November 13, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS and the Treasury Department are issuing a temporary regulation modifying the regulations governing the IRS Balanced System for Measuring Organizational and Employee Performance. The section being modified, Employee satisfaction measures, collects information from employees to measure and report on employee satisfaction. The temporary regulation provides for the reporting of this information to a higher agency level, to be consistent with other government-wide employee satisfaction surveys. The text of the temporary regulation serves as the text of the proposed regulation.

The SBA is issuing this notice to announce the location, date, time, and agenda for the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs. The meeting will be open to the public.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, and the President's 2004 U.S. Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Policy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and an evaluation per 49 U.S.C. 303 and 23 CFR part 774 (``Section 4(f)'') for MARTA's I-20 East Heavy Rail Transit (HRT) Extension project, which would extend the existing Blue Line from the Indian Creek MARTA Station to the Mall at Stonecrest in eastern DeKalb County. The EIS and Section 4(f) Evaluation will be prepared in accordance with regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Section 4(f), as well as FTA's regulations and guidance implementing NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500 through 1508 and 23 CFR 771.105). The extension of the existing MARTA Blue Line HRT was selected as a component of a multimodal Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) resulting from the I-20 East Transit Initiative Detailed Corridor Analysis (DCA) completed in April 2012. The LPA also includes new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service along I-20 between downtown Atlanta and a new station at Wesley Chapel Road, east of I-285 in DeKalb County. The NEPA analysis for the BRT project is being advanced separately in an Environmental Assessment (EA). The FTA originally published a NOI to perform federal environmental review for the entire I-20 East Transit Initiative LPA on August 28, 2012 (77 FR 52128). Project scoping activities for the I-20 East Transit Initiative LPA occurred in September 2012. In today's issue of the Federal Register, FTA is rescinding the August 28, 2012 NOI and issuing this notice to advise interested agencies and the public regarding updates to the Purpose and Need of the LPA that have occurred since the scoping activities. Specifically, the Purpose and Need for both the HRT Extension project and the BRT project have been revised to reflect their distinct and independent utility. The revised Purpose and Need for the HRT Extension project is presented later in this Notice.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3521), this notice announces that the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The PRA submission describes the nature of the information collection and its expected cost and burden; it includes the actual data collection instrument.

This document corrects a misspelling in the regulatory language of our final rulemaking published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 10, 2014, titled Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Genitourinary Disorders.

This document contains final regulations that provide guidance on the recovery of overpayments of arbitrage rebate on tax-exempt bonds and other tax-advantaged bonds. These final regulations provide the deadline for filing a claim for an arbitrage rebate overpayment and certain other rules. These final regulations affect issuers of tax- exempt and tax-advantaged bonds.

DOT is announcing the availability of guidance implementing Section 1319 of MAP-21, on Accelerated Decisionmaking in Environmental Reviews. This section of MAP-21 provides for the use of errata sheets on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, in lieu of a Final EIS (FEIS), when the EIS has limited or factual changes. It also states that the lead agency under NEPA shall issue a combined FEIS and ROD unless circumstances exist to make it impracticable. This eliminates the 30-day wait period between the release of the FEIS and ROD. This guidance builds on the interim guidance that was released by FHWA and FTA in January 2013, but applies to the entire Department. The FHWA and FTA interim guidance is retained as a supplemental appendix specific to those agencies. The guidance is available at https://www.dot.gov/office- policy/transportation-policy/guidance-accelerated-decision-ma king- environmental-reviews.

We are superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2012-26-16 for all PILATUS AIRCRAFT LTD. Models PC-12, PC-12/45, PC-12/47, and PC-12/ 47E airplanes. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) issued by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as a need to incorporate new revisions into the Limitations section, Chapter 4, of the FAA-approved maintenance program (e.g., maintenance manual). We are issuing this AD to require actions to address the unsafe condition on these products.

DoD is making technical amendments to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to provide needed editorial changes.

We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), issue a final rule to designate critical habitat for three species of rockfish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA): the threatened yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) Distinct Population Segment (DPS), the threatened canary rockfish (S. pinniger) DPS, and the endangered bocaccio (S. paucispinus) DPS (listed rockfish) pursuant to section 4 of the ESA. The specific areas in the final designation include 590.4 square miles (1529 square km) of nearshore habitat for canary rockfish and bocaccio, and 414.1 square miles (1072.5 square km) of deepwater habitat for yelloweye rockfish, canary rockfish and bocaccio. This final designation represents a reduction of approximately 15.2 percent (180.3 sq mi, 467 sq km) for canary rockfish and bocaccio, and a reduction of approximately 28 percent (160 sq mi, 416.2 sq km) for yelloweye rockfish, compared to our proposed critical habitat rule on August 6, 2013 (78 FR 47635). We exclude some particular areas from designation because the benefits of exclusion outweigh the benefits of inclusion and exclusion of those areas will not result in the extinction of the species. No areas were excluded based on economic impacts. This final rule responds to and incorporates public comments received on the proposed rule and supporting documents, as well as peer reviewer comments received on our draft biological report.

This major final rule with comment period addresses changes to the physician fee schedule, and other Medicare Part B payment policies to ensure that our payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the relative value of services, as well as changes in the statute. See the Table of Contents for a listing of the specific issues addressed in this rule.