Order'') essentially as proposed, with appropriate or necessary modification or clarification.

We propose to revise an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to the products listed above. The existing AD currently requires removing from service certain gas generator second stage turbine discs, part number (P/N) 0 292 25 040 0, that are not marked with ``CFR'' before the discs exceed 2,500 cycles-in-service (CIS) since-new or within 20 CIS from the effective date of the AD, whichever occurs later. That AD also requires removing from service certain gas generator second stage turbine discs, P/N 0 292 25 040 0, that are marked with ``CFR'' before the discs exceed 3,500 CIS since-new. Since we issued that AD, Turbomeca has restored all or part of the life limits of the affected discs, and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued AD 2010-0101R2, dated March 24, 2011 to do the same. This proposed AD would still prevent disc failure but extends the life limits of the affected discs. We are proposing this AD to prevent failure of the gas generator second stage turbine disc which could result in the release of high energy debris and damage to the helicopter.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) concludes that it should eliminate outdated and unnecessary reporting requirements related to international telecommunications traffic for which the burdens on U.S. international service providers outweigh the benefits. Specifically, the Commission finds four information collections are no longer necessary and removes them from its rules: The division of telegraph tolls report; the quarterly large carrier traffic report; the quarterly foreign- affiliated switched resale carrier report; and the circuit-addition report. The Commission also finds that the annual traffic and revenue reports and annual circuit status reports can be simplified by removing the requirement to separately report for off-shore U.S. points.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collection requirements contained in 47 CFR 73.7000, FCC Forms 301 and 340 and the AM Auction Section 307(b) Submissions. The information collection requirements were approved on July 5, 2011 and July 11, 2011 by OMB.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above that would supersede an existing AD. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated 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 are proposing to amend the regulations governing the importation of animals and animal products by recognizing 25 Member States of the European Union as the APHIS-defined European Union poultry trade region and adding it to the list of regions we consider to be free of Newcastle disease. We are taking this action based on a risk evaluation that we prepared in which we determined that the proposed region meets our requirements for being considered free of Newcastle disease. We also determined that the region meets our requirements for being considered free of highly pathogenic avian influenza. In addition, we are proposing to establish requirements governing the importation of live birds and poultry, including hatching eggs, and poultry meat and products from the APHIS-defined European Union poultry trade region, and to update avian disease terms and definitions. These actions would facilitate the importation of live birds and poultry, and poultry meat and products, from the APHIS- defined European Union poultry trade region while protecting the United States from communicable avian diseases.

EPA is approving submittals from the state of Louisiana pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) that address the infrastructure elements specified in the CAA section 110(a)(2), necessary to implement, maintain, and enforce the 1997 8-hour ozone and 1997 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS or standards). We are determining that the current Louisiana State Implementation Plan (SIP) meets the following infrastructure elements which were subject to EPA's completeness findings pursuant to CAA section 110(k)(1) for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS dated March 27, 2008, and the 1997 PM2.5 NAAQS dated October 22, 2008: 110(a)(2)(A), (B), (C), (D)(ii), (E), (F), (G), (H), (J), (K), (L), and (M). EPA is also approving SIP revisions that modify Louisiana's Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) SIP for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS to include nitrogen oxides (NOX) as an ozone precursor. This action is being taken under section 110 and part C of the Act.

The United States Coast Guard is establishing a regulated navigation area (RNA) on the navigable waters of the Chelsea River under and surrounding the Chelsea Street Bridge (CSB) that crosses the Chelsea River between East Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts. This temporary interim rule allows the Coast Guard to suspend all vessel traffic within the RNA for construction operations, both planned and unforeseen, that could pose an imminent hazard to vessels operating in the area. This rule is necessary to provide for the safety of life on the navigable waters during the construction of the Chelsea Street Bridge.

This document delays specified applicability and effective dates of the Employee Benefits Security Administration's (EBSA) interim final rule concerning fiduciary-level fee disclosure and final rule concerning participant-level fee disclosure. These final rules were published in the Federal Register on July 16, 2010 and October 20, 2010, respectively. This document delays and more closely aligns the initial compliance dates of the two rules in order to provide regulated parties with more time to comply with the new disclosure requirements. This document adopts final amendments to the initial compliance dates for both rules.

NMFS announces that the provisions for the Pacific halibut trawl mortality bycatch limit and for calculation of Pacific halibut individual bycatch quota (IBQ) pounds in the Shorebased Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program will remain in effect for the remainder of the 2011 groundfish fishery. This announcement is required in order to maintain the current amount of Pacific halibut IBQ pounds in the Shorebased IFQ Program.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service is amending its regulations for the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program to ensure the Agency has sufficient right(s) for reimbursement when an Agency guaranteed portion of a loan is sold to a holder. This action is necessary because the rule is not sufficiently clear that the use of loan funds for purposes not approved by the Agency is a reason to find the guarantee unenforceable regardless of whether the guaranteed portion of the loan has been sold to a holder. This action ensures the Agency has sufficient rights for reimbursement when an Agency guaranteed portion of the loan is sold to a holder.

The final rule establishing the minimum parameters and requirements for States to make available and share traffic and travel conditions information via real-time information programs as required by Section 1201 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) was published on November 8, 2010. In issuing the final rule, the FHWA also sought additional comments relating to the costs and benefits of the Real-Time System Management Information Program and general information about current and planned programs. Thirty-one entities provided responses to the Request for Comments and this document provides a summary of those responses.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (``CPSIA''), authorizes the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (``Commission,'' ``CPSC,'' or ``we'') to specify, by rule, for any consumer product or class of consumer products, characteristics whose existence or absence shall be deemed a substantial product hazard under certain circumstances. We are issuing a final rule to determine that children's upper outerwear garments in sizes 2T to 12 or the equivalent, which have neck or hood drawstrings, and in sizes 2T to 16 or the equivalent, which have waist or bottom drawstrings that do not meet specified criteria, present substantial product hazards.

This document requests input to help us improve services and reduce duplication of effort, including collecting information from the public. Specifically, the Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) agencies including the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Risk Management Agency (RMA) have been working on a joint, coordinated initiative to have a common U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) framework for producer's to report information to participate in certain USDA programs. FSA and RMA have been working in coordination with the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on the common reporting process. The USDA retrospective review request for information (RFI) published in the Federal Register on April 20, 2011, included the initiative to simplify and reduce the reporting burden on the public for submitting participation information for USDA programs, while simultaneously reducing our administrative and operating costs by sharing similar data across participating agencies. We believe the public, especially farmers, producers, ranchers, and the crop insurance industry who submit and use the information may have suggestions that may effectively reduce the burden of providing the information that USDA agencies require. Any resulting improvements to the processes will be within existing legislative authorities.

EPA is approving State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Vermont (VT) on November 22, 2006, and November 14, 2008. These SIP revisions consist of a demonstration that VT meets the requirements of reasonably available control technology (RACT) for oxides of nitrogen (NOX) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) set forth by the Clean Air Act (CAA) with respect to the 1997 8-hour ozone standard; minor revisions to Vermont's bulk gasoline plants regulation; and new requirements for wood furniture manufacturing operations. Additionally, EPA is approving VT's negative declarations for several categories of VOC sources. EPA is fully approving all of the submitted items, with two exceptions. EPA is conditionally approving the RACT determinations for two major VOC sources (Churchill Coatings Corporation and H.B.H. Prestain, Inc.). This action is being taken in accordance with the CAA.

EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The SIP revisions pertain to the control of nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions from Portland cement kilns. EPA is approving these revisions to reduce emissions from Portland cement kilns in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 12-month finding on a petition to list the Grand Canyon cave pseudoscorpion (Archeolarca cavicola) as threatened or endangered with critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). After review of the best scientific and commercial information available, we find that listing the Grand Canyon cave pseudoscorpion is not warranted at this time. However, we ask the public to submit to us any new information that becomes available concerning the threats to the Grand Canyon cave pseudoscorpion or its habitat at any time.

The Federal Communications Commission proposes to remove the International Settlements Policy (ISP) from all U.S. international routes except Cuba. Eliminating the ISP will enable more market-based arrangements between U.S. and foreign carriers on all U.S. international routes. The Federal Communications Commission seeks comment on a proposal to enable the Commission to better protect U.S. consumers from the effects of anticompetitive conduct by foreign carriers in instances necessitating Commission intervention. Specifically, it seeks comments on proposals and issues regarding the application of the Commission's benchmarks policy.

This proposed rule addresses changes to the physician fee schedule and other Medicare Part B payment policies to ensure that our payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the relative value of services. It also addresses, implements or discusses certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively known as the Affordable Care Act) and the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. In addition, this proposed rule discusses payments for Part B drugs; Physician Quality Reporting System; the Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program; the Physician Resource-Use Feedback Program and the value modifier; productivity adjustment for ambulatory surgical center payment system and the ambulance, clinical laboratory, and durable medical equipment prosthetics orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) fee schedules; and other Part B related issues. (See the Table of Contents for a listing of the specific issues addressed in this proposed rule.)

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is amending its regulations, to reflect changes in the retirement benefits available to customs and border protection officers under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). These rules incorporate amendments to CSRS and FERS retirement law pursuant to section 535 of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008. The Act provides early retirement and enhanced annuity benefits for customs and border protection officers employed by the United States Department of Homeland Security under CSRS and FERS; requires an increase in the percentage rate of withholdings from the basic pay of customs and border protection officers; and establishes mandatory retirement of customs and border protection officers at age 57.

This rule will amend the aircraft turbine engine rotor overspeed type certification standards. This action establishes uniform rotor overspeed design and test requirements for aircraft engines and turbochargers certificated by the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The rule also establishes uniform standards for the design and testing of engine rotor parts in the United States and in Europe, eliminating the need to comply with two differing sets of requirements.

The Coast Guard is establishing eight temporary safety zones for marine events within the Captain of the Port (COTP) Boston Zone for swimming events. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on navigable waters during the events. Entering into, transiting through, mooring or anchoring within these zones is prohibited unless authorized by the COTP Sector Boston.