2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is publishing its semiannual agenda of upcoming activities for Federal regulations, OMB Circulars, Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Policy Letters, and Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) Cost Accounting Standards. OMB Circulars and OFPP Policy Letters are published in accordance with OMB's internal procedures for implementing Executive Order No. 12866 (October 4, 1993, 58 FR 51735). OMB policy guidelines are issued under authority derived from several sources including: Subtitles I, II, and V of Title 31, United States Code; Executive Order No. 11541; and other specific authority as cited. OMB Circulars and OFPP Policy Letters communicate guidance and instructions of a continuing nature to executive branch agencies. As such, most OMB Circulars and OFPP Policy Letters are not regulations. Nonetheless, because these issuances are typically of public interest, they are generally published in the Federal Register in both proposed (for public comment) and final stages. For this reason, they are presented below in the standard format of ``prerule,'' ``proposed rule,'' and ``final rule'' stages. CASB Cost Accounting Standards are issued under authority derived from 41 U.S.C. 1501. Cost Accounting Standards are rules governing the measurement, assignment, and allocation of costs to contracts with the United States Government. For purposes of this agenda, we have excluded directives that outline procedures to be followed in connection with the President's budget and legislative programs and directives that affect only the internal functions, management, or personnel of Federal agencies.

EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District (SBAPCD), Sacramento Municipal Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from solvent cleaning machines and solvent cleaning operations and oil and gas production wells. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

The proposed rule published in the Federal Register on September 16, 2011 (76 FR 57681) announced Agricultural Research Service intent to seek comments on renewing the National Agricultural Library's regulation to increase the interlibrary loan fees. This document corrects the RIN number.

In 1993, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules pertaining to carriage of video programming vendors by multichannel video programming distributors (``MVPDs''), known as the ``program carriage rules.'' The rules are intended to benefit consumers by promoting competition and diversity in the video programming and video distribution markets. In this document, the FCC seeks comment on proposed revisions to or clarifications of the program carriage rules, which are intended to further improve the Commission's procedures and to advance the goals of the program carriage statute.

Because EPA has discovered additional information which we believe is pertinent for consideration in this decision, we are withdrawing the proposed rule to grant an exclusion for Republic Services, Inc./BFI Gulf West Landfill (Gulf West) located in Anahuac, TX, published on January 28, 2011. This notice removes the proposed rule published in 76 FR 5110 (January 28, 2011) for public review and comment.

NMFS is prohibiting retention of ``other rockfish'' in the Aleutian Island subarea of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary because the 2011 total allowable catch (TAC) of ``other rockfish'' in the Aleutian Island subarea of the BSAI has been reached.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by non- American Fisheries Act (AFA) crab vessels that are subject to sideboard limits harvesting Pacific cod for processing by the inshore component in the Western Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2011 Pacific cod sideboard limit established for non-AFA crab vessels harvesting Pacific cod for processing by the inshore component in the Western Regulatory Area of the GOA.

The Department of Labor (Department) is postponing the effective date of the Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non- Agricultural Employment H-2B Program; Final Rule, 76 FR 3452, Jan. 19, 2011, (the Wage Rule). The Wage Rule revised the methodology by which we calculate the prevailing wages to be paid to H-2B workers and United States (U.S.) workers recruited in connection with a temporary labor certification for use in petitioning the Department of Homeland Security to employ a nonimmigrant worker in H-2B status. The effective date of the Wage Rule was set at January 1, 2012. However, the Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment H-2B Program; Amendment of Effective Date; Final Rule, 76 FR 45667, August 1, 2011 revised the effective date to September 30, 2011. Due to pending legal challenges, we are postponing the effective date of the Wage Rule to November 30, 2011, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 705.

This document contains corrections to temporary regulations that were published in the Federal Register on Thursday, August 18, 2011. The temporary regulations provide guidance on the annual fee imposed on covered entities engaged in the business of manufacturing or importing branded prescription drugs. This fee was enacted by section 9008 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by section 1404 of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Comments are requested on the proposed Base (1% annual-chance) Flood Elevations (BFEs) and proposed BFE modifications for the communities listed in the table below. The purpose of this proposed rule is to seek general information and comment regarding the proposed regulatory flood elevations for the reach described by the downstream and upstream locations in the table below. The BFEs and modified BFEs are a part of the floodplain management measures that the community is required either to adopt or to show evidence of having in effect in order to qualify or remain qualified for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In addition, these elevations, once finalized, will be used by insurance agents and others to calculate appropriate flood insurance premium rates for new buildings and the contents in those buildings.

The Department of Homeland Security is giving concurrent notice of a newly established system of records pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974 for the ``Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services-015 Electronic Immigration System-2 Account and Case Management System of Records'' and this proposed rulemaking. In this proposed rulemaking, the Department proposes to exempt portions of the system of records from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act because of criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement requirements.

EPA is approving revisions to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP), submitted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to EPA on July 7, 2011. The SIP revision modifies Indiana's Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program to establish appropriate emission thresholds for determining which new stationary sources and modification projects become subject to Indiana's PSD permitting requirements for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EPA proposed approval of these regulatory revisions on June 17, 2011, and received no comments. This action affects major stationary sources in Indiana that have GHG emissions above the thresholds established in the PSD regulations.

OSHA is reopening the rulemaking record to allow interested persons to comment on OSHA's proposal to update Appendix A to Subpart B of its Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting regulation and the proposed requirement to report to OSHA, within eight hours, all work- related fatalities and all work-related in-patient hospitalizations; and within 24 hours, all work-related amputations. The docket is being reopened in response to a request made by the National Automobile Dealers Association. The record will remain open for 30 days.

This final rule incorporates into the regulations governing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) several changes set forth in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFK Act). These provisions address: certification periods for children participating in the WIC Program; increased emphasis on breastfeeding promotion and support; compiling and publishing data for partially and fully breastfed infants; sharing nutrition education materials with institutions participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP); and infant formula (and other foods) rebate management.

In this document, the Commission proposes rules to implement provisions of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (``CVAA'') that mandate rules for closed captioning of certain video programming delivered using Internet protocol (``IP''). The Commission seeks comment on rules that would apply to the distributors, providers, and owners of IP-delivered video programming, as well as the devices that display such programming.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing to amend its regulations governing the employment creation (EB-5) immigrant classification. This rule only proposes requirements and procedures for special determinations on the applications and petitions of qualifying aliens whose employment-creation immigrant petitions were approved by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) after January 1, 1995 and before August 31, 1998. This rule would implement provisions of the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act.

GSA has adopted as final, with two changes, an interim rule amending the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) by adding terms and definitions for ``Dependent'', ``Domestic partner'', and ``Domestic partnership'', and by revising the definition of ``Immediate family'' to include ``Domestic partner'' and children, dependent parents, and dependent brothers and sisters of the Domestic partner as named members of the employee's household. This final rule also adds references to domestic partners and domestic partnerships, where applicable, in the FTR.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is proposing for comment a new rule under the Securities Act of 1933 (``Securities Act'') to implement the prohibition under Section 621 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (``Dodd-Frank Act'') on material conflicts of interest in connection with certain securitizations. Proposed Rule 127B under the Securities Act would prohibit certain persons who create and distribute an asset- backed security, including a synthetic asset-backed security, from engaging in transactions, within one year after the date of the first closing of the sale of the asset-backed security, that would involve or result in a material conflict of interest with respect to any investor in the asset-backed security. The proposed rule also would provide exceptions from this prohibition for certain risk-mitigating hedging activities, liquidity commitments, and bona fide market-making.

The Secretary proposes to amend regulations under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA or Act). These regulations govern the Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities program, including the Preschool Grants program. The Secretary seeks public comment on these proposed amendments regarding the use of public benefits or insurance in which a child participates to provide or pay for services required under Part B of IDEA. Since the Part B regulations were amended in 2006, our experience with implementing the provisions on obtaining parental consent for the use of public benefits or insurance has raised two important issues. First, the current regulations do not require that public agencies inform parents specifically of all of the protections regarding access to public benefits or insurance, including their rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and IDEA confidentiality provisions. Second, State educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) have expressed concerns about the overall costs and administrative burdens imposed by requiring parental consent to access public benefits or insurance, in addition to the parental consent required by FERPA.

In this document, the Commission gives notice of two Petitions for Reconsideration (Petitions) filed in the Commission's rulemaking proceeding concerning Structure and Practices of the Video Relay Service Program, Second Report and Order and Order in CG Docket No. 10- 51 (Second Report and Order), and sets an expedited schedule for filing oppositions and replies. In light of impending deadlines for initial and recertification Video Relay Service (VRS) applications, and to avoid waste, fraud, and abuse in the VRS program, the Commission finds that good cause exists in this instance to alter the comment periods specified in the Commission's rules.

On September 27, 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published an interim final rule (IFR) authorizing the use of a new Federal Drug Testing Custody and Control Form (CCF) in its drug testing program. Use of the form is authorized beginning October 1, 2010. This final rule responds to comments to the IFR and will finalize the authorization and procedures for using the new CCF for DOT-required drug tests. The intended effect of this final rule is to finalize the authority for use of the new CCF and to make a technical amendment to its drug testing procedures by amending a provision of the rule which was inadvertently omitted from a final rule in August 2010. The September 27, 2010 final rule was published under RIN 2105-AE03, however, it was inadvertently shown as a completed action on the Fall 2010 Agenda; this action replaces RIN 2105-AE03.

The Department of the Treasury (``Treasury'' or ``We'') is issuing this proposed rule to solicit public comment on a proposed amendment to the regulations issued under the Government Securities Act of 1986, as amended (``GSA''), to replace references to credit ratings in our rules with alternative requirements. Section 939A of the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 requires Federal agencies to remove from their applicable regulations any reference to or requirement of reliance on credit ratings and to substitute a standard of creditworthiness as the agency determines appropriate for such regulations. In this release Treasury is requesting comment on a substitute standard of creditworthiness for use in the liquid capital rule required by GSA regulations. Separately, we are proposing in this release several non-substantive, technical amendments to Treasury's GSA regulations to update certain information or to delete certain requirements that are no longer applicable.

This document revises the list of vehicles not originally manufactured to conform to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) that NHTSA has decided to be eligible for importation. This list is published in an appendix to the agency's regulations that prescribe procedures for import eligibility decisions. The list has been revised to add all vehicles that NHTSA has decided to be eligible for importation since October 1, 2010, and to remove all previously listed vehicles that are now more than 25 years old and need no longer comply with all applicable FMVSS to be lawfully imported. NHTSA is required by statute to publish this list annually in the Federal Register.

The Coast Guard proposes to change the shape and expand the dimensions of anchorage ``D'' at Newport, Rhode Island, to better accommodate increasing cruise ship visits to Newport and to improve navigation safety.

This proposed action would establish the 2012 harvest specifications and management measures for certain groundfish species taken in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (PCGFMP). This action includes regulations to implement Secretarial Amendment 1 to the PCGFMP. Secretarial Amendment 1 contains the rebuilding plans for overfished species and new reference points for assessed flatfish species.