2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains corrections to final regulations (TD 9517) that were published in the Federal Register on Thursday, March 31, 2011 (76 FR 17762) relating to the enrollment of actuaries.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is correcting a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register of Thursday, March 3, 2011 (76 FR 11892). The final rule amended FDA's regulations for thermally processed low-acid foods packaged in hermetically sealed containers to allow for use of other temperature-indicating devices, in addition to mercury-in-glass thermometers, during processing. The final rule was published with one error. This document corrects that error.

The Department of Energy (DOE or Department) is proposing to revise existing regulations covering contractor legal management requirements. Conforming amendments are also proposed to the Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation (DEAR). The proposed regulations will provide rules for handling of legal matters and associated costs by certain contractors whose contracts exceed $100,000,000 as well as legal counsel retained directly by the Department for matters in which costs exceed $100,000.

We are adopting amendments to our rules to implement Section 1503 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 1503(a) of the Act requires issuers that are operators, or that have a subsidiary that is an operator, of a coal or other mine to disclose in their periodic reports filed with the Commission information regarding specified health and safety violations, orders and citations, related assessments and legal actions, and mining- related fatalities. Section 1503(b) of the Act mandates the filing of a Form 8-K disclosing the receipt of certain orders and notices from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces that it is holding a series of public Webinars regarding its proposed Early Stage Small Business Investment Companies (Early Stage SBIC) rule. The proposed Early Stage SBIC rule defines a new sub-category of small business investment companies (SBICs) that will focus on making equity investments in early stage small businesses. The Webinars will provide a basic overview of and respond to questions regarding the proposed rule. The Webinars will be transcribed or summarized and become part of the administrative record.

This document seeks comment on the Commission's preliminary plan for retrospective analysis of existing rules. The Commission prepared this preliminary plan consistent with the President's Executive Order 13579 encouraging independent agencies to engage in such retrospective review in order to identify unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations that may be hindering job creation and economic development. The Commission seeks input from the public on all aspects of its preliminary plan.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service or USFWS) are revising the 1978 listing of the Minnesota population of gray wolves (Canis lupus) to conform to current statutory and policy requirements. We rename what was previously listed as the Minnesota population of the gray wolf as the Western Great Lakes (WGL) Distinct Population Segment (DPS), and delineate the boundaries of the expanded Minnesota population segment to include all of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan and portions of the adjacent states. We are removing the WGL DPS from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. We are taking this action because the best available scientific and commercial information indicates that the WGL DPS does not meet the definitions of threatened or endangered under the Act. This final rule also removes the designated critical habitat for the wolf in Minnesota and Michigan and the special regulations under section 4(d) of the Act for wolves in Minnesota. We are separating our determination on the delisting of the Western Great Lakes DPS from the determination on our proposal regarding all or portions of the 29 eastern States we considered to be outside the historical range of the gray wolf. This rule finalizes our determination for the WGL DPS. A subsequent decision will be made for the rest of the eastern United States.

In a rule published November 29, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) comprehensively reformed and modernized the universal service and intercarrier compensation systems to ensure that robust, affordable voice and broadband service, both fixed and mobile, are available to Americans throughout the nation. The Commission adopted fiscally responsible, accountable, incentive-based policies to transition these outdated systems to the Connect America Fund, ensuring fairness for consumers and addressing the communications infrastructure challenges of today and tomorrow. The Commission uses measured but firm glide paths to provide industry with certainty and sufficient time to adapt to a changed regulatory landscape, and establish a framework to distribute universal service funding in the most efficient and technologically neutral manner possible, through market-based mechanisms such as competitive bidding. This document provides additional information to the final rule document published on November 29, 2011.

In this document, the Commission amends its rules governing the Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules to extend the deadline for EAS Participants to be able to receive Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)- formatted EAS alerts to no later than June 30, 2012. This is intended to provide EAS Participants with time to comply with any new CAP-based revisions to the Commission's rules.

EPA is proposing to approve the Clean Air Act (CAA) section 111(d)/129 State Plan (the Plan) submitted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for the State of Florida on December 21, 2010, for implementing and enforcing the Emissions Guidelines (EGs) applicable to existing Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWIs). These EGs apply to devices that combust any amount of hospital waste and/or medical/infectious waste. In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the State's 111(d)/ 129 plan revision submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments.

This rule is submitted as an interim final rule (IFR) in order to meet the Congressional requirement set forth in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, Section 724, which required the Department of Defense to prescribe regulations by June 20, 2011, to establish the criteria, as had previously been studied in accordance with Section 717 of the NDAA 2008, that would allow licensed or certified mental health counselors to be able to independently provide care to TRICARE beneficiaries and receive payment for those services. Under current TRICARE requirements, mental health counselors (MHCs) are authorized to practice only with physician referral and supervision. This interim final rule establishes a transition period to phase out the requirement for physician referral and supervision for MHCs and to create a new category of allied health professionals, to be known as certified mental health counselors (CMHCs), who will be authorized to practice independently under TRICARE. During this transition period the MHCs who do not meet the requirements for independent practice as established in this rule, may continue to provide services to TRICARE beneficiaries under the requirements of physician referral and ongoing supervision. This transition period, ending December 31, 2014, will allow time for those MHCs who seek to continue providing services under the TRICARE program to meet the independent practice requirements as outlined in this notice. After December 31, 2014, the Department of Defense will no longer recognize those mental health counselors who do not meet the criteria for a CMHC and will no longer allow them to provide services even upon the referral and supervision of a physician.

This document announces the availability of an FAA Notice that would require FAA inspectors to review 14 CFR part 135 approved training programs to identify and correct those programs which erroneously issued credit for previous training or checking. The document also provides guidance on constructing reduced hour training programs based on previous experience. Upon review of the comments and any necessary revision, this document would cancel and replace FAA Order 8900.1, Volume 3, Chapter 19, Paragraph 3-1111.

This action proposes to amend NIGC regulations to include definitions for ``enforcement action''. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act authorizes the NIGC to take certain actions in regard to violations of the Act, NIGC regulations, and tribal gaming ordinances. However, current NIGC regulations do not provide a definition for such actions. The Commission believes that providing a definition for these actions will provide clarity to persons subject to them. Therefore, a definition of ``enforcement action'' is proposed in this notice.

This action modifies a low altitude and a high altitude Alaskan compulsory reporting point in the vicinity of Kodiak, Alaska. The FAA is removing the MARLO compulsory reporting point and establishing CJAYY in the same location, to avoid confusion with a reporting fix of the same name. The boundaries, altitudes, and operating requirements remain the same.

The Federal Maritime Commission is issuing this Notice of Inquiry seeking comments on ways to make the tariff filing exemption provided to licensed non-vessel-operating common carriers in its regulations more useful, including its possible extension to foreign- based non-vessel-operating common carriers not licensed by the Federal Maritime Commission.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (``the Commission,'' ``CPSC,'' or ``we'') has reason to believe that firepots and gel fuel used together may present an unreasonable risk of injury. As of September 30, 2011, the Commission is aware of 76 incidents that resulted in 2 deaths and 86 injuries involving firepots used with gel fuel. All of these incidents occurred between April 3, 2010 and September 1, 2011. Many of the injuries were severe; over half of the victims reportedly required hospitalization. This advance notice of proposed rulemaking (``ANPR'') initiates a rulemaking proceeding under the Consumer Product Safety Act (``CPSA''). We invite comments concerning the risk of injury associated with firepots, gel fuel and gel fuel containers, the regulatory alternatives discussed in this notice, and other possible ways to address this risk. We also invite interested persons to submit an existing standard or a statement of intent to modify or develop a voluntary standard to address the risk of injury described in this notice.

OSHA is correcting typographical errors in, and making non- substantive technical amendments to, 16 OSHA standards. The technical amendments include updating or revising cross-references and updating OSHA recordkeeping log numbers.

In this final rule, EPA is concluding that emissions from Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin significantly contribute to downwind nonattainment or interfere with maintenance of the 1997 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)in other states. Each of these states except Oklahoma is already included in the annual NOX program that was finalized in July 2011. However, this rule does not affect that program. EPA is finalizing Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs) to address the emissions in each of these states except for Kansas, for which EPA is not finalizing a FIP at this time. The FIPs apply the requirements of the ozone season NOX program in the Transport Rule (Federal Implementation Plans to Reduce Interstate Transport of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone in 27 States; Correction of SIP Approvals for 22 States) to sources in Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. In addition, this action finalizes the budgets; associated variability limits, new unit set-asides, and Indian country new unit set-asides; and unit-level allowance allocations for each state under the FIPs.

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), Cost Accounting Standards Board (Board), is publishing this final rule to revise Cost Accounting Standard (CAS) 412, ``Composition and Measurement of Pension Cost,'' and CAS 413, ``Adjustment and Allocation of Pension Cost.'' This revision will harmonize the measurement and period assignment of the pension cost allocable to Government contracts, and the minimum required contribution under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended, as required by the Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006. The PPA amended the minimum funding requirements for qualified defined benefit pension plans. The Board issues this final rule to revise CAS 412 and CAS 413 to include the recognition of a ``minimum actuarial liability'' and ``minimum normal cost,'' which are measured on a basis consistent with the liability measurement used to determine the PPA minimum required contribution, and accelerate the recognition of actuarial gains and losses. These and other revisions will better align both the measurement and period assignment of pension cost allocable to a contractor's Government contracts and other final cost objectives in accordance with CAS, and the measurement and period assignment requirements for determining the contractor's minimum pension contribution under the PPA.

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA, we or us) proposes to amend its liquidity regulation. The purpose of the proposed rule is to strengthen liquidity risk management at Farm Credit System (FCS or System) banks, improve the quality of assets in the liquidity reserve, and bolster the ability of System banks to fund their obligations and continue their operations during times of economic, financial, or market adversity.

The Department of Labor (the Department or DOL) proposes to revise the current Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or the Act) regulations pertaining to the exemption for companionship services and live-in domestic services. Section 13(a)(15) of the FLSA exempts from its minimum wage and overtime provisions domestic service employees employed ``to provide companionship services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves (as such terms are defined and delimited by regulations of the Secretary).'' Section 13(b)(21) of the FLSA exempts from the overtime provision any employee employed ``in domestic service in a household and who resides in such household.'' These exemptions were enacted in 1974 at the same time that Congress amended the FLSA to extend coverage to domestic service employees employed by private households. The regulations governing these exemptions have been substantively unchanged since they were promulgated in 1975. Due to significant changes in the home health care industry over the last 35 years, workers who today provide in-home care to individuals are performing duties and working in circumstances that were not envisioned when the companionship services regulations were promulgated. The number of workers providing these services has also greatly increased, and a significant number of these workers are being excluded from the minimum wage and overtime protections of the FLSA under the companionship services exemption. The Department has re- examined the regulations and determined that the regulations, as currently written, have expanded the scope of the exemption beyond those employees whom Congress intended to exempt when it enacted Sec. Sec. 13(a)(15) and 13(b)(21) of the FLSA. Therefore, the Department proposes to amend the regulations to revise the definitions of ``domestic service employment'' and ``companionship services.'' The Department also proposes to clarify the type of activities and duties that may be considered ``incidental'' to the provision of companionship services. In addition, the Department proposes to amend the record- keeping requirements for live-in domestic workers. Finally, the Department proposes to amend the regulation pertaining to employment by a third party of companions and live-in domestic workers. This change would continue to allow the individual, family, or household employing the worker's services to apply the companionship and live-in exemptions and would deny all third party employers the use of such exemptions.

Appearing elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations that provide guidance on the application of sections 162(a) and 263(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to amounts paid to acquire, produce, or improve tangible property. The temporary regulations clarify and expand the standards in the current regulations under sections 162(a) and 263(a), and provide certain bright-line tests (for example, a de minimis rule for certain acquisitions) for applying these standards. The temporary regulations also provide guidance under section 168 regarding the accounting for, and dispositions of, property subject to section 168. The temporary regulations also amend the general asset account regulations. The temporary regulations will affect all taxpayers that acquire, produce, or improve tangible property. The text of the temporary regulations published in the Federal Regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations. This document also provides notice of public hearing on these proposed regulations and withdraws the proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on March 10, 2008 (73 FR 47).

Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) transferred rulemaking authority for a number of consumer financial protection laws from seven Federal agencies to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) as of July 21, 2011. The Bureau is in the process of republishing the regulations implementing those laws with technical and conforming changes to reflect the transfer of authority and certain other changes made by the Dodd-Frank Act. In light of the transfer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System's (Board's) rulemaking authority for the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) to the Bureau, the Bureau is publishing for public comment an interim final rule establishing a new Regulation E (Electronic Fund Transfers). This interim final rule does not impose any new substantive obligations on persons subject to the existing Regulation E, previously published by the Board.

The Coast Guard announces the availability of Policy Letter 11-15, which describes steps the Coast Guard is taking to implement a statutory change in mariner credentialing requirements. This policy letter details how the Coast Guard is relaxing its Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) enforcement posture for mariners who serve on board vessels that are not required to have a vessel security plan. It also describes policy changes to allow these mariners to acquire and renew a Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) without holding a valid TWIC.