August 1, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This interim final rule amends Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations to reflect changes made by the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, effective August 1, 2011, that affect payment of vocational rehabilitation benefits for certain service-disabled veterans. Pursuant to these changes, a veteran, who is eligible for a subsistence allowance under chapter 31 of title 38, United States Code, and educational assistance under chapter 33 of title 38, United States Code, may participate in a rehabilitation program under chapter 31 and elect to receive a payment equal in amount to an applicable military housing allowance payable under title 37, United States Code, instead of the regular subsistence allowance under chapter 31. In addition, payments of subsistence allowances during periods between school terms are discontinued, and payments during periods of temporary school closings are modified. This rulemaking amends VA regulations consistent with this new authority.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the West Yakutat District of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2011 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific ocean perch in the West Yakutat District of the GOA.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is proposing rules to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These proposed rules address: The documentation between a customer and a futures commission merchant that clears on behalf of the customer, and the timing of acceptance or rejection of trades for clearing by derivatives clearing organizations and clearing members.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposes to revise certain pay administration rules dealing with employees in nonforeign areas outside the 48 contiguous States. The proposed regulations would allow consideration of locality pay and nonforeign area cost-of-living allowances (COLAs) in evaluating the need for special rates, special rate supplements to be computed using an alternate method in nonforeign areas, locality rates to be considered basic pay for the purpose of computing nonforeign area COLAs and post differentials, a retained rate established based on a special rate payable in a nonforeign area that is in excess of the applicable limitation on special rates on January 1, 2012, to exceed the rate payable for level IV of the Executive Schedule, and temporary and term employees in nonforeign areas to be eligible for a retained rate in certain circumstances.

The Coast Guard has changed the drawbridge operation regulations that govern the operation of the Arthur Kill (AK) Railroad Bridge at mile 11.6, across Arthur Kill between Staten Island, New York and Elizabeth, New Jersey. This final rule provides relief to the bridge owner from crewing their bridge by allowing the bridge to be operated from a remote location while continuing to meet the present and future needs of navigation.

The Coast Guard proposes to establish a permanent regulated navigation area (RNA) on a portion of Elliott Bay in Seattle, Washington. The RNA would protect the seabed in portions of the bay that are subject to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Pacific Sound Resources (PSR) and Lockheed Shipyard superfund cleanup remediation efforts. This RNA would prohibit activities that would disturb the seabed, such as anchoring, dragging, trawling, spudding or other activities that involve disrupting the integrity of the sediment caps that cover the superfund sites. It will not affect transit or navigation of the area.

The Copyright Royalty Judges are amending their regulations to authorize the use of proxy reports of use to permit distribution of royalties collected for the period April 1, 2004, through December 31, 2009, for the public performance of sound recordings by means of digital audio transmissions pursuant to statutory license. Proxy reports of use will be used for those services for which no reports of use were submitted or for which the reports of use were unusable.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the purpose of incorporating the Commonwealth's Diesel-Powered Motor Vehicle Idling Act (Act 124 of 2008, or simply Act 124) into the Pennsylvania SIP. Act 124, passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed into state law by Governor Rendell in October 2008 (and effective at the state level in February 2009), reduces the allowable time that heavy-duty, commercial highway diesel vehicles of over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight can idle their main propulsion engines. The law restricts idling of these commercial diesel vehicles (mostly heavy trucks and buses) to a period of 5 minutes per continuous 60 minute period (with certain allowable exemptions and exclusions). Act 124 applies statewide in the Commonwealth, and is estimated by Pennsylvania to significantly reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and fine particulate matter (PM). While idle time emissions limits are not mandatory under the Clean Air Act (CAA), incorporation of Act 124 into the SIP does strengthen the SIP, makes the state law federally enforceable by EPA, and allows the Commonwealth to take credit for emissions benefits from the rule as part of future Pennsylvania SIP revisions to demonstrate compliance with CAA National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This action is being taken under the CAA. In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the Commonwealth's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because EPA views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are revising regulations governing the Wildlife Restoration, Sport Fish Restoration, and Hunter Education and Safety (Enhanced Hunter Education and Safety) financial assistance programs. We proposed a revision of these regulations on June 10, 2010, to address changes in law, regulation, policy, technology, and practice during the past 25 years. We also proposed a clarification of some provisions of the issue-specific final rule that we published on July 24, 2008. This final rule simplifies specific requirements of the establishing authorities of the three programs and clarifies terms in those authorities as well as terms generally used in grant administration. We organized the final rule to follow the life cycle of a grant, and we reworded and reformatted the regulations following Federal plain language policy and current rulemaking guidance.

The Commission proposes to expand coverage of the Lighting Facts label to include all screw-based and GU-10 and GU-24 pin-based light bulbs. Under this proposal, manufacturers would have 2\1/2\ years to conform their products and packaging to the labeling requirements. The Commission also proposes to require a specific test procedure (LM- 79) for measuring light output for all light emitting diode (LED) bulbs covered by the Rule. Finally, the Commission is not proposing amendments for several other issues such as watt-equivalent standards, directional light disclosures, and lead content disclosures.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD requires inspecting the wings for internal and external damage, repairing any damage, reinforcing the wings, installing operational limitation placards in the cockpit, and adding limitations to the airplane flight manual supplement. This AD was prompted by a review of installed Flint Aero, Inc. wing tip auxiliary fuel tanks, Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) SA5090NM. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct damage in the wings and to prevent overload failure of the wing due to the installation of the STC. Damage in the wing or overload failure of the wing could result in structural failure of the wing, which could result in loss of control.

The Coast Guard proposes to amend the existing regulations that implement the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended (STCW Convention), as well as the Seafarer's Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code (STCW Code). The changes proposed in this Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) address the comments received from the public response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), in most cases through revisions based on those comments, and propose to incorporate the 2010 amendments to the STCW Convention that will come into force on January 1, 2012. In addition, this SNPRM proposes to make other non-STCW changes necessary to reorganize, clarify, and update these regulations.