April 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) is announcing the availability of a CDRH electronic submissions Pilot Program database to house labeling for home use devices. Participation in the pilot is open to applicants who label their device(s) for home use. Participation in the pilot project is voluntary. Participants will be asked to navigate through the electronic submissions system and practice submitting labels and package inserts. The pilot project is intended to provide industry and CDRH staff the opportunity to evaluate the submissions process and system and to receive comments from industry participants.

This notice provides NHTSA's finding that a waiver of the Buy America requirement is appropriate for the purchase of Radian model 120 convertible car seats by the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency, using Federal grant funds. NHTSA finds that a non-availability waiver of the Buy America requirement is appropriate for the purchase of these car seats using Federal highway safety grant funds because there are no suitable products produced in the United States.

In this notice, the Secretary of HUD designates the Order of Succession for the Office of Community Planning and Development. This Order of Succession supersedes all prior Orders of Succession for the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, including the Order of Succession published on May 30, 2012.

This proposed rule would revise the Legal Services Corporation (LSC or Corporation) regulation on recipient fund balances to provide the Corporation with more discretion to grant a recipient's request for a waiver to retain a fund balance in excess of 25% of its annual LSC support. This proposed rule would also provide that recipients that face extraordinary and compelling circumstances may submit a waiver request to retain a fund balance in excess of 25% of their annual LSC support prior to the submission of their annual audited financial statements.

Section 7(d) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Act, as amended, authorizes the Secretary to delegate functions, powers and duties as the Secretary deems necessary. In this delegation of authority, the Secretary delegates authority to the Assistant Secretary for HousingFederal Housing Commissioner, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing, the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing and the Associate General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing, for the administration of certain Office of Housing programs. This delegation revokes and supersedes all prior delegations of authority, including the delegation published on June 20, 2012.

This proposed rule would update the payment rates used under the prospective payment system (PPS) for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for fiscal year (FY) 2016. In addition, it includes a proposal to specify a SNF all-cause all-condition hospital readmission measure, as well as a proposal to adopt that measure for a new SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program and a discussion of SNF VBP Program policies we are considering for future rulemaking to promote higher quality and more efficient health care for Medicare beneficiaries. Additionally, this proposed rule proposes to implement a new quality reporting program for SNFs as specified in the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act). It also would amend the requirements that a long-term care (LTC) facility must meet to qualify to participate as a skilled nursing facility (SNF) in the Medicare program, or a nursing facility (NF) in the Medicaid program. These requirements implement the provision in the Affordable Care Act regarding the submission of staffing information based on payroll data.

The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing concerning an amendment to an existing Priority Mail Contract 77 negotiated service agreement. This notice informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.

This order revokes in its entirety the withdrawal established by an Executive Order as to 168.05 acres of public land on Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron withdrawn from all forms of appropriation under the public land laws and reserved for use by the United States Coast Guard for lighthouse purposes. The reservation is no longer needed. This order returns administrative jurisdiction to the Bureau of Land Management and opens the land to the operation of the public land laws, subject to valid existing rights and other segregations of record.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces a forthcoming meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve into the Illinois Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) a variance for the electrical generating units (EGUs) included in the Ameren multi-pollutant standard group (Ameren MPS Group). The Ameren MPS Group consists of five facilities owned by Illinois Power Holdings, LLC (IPH) and two facilities owned by AmerenEnergy Medina Valley Cogen, LLC (Medina Valley). The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) submitted the variance to EPA for approval on September 3, 2014.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received requests for an extension of the period for providing comments on the proposed rule entitled, ``Clean Water Act Methods Update Rule for the Analysis of Effluent,'' published in the Federal Register on February 19, 2015. EPA extends the comment period in order to provide the public additional time to submit comments and supporting information.

This document contains a notice of pendency before the Department of Labor of proposed amendments to prohibited transaction exemptions (PTEs) 75-1, 77-4, 80-83 and 83-1. Generally, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) prohibit fiduciaries with respect to employee benefit plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) from engaging in self- dealing, including using their authority, control or responsibility to affect or increase their own compensation. These existing exemptions generally permit fiduciaries to receive compensation or other benefits as a result of the use of their fiduciary authority, control or responsibility in connection with investment transactions involving plans or IRAs. The proposed amendments would require the fiduciaries to satisfy uniform Impartial Conduct Standards in order to obtain the relief available under each exemption. The proposed amendments would affect participants and beneficiaries of plans, IRA owners, and fiduciaries with respect to such plans and IRAs.

This document contains a notice of pendency before the Department of Labor of a proposed amendment to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-24, an exemption from certain prohibited transaction provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). The ERISA and Code provisions at issue generally prohibit fiduciaries with respect to employee benefit plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) from engaging in self-dealing in connection with transactions involving these plans and IRAs. The exemption allows fiduciaries to receive compensation when plans and IRAs enter into certain insurance and mutual fund transactions recommended by the fiduciaries as well as certain related transactions. The proposed amendments would increase the safeguards of the exemption. This document also contains a notice of pendency before the Department of the proposed revocation of the exemption as it applies to IRA purchases of mutual fund shares and certain annuity contracts. The amendments and revocations would affect participants and beneficiaries of plans, IRA owners and certain fiduciaries of plans and IRAs.

This document contains a notice of pendency before the U.S. Department of Labor of a proposed exemption from certain prohibited transactions provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (the Code). The provisions at issue generally prohibit fiduciaries with respect to employee benefit plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) from purchasing and selling securities when the fiduciaries are acting on behalf of their own accounts (principal transactions). The exemption proposed in this notice would permit principal transactions in certain debt securities between a plan, plan participant or beneficiary account, or an IRA, and a fiduciary that provides investment advice to the plan or IRA, under conditions to safeguard the interests of these investors. The proposed exemption would affect participants and beneficiaries of plans, IRA owners, and fiduciaries with respect to such plans and IRAs.

This document contains a proposed regulation defining who is a ``fiduciary'' of an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) as a result of giving investment advice to a plan or its participants or beneficiaries. The proposal also applies to the definition of a ``fiduciary'' of a plan (including an individual retirement account (IRA)) under section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code). If adopted, the proposal would treat persons who provide investment advice or recommendations to an employee benefit plan, plan fiduciary, plan participant or beneficiary, IRA, or IRA owner as fiduciaries under ERISA and the Code in a wider array of advice relationships than the existing ERISA and Code regulations, which would be replaced. The proposed rule, and related exemptions, would increase consumer protection for plan sponsors, fiduciaries, participants, beneficiaries and IRA owners. This document also withdraws a prior proposed regulation published in 2010 (2010 Proposal) concerning this same subject matter. In connection with this proposal, elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, the Department is proposing new exemptions and amendments to existing exemptions from the prohibited transaction rules applicable to fiduciaries under ERISA and the Code that would allow certain broker- dealers, insurance agents and others that act as investment advice fiduciaries to continue to receive a variety of common forms of compensation that otherwise would be prohibited as conflicts of interest.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 757-200, -200PF, -200CB, and -300 series airplanes. This AD was prompted by numerous reports of unintended lateral oscillations during final approach, just before landing. This AD requires, depending on airplane configuration, installing new relays and bracket assemblies, inspecting to ensure that the new relays do not contact adjacent wire bundles, torquing the bracket assembly installation nuts and ground stud nuts, doing bond resistance tests between the bracket assemblies and the terminal lugs on the ground studs, and related investigative and corrective actions if necessary. We are issuing this AD to reduce the chance of unintended lateral oscillations near touchdown, which could result in loss of lateral control of the airplane, and consequent airplane damage or injury to flightcrew and passengers.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain ATR-GIE Avions de Transport R[eacute]gional Model ATR72-212A airplanes. This AD requires inspection of the shock mount pick-up fittings and cone bolts, and replacement of certain shock mount pick-up fittings if necessary. This AD was prompted by reports of several cases of engine shock mount pick-up fittings with cracks or failure on the engine left- hand (LH) aft side attachment. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct an aft side attachment pick-up fitting failure associated with a cone bolt failure that could reduce the structural integrity of the concerned engine nacelle, and possibly result in detachment of the engine and consequent reduced control of the airplane.