November 1, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rule amends the Department of State's regulations relating to adoptions in countries party to The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, to include new adoption provisions from the International Adoption Simplification Act. This legislation provides for sibling adoption to include certain children who are under the age of 18 at the time the petition is filed on their behalf, and also certain children who attained the age of 18 on or after April 1, 2008 and who are the beneficiaries of a petition filed on or before November 30, 2012.

We are proposing to amend the plants for planting regulations to provide conditions for the importation into the continental United States of Dracaena spp. plants from Costa Rica. These conditions would apply to plants less than 460 mm in length, which are currently allowed to be imported, and would also allow for the importation of plants over 460 mm and up to 1,371.6 mm in length, which are currently prohibited. As a condition of entry, Dracaena spp. plants from Costa Rica would have to be produced in accordance with integrated pest risk management measures that would include requirements for registration of places of production and packinghouses, a pest management plan, inspection for quarantine pests, sanitation, and traceability from place of production through the packing and export facility and to the port of entry into the United States. All Dracaena spp. plants from Costa Rica would also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that all conditions for the importation of the plants have been met and that the consignment of plants has been inspected and found free of quarantine pests. This action would allow for the importation of oversized Dracaena spp. plants from Costa Rica into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.

EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Placer County Air Pollution Control District (PCAPCD) and Sacramento Metro Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emissions from industrial, institutional and commercial boilers, stationary internal combustion engines and water heaters. We are proposing to approve local rules to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

This direct final rule is amending the Quality Control (QC) review error threshold in our regulations from $25.00 to $50.00. The purpose for raising the QC error threshold is to make permanent the temporary threshold change that was required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008. This change does not have an impact on the public. The QC system measures the accuracy of the eligibility system for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

This rule increases the assessment rate established for the California Walnut Board (Board) for the 2011-12 and subsequent marketing years from $0.0174 to $0.0175 per kernelweight pound of assessable walnuts. The Board locally administers the marketing order which regulates the handling of walnuts grown in California. Assessments upon walnut handlers are used by the Board to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The marketing year began September 1 and ends August 31. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

The Coast Guard is developing a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) to finalize a 1992 interim rule that set forth the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA'90) claims procedures and removed certain conflicting and superseded regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations. Before publishing the SNPRM, the Coast Guard is inviting members of the public to respond to questions and offer comments on their experience to date with the OPA'90 claims procedures and on whether additional pre-OPA'90 rules should be removed from the Code of Federal Regulations. The Coast Guard is also inviting the public to provide background information and cost data that will better inform the regulatory assessment for this rulemaking.

In this document, the Commission grants an Application for Review challenging the Anglers Order, and reverses the two exemptions granted in the Anglers Order and the 296 exemptions subsequently granted in reliance on the Anglers Order. The intended effect of this action is to ensure that the Commission evaluates petitions for exemption from the captioning rules in the way intended by the Communications Act (Act).

This document contains final and temporary regulations amending 26 CFR parts 31 and 301. These regulations extend the exceptions from taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (``FICA'') and the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (``FUTA'') under sections 3121(b)(3) (concerning individuals who work for certain family members), 3127 (concerning members of religious faiths), and 3306(c)(5) (concerning persons employed by children and spouses and children under 21 employed by their parents) of the Internal Revenue Code (``Code'') to entities that are disregarded as separate from their owners for federal tax purposes. The temporary regulations also clarify the existing rule that the owners of disregarded entities, except for qualified subchapter S subsidiaries, are responsible for backup withholding and related information reporting requirements under section 3406. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

On September 1, 2011, we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, published in the Federal Register a 90-day finding on a petition to list all chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. We are now correcting an incorrect Docket Number given under ADDRESSES in that document. We are also making the petition and the large volume of supporting documents submitted with the petition available to the public on https:// www.regulations.gov. To allow the public adequate time to review the petition and provide information, we are reopening the public comment period for an additional 90 days. However, please note that information already submitted does not need to be resubmitted.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain SOCATA Model TBM 700 airplanes. 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:

The General Services Administration (GSA) is amending the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) by making changes to its policy on the replacement of personal property pursuant to the exchange/sale authority.

This document sets forth a proposal to amend the FM Table of Allotments. The Commission requests comment on a petition filed by Bryan King, proposing to amend the Table of Allotments by substituting Channel 242C3 for vacant Channel 293C3, at Llano, Texas. The proposal is part of a contingently filed ``hybrid'' application and rule making petition. Channel 242C3 can be allotted at Llano in compliance with the Commission's minimum distance separation requirements with a site restriction of 19.1 km (11.9 miles) north of Llano, at 30-55-34 North Latitude and 98-43-24 West Longitude. Concurrence is required for the allotment of Channel 242C3 at Llano, Texas, because the proposed allotment is located within 320 kilometers (199 miles) of the U.S.- Mexican border. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION infra.

The Audio Division, on its own motion, updates the FM Table of Allotments to reinstate certain vacant FM allotments. Formerly, the FM Table listed all vacant FM allotments as well as FM channels and communities occupied by authorized facilities. In 2006, the Commission removed the allotments of authorized and awarded FM facilities from the FM Table in order to accommodate the new application procedures for radio stations to change their communities of license. However, when an authorization is cancelled, the vacant allotment must be reinstated in the FM Table to preserve the opportunity to license a future station in the specified community. Accordingly, we are adding to the FM Table of Allotments thirty allotments in various communities that are considered vacant FM allotments.