July 7, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Based on request from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, NMFS proposes to lift the closure area referred to as the Northern Temporary Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Closed Area for bivalve harvesting. NMFS takes this action because this area has not been subject to a toxic algal bloom for several years and testing of bivalve shellfish has demonstrated toxin levels well below those known to cause human illness. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has developed an agreement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to conduct paralytic shellfish poisoning monitoring of bivalves from the area in accordance with currently accepted paralytic shellfish poisoning testing procedures.

The FAA proposes to amend certain airworthiness regulations for transport category airplanes by upgrading fire safety standards for one type of cargo compartment; establishing fire safety standards for a new type of cargo compartment; and updating related standards for fire extinguishers. The proposed rules are based on recommendations from the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and they address designs for which airworthiness directives have been issued by both the FAA and the French civil aviation authority, Direction G[eacute]n[eacute]rale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC). Adopting these proposals would eliminate regulatory differences between the airworthiness standards of the U.S. and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), without affecting current industry design practices. These proposed changes would ensure an acceptable level of safety for these types of cargo compartments by standardizing certain requirements, concepts, and procedures.

Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Surface Transportation Board has obtained OMB approval for the collection of information adopted by the Board in Demurrage Liability, STB Ex Parte No. 707 (STB served April 14, 2014).

This proposed rule would update the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) rates, including the national, standardized 60- day episode payment rates, the national per-visit rates, and the non- routine medical supply (NRS) conversion factor under the Medicare prospective payment system for home health agencies (HHAs), effective January 1, 2015. As required by the Affordable Care Act, this rule implements the second year of the four-year phase-in of the rebasing adjustments to the HH PPS payment rates. This rule provides information on our efforts to monitor the potential impacts of the rebasing adjustments and the Affordable Care Act mandated face-to-face encounter requirement. This rule also proposes: Changes to simplify the face-to- face encounter regulatory requirements; changes to the HH PPS case-mix weights; changes to the home health quality reporting program requirements; changes to simplify the therapy reassessment timeframes; a revision to the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) personnel qualifications; minor technical regulations text changes; and limitations on the reviewability of the civil monetary penalty provisions. Finally, this proposed rule also discusses Medicare coverage of insulin injections under the HH PPS, the delay in the implementation of ICD-10-CM, and solicits comments on a HH value-based purchasing (HH VBP) model.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve revisions to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from aerospace assembly and component manufacturing and marine coating operations. We are proposing to approve local rules to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

This final rule makes non-substantive changes throughout Title 33 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The purpose of this final rule is to make conforming amendments and technical corrections to Coast Guard navigation and navigable waters regulations. These changes will have no substantive effect on the regulated public.