November 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

A notice was published in the Federal Register of Friday, October 26, 2012, Vol. 77, No. 208, to announce the intent to establish the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and solicit nominations of individuals who are interested in being appointed to the Committee membership. This notice is being amended to extend the solicitation period to allow additional time for nominations to be received. The new due date for all nominations to be received is no later than close of business on December 11, 2012.

This rule increases the rail equipment accident/incident reporting threshold from $9,500 to $9,900 for certain railroad accidents/incidents involving property damage that occur during calendar year 2013. This action is needed to ensure that FRA's reporting requirements reflect cost increases that have occurred since the reporting threshold was last published in November of 2011.

The SBA is issuing this notice to announce the location, date, time, and agenda for its public meeting of the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development. The meeting will be open to the public.

Pursuant to Section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 as implemented by the Council on Environmental Quality regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and Public Law 102-484 Section 2834, as amended by Public Law 104-106 Section 2867, the Department of the Army hereby gives notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the subject Flood Risk Management Study. The Buffalo District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will be the lead agency in preparing the EIS. The EIS will consider Federal actions associated with the proposed Flood Risk Management Study in the Blanchard River Watershed including the communities of the City of Findlay in Hancock County and the Village of Ottawa in Putnam County, OH. More specifically, this document will discuss measures to improve flood risk management, navigation, water quality, recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat in a comprehensive manner in the Blanchard River Watershed, Ohio. The overall goal of the study is to reduce flood risk by saving lives and minimizing property damage in the event of floods in Findlay and Ottawa, Ohio. The plan will consider a range of structural and nonstructural measures that may be used for flood risk management in the Blanchard River Watershed.

The inventions listed below are assigned to the United States Government as represented by the Secretary of the Army. The US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center intends to license these inventions on a partially-exclusive basis to Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions, Inc, a California Corporation with principal offices at, 47300 Landing Parkway, Fremont, CA 94538. The inventions to be licensed collectively enable a Tactical Biological Detector (TAC-BIO), and are disclosed in U.S. Patent 6,967,338 Application Serial No10/720877 filed 11/24/2003, issued 11/22/2005 and entitled ``Micro UV particle detector,'' U.S. Patent 7,375,348 Application Serial No 11/268758 filed 11/03/2005, issued 05/20/2008 and entitled ``Micro UV detector,'' U.S. Patent 7,567,391 Application Serial No 11/748817 filed 05/15/2007, issued 07/ 28/2009 and entitled ``Radiation source with self-aligning optics,'' U.S. Patent 7,852,469 Application Serial No 11/867190 filed 10/04/2007, issued 12/14/2010 and entitled ``Particle detector,'' DAM 689-08 Application Serial No.12/380,366 filed 02/26/2009 and entitled ``Photon counting based particle detection method and apparatus.''

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is correcting a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register of October 26, 2012. The document announces the effective date of rules containing information collection requirements approved by the Office of Management and Budget that were adopted to help consumers prevent and detect the placement of unauthorized charges on their telephone bills, an unlawful and fraudulent practice commonly referred to as ``cramming.''

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for use to assist the homeless.

During a review of Texas' regulations, the EPA identified a variety of State-initiated changes to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). We have determined that these changes are minor and satisfy all requirements needed to qualify for Final authorization and are authorizing the State-initiated changes through this Direct Final action. The Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended, commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to authorize States to operate their hazardous waste management programs in lieu of the Federal program. The EPA uses the regulations entitled ``Approved State Hazardous Waste Management Programs'' to provide notice of the authorization status of State programs and to incorporate by reference those provisions of the State statutes and regulations that will be subject to the EPA's inspection and enforcement. The rule codifies in the regulations the prior approval of Texas' hazardous waste management program and incorporates by reference authorized provisions of the State's statutes and regulations.

Many of the Coast Guard's regulations incorporate industry standards. The Coast Guard is reviewing these regulations to determine whether they contain outdated standards and, if so, whether and how these regulations should be updated to incorporate more current standards. We request comments from the public on which current industry standards should be incorporated, which currently incorporated standards are outdated, and how the Coast Guard should ensure incorporated standards are kept current.

This rule amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding two persons to the Entity List and revising one existing entry. The persons who are added to the Entity List have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These persons will be listed on the Entity List under one destination. The two entries added to the Entity List consist of two entries in Pakistan. This rule is also revising one existing entry in the U.A.E. to clarify the scope of the entry by providing an additional alias and alternate address for this listed person. The Entity List notifies the public that certain exports, reexports, and transfers (in-country) of items subject to the EAR to entities identified on the Entity List require licenses from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and that in most instances license exceptions are unavailable for such transactions. BIS usually applies a license review policy of denial because it considers such entities to present significant risks of diversion to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, terrorism, or other activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests. By publicly listing such entities, BIS seeks to assist legitimate exporters, reexporters and transferors, and other parties participating in transactions that are subject to the EAR by providing them with information to detect and avoid high risk transactions with those entities, which in most cases means any transaction that involves items that are subject to the EAR.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ORD publishes this Request for Information (RFI) to solicit interest in forming public- private collaborations to develop new pharmacological treatments for PTSD. ORD is interested in developing collaborations with organizations that are interested in pursuing clinical trials specifically focused on PTSD. Such research would be detailed through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) under the authority of the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (FTTA), Public Law 99-502, codified as amended in scattered sections of title 15, United States Code (U.S.C.). The CRADA will delineate the collaboration for PTSD treatment intended to test new drugs to benefit Veterans.

On October 1, 2012, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') initiated the sunset review of the antidumping duty order on folding metal tables and chairs from the People's Republic of China (``PRC''). Because the domestic interested parties did not participate in this sunset review, the Department is revoking this antidumping duty order.

Pursuant to section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of the 2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria (RWQC). The document contains the EPA's recreational water quality criteria recommendations for protecting human health in ambient waters that are designated for primary contact recreation. CWA Section 304(a) water quality criteria recommendations are intended as guidance to States and authorized Tribes in developing water quality standards. The 2012 RWQC document describes the relevant scientific findings, explains how these findings were used to derive criteria for two indicators of fecal contamination (enterrococcus and E. coli) as measured by culture based test methods. On December 21, 2011, EPA made available draft national recommended recreational water quality criteria (2011 Draft RWQC) and provided the public an opportunity to provide scientific views. The 2012 RWQC differs from the current 1986 Ambient Water Quality Criteria in the following ways: the EPA recommends States use one of two sets of criteria values, and no longer recommends multiple ``use intensity'' values; the RWQC consist of both a geometric mean (GM) and a Statistical Threshold Value (STV); the RWQC are now comprised of a magnitude, a duration, and frequency of excursion for the GM and STV; the EPA introduces a rapid analytical technique for beach monitoring, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), for the detection of enterococci in recreational water (EPA Method 1611; the EPA provides information on tools for evaluating and managing recreational waters, such as predictive modeling; the EPA is providing a beach action value for use in beach notification programs; and the EPA is providing tools for developing site-specific criteria. The CWA, as amended by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000, directed the EPA to conduct studies associated with pathogens and human health under section 104(v), and to publish new or revised criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators based on those studies under section 304(a)(9). The criteria announced today are the new or revised criteria that EPA is directed to publish under section 304(a)(9) of the CWA, as amended by the BEACH Act.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the Agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA), Federal Agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments regarding the requirement for the use of constituent materials in licensed biological products.

On November 30, 2012, the Department of Labor (DOL) will submit the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) sponsored information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Distribution of Characteristics of the Insured Unemployed,'' to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval for use in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (5 U.S.C. Appendix), 41 CFR 102-3.55, and the Government in the Sunshine Act of 1976 (5 U.S.C. 552b), effective October 5, 2012, the Department of Defense gives notice that it is terminating the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel.

The Department of the Air Force proposes to alter a system of records notice to its existing inventory of records systems subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended.

The Retirement Services, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) offers the general public and other federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a revised information collection request (ICR) 3206-0099, Initial Certification of Full-Time School Attendance. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35) as amended by the Clinger-Cohen Act (Pub. L. 104-106), OPM is soliciting comments for this collection. The information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on June 4, 2012 at Volume 77 FR 33007 allowing for a 60-day public comment period. No comments were received for this information collection. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments. The Office of Management and Budget is particularly interested in comments that: 1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; 2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; 3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses.

The Retirement Services, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) offers the general public and other federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a revised information collection request (ICR) 3206-0140, Representative Payee Application (RI 20-7) and Information Necessary for a Competency Determination (RI 30-3). As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35) as amended by the Clinger-Cohen Act (Pub. L. 104-106), OPM is soliciting comments for this collection. The Office of Management and Budget is particularly interested in comments that: 1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; 2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; 3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses.