2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Coast Guard is changing the operating schedule governing the Freeport Drawbridge, mile 46.0, over the Sacramento River. The bridge owner proposed to change the ``on demand'' bridge opening hours and dates, due to a documented decrease in drawbridge openings compared to other nearby bridges. The change is to address the issue of misalignment between drawbridge staffing and actual drawbridge operation, resulting in unnecessary staffing of the drawbridge during periods of navigational inactivity.

On December 10, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') published a document in the Federal Register to amend its regulations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act'') to extend the dates with respect to the requirements that designated clearing agencies for which the Commission is the supervisory agency file advance notices and clearing agencies file security-based swap submissions with the Commission in an electronic format to dedicated email addresses to December 10, 2013, and amend the General Instructions to Form 19b-4 to clarify the process for submitting advance notices and security-based swap submissions to the Commission. The document contained an error with respect to the placement and numbering of a footnote.

We are advising the public that we have determined that the Italian Regions of Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna, Veneto, and Piemonte and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano are free of swine vesicular disease. This determination is based on our review of the documentation submitted by the Government of Italy in support of its request and the findings of our own animal health risk evaluation. We are making our determination, as well as the evaluation we have prepared in connection with this action, available for review and comment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is proposing a rule that addresses an order by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida from February 18, 2012, which remanded to EPA two portions of its numeric water quality standards for nutrients in Florida that were promulgated and published on December 6, 2010. For this proposal, EPA is re-proposing the same numeric nutrient criteria for total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) for Florida streams not covered by EPA-approved State rulemaking, as included in EPA's final rule, with further explanation of how the proposed numeric streams criteria will ensure the protection of the Florida's Class I and III designated uses. EPA is also proposing default approaches available for use when modeling cannot be performed to derive downstream protection values (DPVs) that will ensure the attainment and maintenance of the numeric nutrient criteria that protect Florida's lakes. The default approaches would be applicable to streams that flow into unimpaired lakes, but could also be used for streams that flow into impaired lakes.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of an updated guidance for industry entitled ``What You Need To Know About Registration of Food FacilitiesSmall Entity Compliance Guide.'' FDA has prepared this guidance to restate the legal requirements pertaining to registration of food facilities in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act), as amended by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Previously, this guidance restated the legal requirements of FDA's food facility registration regulation. This document also served as FDA's Small Entity Compliance Guide for FDA's food facility registration regulation in accordance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. FDA is revising this document to provide guidance intended to help any entity comply with the requirements pertaining to registration of food facilities in the FD&C Act, including the amendments made by FSMA. This document continues to serve as FDA's Small Entity Compliance Guide for FDA's food facility registration regulation. Further, this guidance is intended to set forth in plain language the requirements for registration of food facilities and help small businesses understand the requirements.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone around all inbound and outbound grain-shipment vessels involved in commerce with the Columbia Grain facility on the Willamette River in Portland, OR, and the United Grain Corporation facility on the Columbia River in Vancouver, WA while they are located on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. This safety zone extends to waters 500 yards ahead of the vessel and 200 yards abeam and astern of the vessel. This safety zone is being established to ensure that protest activities relating to a labor dispute do not create hazardous navigation conditions for any vessel or other river user in the vicinity of the safety zone.

The Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs the operation of the Norfolk Southern V2.8 Railroad Bridge across the Elizabeth River (Eastern Branch), mile 2.7, at Norfolk, VA. This deviation is necessary to facilitate replacing bearings on the Norfolk Southern V2.8 Railroad Bridge. This temporary deviation will allow the drawbridge to remain in the closed-to-navigation position on specific dates and times.

This rule identifies communities where the sale of flood insurance has been authorized under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that are scheduled for suspension on the effective dates listed within this rule because of noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) receives documentation that the community has adopted the required floodplain management measures prior to the effective suspension date given in this rule, the suspension will not occur and a notice of this will be provided by publication in the Federal Register on a subsequent date. Also, information identifying the current participation status of a community can be obtained from FEMA's Community Status Book (CSB). The CSB is available at https:// www.fema.gov/fema/csb.shtm.

This document contains amendments to temporary regulations relating to guidance regarding deduction and capitalization of expenditures related to tangible property. These amendments change the applicability dates of the temporary regulations to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, while permitting taxpayers to choose to apply the temporary regulations for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2012. The amendments to the temporary regulations will affect all taxpayers that acquire, produce, or improve tangible property.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an information collection requirement regarding General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) clause Modifications (Multiple Award Schedule).

Where appropriate, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is amending its test procedures for residential water heaters, direct heating equipment (DHE), and pool heaters to include provisions for measuring standby mode and off mode energy consumption, as required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007). DOE has concluded that such amendments are necessary for direct heating equipment and pool heaters, but test procedure amendments are not necessary for residential water heaters, because the existing test procedures for those products already address standby mode and off mode energy use. These test procedure amendments are primarily based upon provisions of the latest version of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standard 62301 (Second Edition 2011-01), ``Household electrical appliancesMeasurement of standby power,'' which is incorporated by reference. For direct heating equipment and pool heaters, this final rule also adds new calculations to determine the annual energy consumption associated with product operation in standby mode and off mode, and it modifies the existing energy consumption equations to integrate standby mode and off mode energy consumption into the calculation of overall annual energy consumption of these products. For pool heaters only, the standby mode and off mode energy consumption is integrated into the efficiency metric. This rulemaking also adopts a number of definitions for key terms, as well as clarifies the rounding guidance and sampling provisions for the new measurement of standby mode and off mode.

EPA is approving Indiana's request to revise the South Bend/ Elkhart, Indiana 1997 8-hour ozone maintenance state air quality implementation plan (SIP) by replacing the previously approved motor vehicle emissions budgets (budgets) with budgets developed using EPA's Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) emissions model. EPA proposed approval on October 4, 2012, and did not receive any public comments on the proposal.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation Model GIV-X airplanes. This AD requires performing a modified system power-on self test (SPOST) of the flap/stabilizer electronic control unit (FSECU), and revising the airplane flight manual to incorporate these test procedures into the daily preflight check. This AD was prompted by reports indicating that the FSECU does not detect failures of the brake feature within the horizontal stabilizer electric motor unit (HSEMU), or failures of drive solenoids for hydraulic valves within the flap hydraulic control module (FHCM) during the SPOST. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct such failures, which could result in runaway horizontal stabilizer pitch trim system and consequent loss of pitch control.

EPA is making a technical amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to reflect the Agency's March 1, 2012 final approval of the California State Implementation Plan for attainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards in the San Joaquin Valley. This technical amendment corrects the CFR to properly codify the California Air Resources Board's commitment to update the air quality modeling in the San Joaquin Valley 8-Hour Ozone SIP by December 31, 2014.

The Commission charges fees to designated contract markets and registered futures associations to recover the costs incurred by the Commission in the operation of its program of oversight of self- regulatory organization rule enforcement programs, specifically National Futures Association, a registered futures association, and the designated contract markets. The calculation of the fee amounts charged for FY 2012 by this notice is based upon an average of actual program costs incurred during FY 2009, 2010, and 2011.

NMFS implements accountability measures (AMs) for the commercial sector for Atlantic wahoo (wahoo) in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Atlantic states (Maine through the east coast of Florida). Commercial landings for wahoo, as estimated by the Science and Research Director, are projected to reach the commercial annual catch limit (ACL) on December 19, 2012. Therefore, NMFS closes the commercial sector for wahoo on December 19, 2012, for the remainder of the 2012 fishing year, through December 31, 2012. This action is necessary to protect the Atlantic wahoo resource.

This final rule amends the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulation on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single- Employer Plans to prescribe interest assumptions under the regulation for valuation dates in January 2013. The interest assumptions are used for paying benefits under terminating single-employer plans covered by the pension insurance system administered by PBGC. As discussed below, PBGC will publish a separate final rule document dealing with interest assumptions under its regulation on Allocation of Assets in Single- Employer Plans for the first quarter of 2013.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is amending the Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation (DEAR) to conform to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), remove out-of date government property coverage, and update references. This rule does not alter substantive rights or obligations under current law.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is issuing a final rule to abolish the Washington, DC, Federal Wage System (FWS) special wage schedule for printing and lithographic positions. Printing and lithographic employees in the Washington, DC, wage area will now be paid from the regular Washington, DC, appropriated fund FWS wage schedule. This change is necessary because Federal employment in printing and lithographic occupations in the Washington, DC, wage area has declined sharply in recent years, and a separate wage schedule is no longer viable or beneficial to employees.

On September 19, 2012, the Federal Register published a direct final rule and a companion proposed rule issuing listings for three fire suppressants under EPA's Significant New Alternatives Policy program. Because EPA received adverse comment concerning C7 Fluoroketone, we are withdrawing that part of the direct final rule that listed C7 Fluoroketone acceptable subject to narrowed use limits as a substitute for halon 1211. Other listings in that direct final rule will take effect on December 18, 2012.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to temporarily stay our regulation the ``Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Lakes and Flowing Waters; Final Rule'' (inland waters rule) to November 15, 2013. EPA's inland waters rule currently includes an effective date of January 6, 2013, for the entire regulation except for the site-specific alternative criteria provision, which took effect on February 4, 2011. This proposed stay of its regulations is until November 15, 2013, does not affect or change the February 4, 2011, effective date for the site-specific alternative criteria provision.

EPA is partially approving and partially disapproving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Utah on May 26, 2011 that addresses regional haze. EPA is also approving specific sections of a State of Utah SIP revision submitted on September 9, 2008 to address regional haze. These SIP revisions were submitted to address the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and our rules that require states to prevent any future and remedy any existing man-made impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program''). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is taking this action pursuant to section 110 of the CAA.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) is amending its certifications and exemptions under the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (72 COLREGS), to reflect that the Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (DAJAG) (Admiralty and Maritime Law) has determined that USS CORONADO (LCS 4) is a vessel of the Navy which, due to its special construction and purpose, cannot fully comply with certain provisions of the 72 COLREGS without interfering with its special function as a naval ship. The intended effect of this rule is to warn mariners in waters where 72 COLREGS apply.

This regulation extends time-limited tolerances for the pesticides listed in this document. These actions are in response to EPA's granting of emergency exemptions under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizing use of these pesticides. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) requires EPA to establish a time-limited tolerance or exemption from the requirement for a tolerance for pesticide chemical residues in food that will result from the use of a pesticide under an emergency exemption granted by EPA.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) submitted Amendment 41 to the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/ Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs (FMP) to NMFS for review. If approved, Amendment 41 would amend the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization Program (CR program) by establishing a process for eligible harvesters, processors, and affected communities to request an exemption from regional delivery requirements. Federal regulations require that crab harvested with regionally designated individual fishing quota (IFQ) be landed within the designated region; likewise, crab purchased with regionally designated individual processing quota (IPQ) must be processed within the designated region. Natural and man- made situations can disrupt fishing and processing activity making regional delivery requirements untenable in some seasons. Amendment 41 is necessary to prevent disruption to the CR Program fisheries, while providing for the sustained participation of the communities intended to benefit from the regional delivery requirements. This proposed action is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the FMP, and other applicable laws.