December 29, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS issues a final rule under authority of the Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) to implement Amendment 16 to the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan for Commercial and Recreational Salmon Fisheries off the Coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California (Salmon FMP). NMFS approved Amendment 16 on December 16, 2011. This final rule implements components of Amendment 16 that bring the Salmon FMP into compliance with the MSA as amended in 2007, and the corresponding revised National Standard 1 Guidelines (NS1Gs) to end and prevent overfishing. Amendment 16 identifies stocks that are in the fishery, establishes status determination criteria (SDC), and specifies overfishing limits (OFLs), acceptable biological catch (ABC), and annual catch limits (ACLs). Amendment 16 also includes ``de minimis'' fishing provisions that allow for low levels of fishing impacts on stocks that are at low levels of abundance.

This action removes regulations implementing the Northeast Region Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology (SBRM). To comply with the D.C. Circuit Court's decision, NMFS announces that the Northeast Region SBRM Omnibus Amendment is vacated and all regulations implemented by the SBRM Omnibus Amendment final rule are removed. The intended effect of this rule is to revise regulatory language to refer specifically to the industry-funded observer program in the scallop fishery.

Section 401(a) of the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), Public Law 111-3, amended the Social Security Act (the Act) to enact section 1139A (42 U.S.C. 1320b- 9a). Section 1139A(b) charged the Department of Health and Human Services with improving pediatric health care quality measures. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is soliciting the submission of instruments or domains (for example, key concepts) measuring aspects of families' experience with the quality of inpatient medical and surgical hospital care from all researchers, vendors, hospitals, stakeholders, and other interested parties. The survey development team of Children's Hospital Boston Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement (CEPQM), is one of the CHIPRA Pediatric Quality Measures Program (PQMP) Centers of Excellence, which were created pursuant to an interagency agreement between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and AHRQ, and are funded through cooperative agreement awards with AHRQ. AHRQ is interested in instruments and items through which families of pediatric patients assess the care their child receives during the child's inpatient stay. The goal is to develop a standardized instrument for use in the public reporting of family experience of pediatric inpatient care. The team developing this survey intends to submit it to the CAHPS Consortium to request use of the CAHPS trademark. The survey will be developed in accordance with CAHPS Survey Design Principles and will develop implementation instructions based on those for CAHPS instruments (https://www.cahps.AHRQ.gov/About-CAHPS/Principles.aspx.) All CAHPS surveys are available to users free of charge and are published on the AHRQ Web site.

EPA is approving severable portions of State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by Oklahoma to address Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements that prohibit air emissions which will contribute significantly to nonattainment in, or interfere with maintenance by, any other State for the 1997 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS or standards) and the 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. EPA is also approving the severable portion of a SIP revision submitted by the State of Oklahoma to address the CAA requirement that prohibits air emissions which will contribute significantly to nonattainment in any other State for the 1997 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS or standards). EPA is taking no action at this time on the severable portion of the SIP revision submitted to address the CAA requirement that prohibits air emissions which will interfere with maintenance of the 1997 ozone NAAQS in any other State. This action is being taken under section 110 of the CAA.

We propose to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all EMBRAER Model ERJ 170 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires revising the Airworthiness Limitations Section (ALS) of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness (ICA) to incorporate new structural inspection requirements. Since we issued that AD, during full scale fatigue testing, cracks were found in certain structural components of the airplane. Analysis of these cracks resulted in manufacturer modifications of the ALS of Embraer ERJ 170 Maintenance Review Board Report (MRBR), which include new inspections tasks, or modification of the current tasks and their respective thresholds and intervals. This proposed AD would revise the maintenance program to incorporate new or revised structural inspection requirements. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct fatigue cracking which could result in the loss of structural integrity of the airplane.

EPA is proposing to determine pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA), that the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, North Carolina-South Carolina, ozone nonattainment area (hereafter referred to as ``the bi- state Charlotte Area'' or ``the Area'') has attained the 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) by its applicable attainment date of June 15, 2011. The determination of attainment was made by EPA on November 15, 2011, based on quality-assured and certified monitoring data for the 2008-2010 monitoring period. EPA is now proposing to find that the bi-state Charlotte Area attained the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS by its applicable attainment date. EPA is proposing this action because it is consistent with the CAA and its implementing regulations.

NMFS issues this final rule to implement Amendment 18 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Coastal Migratory Pelagic Resources in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Region (FMP), as prepared and submitted by the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils (Councils). This rule removes species from the FMP; modifies the framework procedures; establishes two migratory groups for cobia; and establishes annual catch limits (ACLs), annual catch targets (ACTs), and accountability measures (AMs) for king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, and cobia. In addition, Amendment 18 sets allocations for Atlantic migratory group cobia and establishes control rules for king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, and cobia. The intent of this rule is to specify ACLs for species not undergoing overfishing while maintaining sustainable catch levels.

This part establishes policy, assigns responsibilities, and provides procedures for operational contract support (OCS), including OCS program management, contract support integration, and integration of defense contractor personnel into contingency operations outside the United States. An interim final rule is required to procedurally close gaps and ensure the correct planning, oversight and management of DoD contractors supporting contingency operations, by updating the existing outdated policy. The existing policies are causing significant confusion, as they do not reflect current practices and legislative mandates. The inconsistencies between local Geographic Command guidance and the DoD-wide policies and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement are confusing for those in the fieldin particular, with regard to policy on accountability and visibility requirements. Given the sustained employment of a large number of contractors in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility; the importance of contractor oversight in support of the counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan; and, the requirement to effectively manage contractors during the transition in Iraq, this issue has become so significant that DoD needs to revise the DoD-wide policies as a matter of urgency.