September 30, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS suspends the minimum size limit for Atlantic surfclams for the 2015 fishing year. NMFS also announces that the quotas for the Atlantic surfclam and ocean quahog fisheries for 2015 will remain status quo. Regulations governing these fisheries require NMFS to notify the public in the Federal Register of the allowable harvest levels for Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs from the Exclusive Economic Zone if the previous year's quota specifications remain unchanged.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to remove the Safeguards InformationModified Handling (SGI-M) designation of the security-related information for large irradiators, manufacturers and distributors, and for transport of category 1 quantities of radioactive material. The rulemaking will also result in the removal of the SGI-M designation of the security-related information for the transportation of irradiated reactor fuel that weighs 100 grams or less in net weight of irradiated fuel. The security-related information for these facilities and the transportation of certain materials will no longer be designated as SGI-M and will be protected under the information protection requirements that apply to other materials licensees that possess category 1 and category 2 quantities of radioactive material.

The Coast Guard published a final rule in the Federal Register on July 7, 2014, making non-substantive corrections throughout Title 33 of the Code of Federal Regulations. In that final rule, the Coast Guard revised a paragraph because it duplicated the substance of another paragraph within the same section of an existing regulation. In correcting that error, the Coast Guard inadvertently removed four paragraphs from its regulations. This correction resolves that error by replacing the four paragraphs that we inadvertently removed.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is adopting, as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that changed the minimum grade requirements prescribed under the marketing order for oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and tangelos grown in Florida (order). The interim rule reduced the minimum grade requirement for Valencia and other late type oranges shipped to interstate markets from a U.S. No. 1 to a U.S. No. 1 Golden from May 15 through June 14 each season and to a U.S. No.2 external/U.S. No. 1 internal from June 15 through August 31 each season. This rule provides additional Valencia and other late type oranges for late season markets, helping to maximize fresh shipments.

The Commission proposes to approve Communications Reliability Standard COM-001-2 and Operating Personnel Communications Protocols Reliability Standard COM-002-4, developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which the Commission has certified as the Electric Reliability Organization responsible for developing and enforcing mandatory Reliability Standards. The Commission believes that the proposed Reliability Standards will enhance reliability over the currently-effective COM standards in several respects by, among other things, requiring adoption of predefined communication protocols, annual assessment of those protocols and operating personnel's adherence thereto, training on the protocols, and use of three-part communications. However, the Commission proposes to direct NERC to modify proposed Reliability Standard COM-001-2 to include internal communications capabilities.

The Coast Guard published a final rule in the Federal Register on September 22, 2014, which removes references to type codes in its regulations on the carriage and labeling of Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices. Two extra characters were included in the phone number for the Coast Guard person to contact for more information about that rule. This document corrects that phone number.

This document corrects the preamble to a proposed rule published in the Federal Register of September 12, 2014, requesting the substitution of channel 11 for channel 21 at Mount Vernon, Illinois. This correction clarifies that the proposed rule applies prospectively to plans submitted for approval from the effective date for the final rule.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposes to amend existing regulations to facilitate responsible solar and wind energy development and to receive fair market value for such development. The proposed rule would promote the use of preferred areas for solar and wind energy development and establish competitive processes, terms, and conditions (including rental and bonding requirements) for solar and wind energy development rights-of-way both inside and outside these preferred areas. In the proposed rule, preferred areas for solar and wind energy development would be called ``designated leasing areas.'' The proposed rule would also make technical changes, corrections, and clarifications to existing rights-of-way regulations. Some of these changes would affect all rights-of-way and some provisions would affect particular types of actions, such as transmission lines with a capacity of 100 Kilovolts (kV) or more, or pipelines 10 inches or more in diameter.

This final rule creates an exception to the usual rule that TRICARE Prime enrollment fees are uniform for all retirees and their dependents and responds to public comments received to the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on June 7, 2013. Survivors of Active Duty Deceased Sponsors and Medically Retired Uniformed Services Members and their Dependents are part of the retiree group under TRICARE rules. In acknowledgment and appreciation of the sacrifices of these two beneficiary categories, the Secretary of Defense has elected to exercise his authority under the United States Code to exempt Active Duty Deceased Sponsors and Medically Retired Uniformed Services Members and their Dependents enrolled in TRICARE Prime from paying future increases to the TRICARE Prime annual enrollment fees. The Prime beneficiaries in these categories have made significant sacrifices for our country and are entitled to special recognition and benefits for their sacrifices. Therefore, the beneficiaries in these two TRICARE beneficiary categories who enrolled in TRICARE Prime prior to 10/1/ 2013, and those since that date, will have their annual enrollment fee frozen at the appropriate fiscal year rate: FY2011 rate $230 per single or $460 per family, FY2012 rate $260 or $520, FY2013 rate $269.38 or $538.56, or the FY2014 rate $273.84 or $547.68. The future beneficiaries added to these categories will have their fee frozen at the rate in effect at the time they are classified in either category and enroll in TRICARE Prime or, if not enrolling, at the rate in effect at the time of enrollment. The fee remains frozen as long as at least one family member remains enrolled in TRICARE Prime and there is not a break in enrollment. The fee charged for the dependent(s) of a Medically Retired Uniformed Services Member would not change if the dependent(s) was later re-classified a Survivor.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), as amended, prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including small, large, and very large air-cooled commercial package air conditioning and heating equipment. EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to determine whether more-stringent, amended standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would save a significant amount of energy. In this document, DOE proposes to amend the energy conservation standards for small, large, and very large air-cooled commercial package air conditioning and heating equipment. This document also announces a public meeting to receive comment on these proposed standards and associated analyses and results.

DoD is issuing a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to incorporate into the DFARS policies and procedures concerning payment for contracts for performance in Afghanistan.

DoD has adopted as final, with changes, an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement section 811 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, which prohibits DoD from entering into cost-type contracts for production of major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs). In implementing section 811 of the NDAA for FY 2013, DoD further defined the prohibition on entering into cost-type contracts to explicitly state the prohibition also applies to entering into cost- reimbursement line items for the production of MDAPs.

DoD is issuing a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to conform with statute, amend the clause prescriptions, and update the basic and alternate clause for the prohibition on storage, treatment, and disposal of toxic or hazardous materials.