2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are reopening the comment period for our proposed rule that would amend our regulations governing the importation and interstate movement of fruits and vegetables by broadening our existing performance standard to provide for approval of all new fruits and vegetables for importation or interstate movement into or within the United States using a notice-based process. This action will allow interested persons additional time to prepare and submit comments.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 to include in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), to the extent practicable, identification of any immediate owner or subsidiary, and all predecessors of an offeror that held a Federal contract or grant within the last three years. The objective is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the performance and integrity of the corporation before awarding a Federal contract.

On December 12, 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'') published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking (the ``Position Limits Proposal'') to establish speculative position limits for 28 exempt and agricultural commodity futures and options contracts and the physical commodity swaps that are economically equivalent to such contracts. On November 15, 2013, the Commission published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking (the ``Aggregation Proposal'') to amend existing regulations setting out the Commission's policy for aggregation under its position limits regime. The Commission's Agricultural Advisory Committee has scheduled a public meeting to be held on December 9, 2014, which will consider, among other matters, deliverable supply and exemptions for bona fide hedging positions. To provide commenters with a sufficient period of time to respond to questions raised and points made at the Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting, the Commission is reopening the comment periods for an additional 45 days. Comments should be limited to the following issues as they pertain to agricultural commodities: Hedges of a physical commodity by a commercial enterprise; and the process for estimating deliverable supplies used in the setting of spot month limits.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, invite the public to comment on the following applications to conduct certain activities with endangered species, marine mammals, or both. With some exceptions, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) prohibit activities with listed species unless Federal authorization is acquired that allows such activities.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an forwarding Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Our ICR describes the information we seek to collect from the public. Review and approval by OIRA ensures that we impose appropriate paperwork burdens. The RRB invites comments on the proposed collections of information to determine (1) the practical utility of the collections; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden of the collections; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information that is the subject of collection; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of collections on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Comments to the RRB or OIRA must contain the OMB control number of the ICR. For proper consideration of your comments, it is best if the RRB and OIRA receive them within 30 days of the publication date. 1. Title and purpose of information collection: Student Beneficiary Monitoring; OMB 3220-0123. Under provisions of the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), there are two types of benefit payments that are based on the status of a child being in full-time elementary or secondary school attendance at age 18- 19: a survivor child's annuity benefit under Section 2(d)(1)(iii) and an increase in the employee retirement annuity under the Special Guaranty computation as prescribed in section 3(f)(2) and 20 CFR 229. The survivor student annuity is usually paid by direct deposit to a financial institution either into the student's checking or savings account or into a joint bank account with a parent. The requirements for eligibility as a student are prescribed in 20 CFR 216.74, and include students in independent study and home schooling. To help determine if a child is entitled to student benefits, the RRB requires evidence of full-time school attendance. This evidence is acquired through the RRB's student monitoring program, which utilizes the following forms. Form G-315, Student Questionnaire, obtains certification of a student's full-time school attendance as well as information on the student's marital status, social security benefits, and employment, which are needed to determine entitlement or continued entitlement to benefits under the RRA. Form G-315A, Statement of School Official, is used to obtain, from a school, verification of a student's full-time attendance when the student fails to return a monitoring Form G-315. Form G-315A.1, School Official's Notice of Cessation of Full- Time School Attendance, is used by a school to notify the RRB that a student has ceased full-time school attendance. Previous Requests for Comments: The RRB has already published the initial 60-day notice (79 FR 57988 on September 26, 2014) required by 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2). That request elicited no comments.

On October 31, 2014, we published in the Federal Register final regulations for Program Integrity: Gainful Employment (Gainful Employment rule). This document corrects regulatory text, footnotes, and a chart in the Gainful Employment rule.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulations governing the content and format of the ``Pregnancy,'' ``Labor and delivery,'' and ``Nursing mothers'' subsections of the ``Use in Specific Populations'' section of the labeling for human prescription drug and biological products. The final rule requires the removal of the pregnancy categories A, B, C, D, and X from all human prescription drug and biological product labeling. For human prescription drug and biological products subject to the Agency's 2006 Physician Labeling Rule, the final rule requires that the labeling include a summary of the risks of using a drug during pregnancy and lactation, a discussion of the data supporting that summary, and relevant information to help health care providers make prescribing decisions and counsel women about the use of drugs during pregnancy and lactation. The final rule eliminates the ``Labor and delivery'' subsection because information about labor and delivery is included in the ``Pregnancy'' subsection. The final rule requires that the labeling include relevant information about pregnancy testing, contraception, and infertility for health care providers prescribing for females and males of reproductive potential. The final rule creates a consistent format for providing information about the risks and benefits of prescription drug and/or biological product use during pregnancy and lactation and by females and males of reproductive potential. These revisions will facilitate prescriber counseling for these populations.

The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is issuing this final rule to revoke the designation of one departmental component of one agency and designate a new bureau as a departmental component for purposes of the one-year post-employment conflict of interest restriction in the United States Code; to revoke the designation of two departmental components of another agency and designate their successor bureau as a departmental component; to change the name of an existing departmental component; and to revoke the designation of a departmental component that was abolished.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies is providing notice that it will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, December 17, 2014, in Multi-Purpose Room LL-006 at the Commission's headquarters, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. (EST) and will be open to the public, except for a period of approximately 90 minutes when the Committee will meet in an administrative work session during lunch. The public portions of the meeting will be Webcast on the Commission's Web site at www.sec.gov. Persons needing special accommodations to take part because of a disability should notify the contact person listed below. The public is invited to submit written statements to the Committee. The agenda for the meeting includes matters relating to rules and regulations affecting small and emerging companies under the federal securities laws.

We are proposing to amend the regulations governing the importation of plants and plant products to add orchid plants of the genus Oncidium from Taiwan to the list of plants that may be imported into the United States in an approved growing medium, subject to specified growing, inspection, and certification requirements. We are taking this action in response to a request from the Taiwanese Government and after determining that the plants could be imported, under certain conditions, without resulting in the introduction into, or the dissemination within, the United States of a plant pest or noxious weed.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will begin to accept requests, from December 8, 2014 through January 31, 2015, for grants to supplement State and Tribal Response Programs. This notice provides guidance on eligibility for funding, use of funding, grant mechanisms and process for awarding funding, the allocation system for distribution of funding, and terms and reporting under these grants. EPA has consulted with state and tribal officials in developing this guidance. The primary goal of this funding is to ensure that state and tribal response programs include, or are taking reasonable steps to include, certain elements and a public record. Another goal is to provide funding for other activities that increase the number of response actions conducted or overseen by a state or tribal response program. This funding is not intended to supplant current state or tribal funding for their response programs. Instead, it is to supplement their funding to increase their response capacity. For fiscal year 2015, EPA will consider funding requests up to a maximum of $1.0 million per state or tribe. Subject to the availability of funds, EPA regional personnel will be available to provide technical assistance to states and tribes as they apply for and carry out these grants.

The Department of Commerce (the ``Department'') published the Preliminary Results of the fourth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain steel threaded rod from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') on May 28, 2014.\1\ We gave interested parties an opportunity to comment on the Preliminary Results. Based upon our analysis of the comments and information received, we made changes to the margin calculations for these final results. The final dumping margins are listed below in the ``Final Results of Administrative Review'' section of this notice. The period of review (``POR'') is April 1, 2012, through March 31, 2013.

The Department of Commerce (``Department'') published its Preliminary Rescission for the new shipper review (``NSR'') of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen fish fillets from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (``Vietnam'') on July 14, 2014.\1\ The period of review (``POR'') is August 1, 2012, through July 31, 2013. As discussed below, we preliminarily found that Thanh Hung Co., Ltd. D/B/A Thanh Hung Frozen Seafood Processing Import Export Co., Ltd.'s (``Thanh Hung'') sale was non-bona fide, and announced our preliminary intent to rescind Thanh Hung's NSR. For the final results of this review, we continue to find Thanh Hung's sale to be non-bona fide. Therefore, because there were no other shipments or entries by Thanh Hung during the POR, we are rescinding this NSR.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an exemption in response to an August 1, 2014, letter from Duke Energy Progress (DEP), which requested an exemption from certain regulatory requirements that requires DEP to submit an update to the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) included in their combined license (COL) application by December 31, 2014. The NRC staff reviewed this request and determined that it is appropriate to grant the exemption, but stipulated that the update to the FSAR must be submitted prior to, or coincident with the resumption of the COL application review or by December 31, 2015, whichever comes first.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted an information collection request to OMB for extension under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information collection requests a three-year extension of its Davis-Bacon Semi-annual Labor Compliance Report collection. The collection requests information from certain financial assistance grantees, loan guarantee and loan borrowers, and the Department of Energy Management and Operation (M&O) and Facilities Management Contractors for contract administration and management oversight. The information collection is necessary to allow DOE to comply with a reporting requirement placed on all Federal agencies administering programs subject to the Davis-Bacon Act wage provisions. Department of Labor regulation at 29 CFR 5.7(b) requires all Federal agencies administering programs subject to the Davis-Bacon Act wage provisions to submit to the Department of Labor a semi-annual compliance and enforcement report. In order for the Department of Energy (DOE) to comply with this reporting requirement, it must collect information from certain financial assistance grantees, Loan and Loan Guarantee Borrowers, DOE M&O contractors, and DOE Facilities Management contractors that administer DOE programs subject to Davis-Bacon Act requirements. DOE will ask each of these entities to report to DOE the information it is required to report to DOL on a semi-annual (every 6 months) basis. DOE must ultimately report all this information in a report to DOL, including information on the number of Davis-Bacon Act compliance and enforcement investigations conducted and whether violations were found.