August 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is proposing to approve a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Kansas on November 9, 2009, that addresses Regional Haze for the first implementation period. In so doing, EPA is proposing to determine that the plan submitted by Kansas satisfies the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act), for states to prevent any future and remedy any existing anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas caused by emissions of air pollutants located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program''). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is taking this action pursuant to those provisions of the CAA that obligate the Agency to take action on submittals of SIPs. You may submit written comments on this proposed rule as per the instructions given under the section Instructions for Comment Submittal.

The Commission has before it a petition for rulemaking filed by Gray Television Licensee, LLC (``Gray''), the licensee of station WJHG-TV, channel 7, Panama City, Florida, requesting the substitution of channel 18 for channel 7 at Panama City. WJHG's viewers continue to experience problems receiving the station's VHF channel 7 digital broadcasts despite two power increases since it began operations on digital channel 7. Gray states that the best solution to resolve the majority of viewers reception problems is to move to a UHF channel, which serves the public interest by resolving over-the-air reception problems in certain areas of WJHG's predicted service areas.

We are announcing to the public that veterinarians who are currently accredited in the National Veterinary Accreditation Program (NVAP) may continue to perform accredited duties and may elect to continue to participate in the NVAP until October 1, 2011. The regulations indicate that currently accredited veterinarians must elect to continue their participation in the NVAP in order to maintain their accredited status, after which we will confirm their continued participation and notify them of their first renewal date. A previous document announced that currently accredited veterinarians may continue to perform accredited duties until further notice, even if they have not received a date for their first accreditation renewal. That document stated that we would specify a date by which veterinarians would have to elect to participate in a subsequent document.

We are amending the regulations to allow, under certain conditions, the importation of commercial shipments of peppers from Panama into the United States without treatment. Conditions of entry to which the peppers will be subject include trapping, pre-harvest inspection, and shipping procedures. This action will allow for the importation of peppers from Panama into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.

We are amending the domestic quarantine regulations to expand the regulated area for European larch canker to include additional areas in Maine. We are also correcting some misidentifications of previously listed regulated areas. This action is necessary to prevent human-assisted transmission of European larch canker from infested areas to noninfested areas.

Section 942(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act eliminated the automatic suspension of the duty to file under Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for asset-backed securities issuers and granted the Commission the authority to issue rules providing for the suspension or termination of such duty. We are adopting rules to provide certain thresholds for suspension of the reporting obligations for asset-backed securities issuers. We are also amending our rules relating to the Exchange Act reporting obligations of asset-backed securities issuers in light of these statutory changes.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary Special Local Regulation on the Sabine River within the Port Arthur, TX Captain of the Port Zone. This Special Local Regulation is intended to restrict vessels from portions of the Sabine River during the annual S.P.O.R.T boat races. This Special Local Regulations is necessary to protect spectators and vessels from the hazards associated with powerboat races.

The Coast Guard is changing the regulation governing the operation of the State Route (SR) 433 Swing Span Bridge across Bonfouca Bayou, mile 7.0, at Slidell, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD) requested that the operating regulation of the SR 433 swing span bridge be changed in order to allow for signaled openings to begin later in the mornings and later in the evenings during the months of daylight savings time.

The Coast Guard proposes to change the regulations governing the operation of the CSX Railroad Vertical Lift Bridge across the Anacostia River, mile 3.4 at Washington, DC. The proposed change will alter the eight hour advance notice requirement for a bridge opening to a 48 hour advance notice requirement for a bridge opening. The operating regulation change will give more notice for trains and vessels to adjust their schedules accordingly to ensure safe and efficient transits across and through the bridge.

This rule amends the Postal Service's regulations concerning tort claims to update the mailing address of the National Tort Center.

This document contains regulations amending a Treasury Regulation to provide guidance as to the only ways to establish prima facie evidence of delivery of documents that have a filing deadline prescribed by the internal revenue laws, absent direct proof of actual delivery. The regulations provide that the proper use of registered or certified mail, or a service of a private delivery service (PDS) designated under criteria established by the IRS, will constitute prima facie evidence of delivery. The regulations are necessary to provide greater certainty on this issue and to provide specific guidance. The regulations affect taxpayers who mail Federal tax documents to the Internal Revenue Service or the United States Tax Court.

This final rule establishes regulations for contracting with community-based treatment facilities in the Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The HCHV program assists certain homeless veterans in obtaining treatment from non-VA community-based providers. The final rule formalizes VA's policies and procedures in connection with this program and clarifies that veterans with substance use disorders may qualify for the program.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing an interim rule to revise the table of reduction factors for early commencing dates of survivor annuities for spouses of separated employees who die before the date on which they would be eligible for unreduced deferred annuities, and to revise the annuity factor for spouses of deceased employees who die in service when those spouses elect to receive the basic employee death benefit in 36 installments under the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) Act of 1986. These rules are necessary to ensure that the tables conform to the economic, demographic and mortality assumptions adopted by the Board of Actuaries and published in the Federal Register on June 3, 2011, as required by 5 U.S.C. 8461(i).

EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) emissions from flares. We are approving a local rule that regulates these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act). We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.

This rule proposes to amend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)formerly the Food Stamp Program) regulations to implement the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill), which requires adequate system testing before and after implementation of a new State automatic data processing (ADP) and information retrieval system, including the evaluation of data from pilot projects in limited areas for major systems changes, before the Secretary approves the system to be implemented more broadly. It also provides that systems be operated in accordance with an adequate plan for continuous updating to reflect changed policy and circumstances, and for testing the effects of the system on access by eligible households and on payment accuracy. This proposed rule would also specify the requirements for submission of a test plan. Further, the rule proposes changing the due date of an Advance Planning Document Update (APDU) from 90 days after to 60 days prior to the expiration of the Federal financial participation (FFP) approval and revises language regarding the Federal share of costs in consolidated information technology (IT) operations to specify that the threshold for service agreements applies to federally aided public assistance programs, rather than to SNAP alone. In addition, this rule proposes to amend the SNAP regulations relating to the establishment of an automated data processing and information retrieval system and to provide clarifications and updates which have occurred since this section was last updated in 1996.

NMFS will present two public workshops on the Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program (Rockfish Program) for potentially eligible participants and other interested parties. At each workshop, NMFS will provide an overview of the proposed Rockfish Program, discuss the key differences between the Rockfish Program and the Rockfish Pilot Program, provide information on the proposed rule comment process, and answer questions. NMFS is conducting these public workshops to assist fishery participants in understanding and reviewing the proposed rule that would implement this new Rockfish Program.

NMFS announces that the spiny dogfish commercial quota available to the coastal states from Maine through Florida for the first semi-annual quota period, May 1, 2011-October 31, 2011, has been harvested. Therefore, effective 0001 hours, August 26, 2011, federally permitted spiny dogfish vessels may not fish for, possess, transfer, or land spiny dogfish until November 1, 2011, when the Period 2 quota becomes available. Regulations governing the spiny dogfish fishery require publication of this notification to advise the coastal states from Maine through Florida that the quota has been harvested and to advise vessel permit holders and dealer permit holders that no Federal commercial quota is available for landing spiny dogfish in these states. This action is necessary to prevent the fishery from exceeding its Period 1 quota and to allow for effective management of this stock.

In this Order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) generally denies rehearing and reaffirms the findings made in Order No. 710-B. The Commission does, however, revise the burden estimate to more accurately account for initial start-up costs, grant rehearing on the issue of whether to include page 521d, and grant additional time to comply with Order No. 710-B.

DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to add a new subpart and associated contract clauses to address requirements for safeguarding unclassified DoD information. The comment period is being extended 93 days to provide additional time for interested parties to review the proposed DFARS changes.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone on the Detroit River, from the Ambassador Bridge to the western tip of Belle Isle. This safety zone is intended to restrict vessels from portions of the Detroit River during the Coast Guard Exercise. This safety zone is necessary to protect the public from the hazards associated with this Coast Guard exercise.

This rule will prohibit any person holding a certificate from knowingly employing, or making a contractual arrangement with, certain individuals to act as an agent or a representative of the certificate holder in any matter before the FAA under certain conditions. These restrictions will apply if the individual, in the preceding 2-year period directly served as, or was directly responsible for the oversight of, a Flight Standards Service Aviation Safety Inspector, and had direct responsibility to inspect, or oversee the inspection of, the operations of the certificate holder. This rule will also apply to persons who own or manage fractional ownership program aircraft that are used to conduct operations under specific regulations described in this document. This rule will establish these restrictions to prevent potential organizational conflicts of interest which could adversely affect aviation safety.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD requires performing a fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) of the low-pressure turbine (LPT) rotor stage 3 disk at every shop visit at which the LPT module is separated from the engine. This AD was prompted by seven reports of uncontained failures of LPT rotor stage 3 disks and eight reports of cracked LPT rotor stage 3 disks found during shop visit inspections. We are issuing this AD to prevent LPT rotor separation, which could result in an uncontained engine failure and damage to the airplane.

The Department of the Interior is amending its regulations to exempt certain records from particular provisions of the Privacy Act. Specifically, the Department proposes to exempt certain records of the newly-created Debarment and Suspension Program system of records from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to amend the regulations that implement the Endangered Species Act (Act) by removing inter-subspecific crossed or generic tiger (Panthera tigris) (i.e., specimens not identified or identifiable as members of Bengal, Sumatran, Siberian, or Indochinese subspecies from the list of species that are exempt from registration under the Captive-bred Wildlife (CBW) regulations. The exemption currently allows those individuals or breeding operations who want to conduct otherwise prohibited activities, such as take, interstate commerce, and export, under the Act with U.S. captive-bred, live inter-subspecific crossed or generic tigers to do so without becoming registered. We are proposing this change to the regulations to strengthen control over captive breeding of tigers in the United States to ensure that such breeding supports the conservation of the species in the wild consistent with the purposes of the Act. The inter-subspecific crossed or generic tigers remain listed as endangered under the Act, and a person would need to obtain authorization under the current statutory and regulatory requirements to conduct any otherwise prohibited activities with them.

This final rule amends Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical regulations to incorporate statutory amendments. Certain statutes authorizing VA health care benefits were amended by the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. The statutory amendments affect enrollment in certain health care priority categories and exempt catastrophically disabled veterans from copayment requirements.