August 18, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) published a notice of proposed rulemaking and companion direct final rule in the Federal Register on March 12, 2015, broadening the acceptable methods by which claimants, employers, and insurers can communicate with OWCP and each other regarding claims arising under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and its extensions. The comment period closed on May 11, 2015. OWCP did not receive significant adverse comment and therefore the direct final rule took effect on June 10, 2015. For these reasons, OWCP is withdrawing the notice of proposed rulemaking.

The Coast Guard is proposing a special local regulated area for all waters of the Tennessee River, beginning at mile marker 463.0 and ending at mile marker 467.0. This proposed regulated area is necessary to provide safety for the approximately 2,500 swimmers that will be participating in the ``Ironman Chattanooga'' on the Tennessee River from mile marker 463.0 to mile marker 467.0. Entry into this area will be prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Ohio Valley or designated representative.

This document withdraws a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2011 to establish a regulation for the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) Farmers' Market Promotion Program (FMPP). The FMPP is a competitive grant program that makes funds available to eligible entities for projects to establish, expand, and promote farmers markets, roadside stands, community-supported agriculture programs, agritourism activities, and other direct producer-to-consumer marketing opportunities. The proposed rule would have established eligibility and application requirements, the review and approval process, and grant administration procedures for the FMPP. Additionally, the proposed rule announced AMS's intent to request approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a new information collection for the FMPP. AMS is consolidating the procedures for all of its grant programs, including the FMPP, into one regulation. Thus, a separate regulation for the FMPP is no longer needed and the 2011 proposed rule is withdrawn.

This document corrects technical errors in the proposed rule that appeared in the July 10, 2015 Federal Register entitled ``Medicare and Medicaid Programs; CY 2016 Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate Update; Home Health Value- Based Purchasing Model; and Home Health Quality Reporting Requirements.''

Based on the final Northeast multispecies sector rosters submitted as of May 1, 2015, we are adjusting the fishing year 2015 specification of annual catch limits for commercial groundfish vessels, as well as sector annual catch entitlements and common pool allocations for groundfish stocks. This revision to fishing year 2015 catch levels is necessary to account for changes in the number of participants electing to fish in either sectors or the common pool fishery. This action details unused sector quotas that may be carried over from fishing year 2014 to fishing year 2015. This action also reduces the fishing year 2015 common pool allocation of Eastern Georges Bank cod and adjusts common pool incidental catch limits to account for a common pool fishing year 2014 overage.

These special conditions are issued for the Bombardier Inc. Model BD-700-2A12 and BD-700-2A13 airplanes. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

This action proposes special conditions for the Gulfstream Model GVII-G500 airplanes. These airplanes will have a novel or unusual design feature associated with a reduced margin between design cruising speed, VC/MC, and design diving speed, VD/MD, based on the incorporation of a high-speed protection system that limits nose-down pilot authority at speeds above VC/MC. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These proposed special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

The Coast Guard is amending and updating its current list of recurring safety zone regulations that take place in the Eighth Coast Guard District area of responsibility (AOR). This final rule informs the public of regularly scheduled events that require additional safety measures through establishing a safety zone. Through this final rule, the list of recurring safety zones is updated with revisions, additional events, and removal of events that no longer take place in the Eighth Coast Guard District AOR. When these safety zones are enforced, vessel traffic is restricted from specified areas. Additionally, this one rulemaking project reduces administrative costs involved in producing a separate rule for each individual recurring safety zone and serves to provide notice of the known recurring safety zones throughout the year.

The Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities Assistance Act of 1978, as amended (TCCUA), authorizes Federal assistance to institutions of higher education that are formally controlled or have been formally sanctioned or chartered by the governing body of an Indian tribe or tribes. Passed at the same time as the TCCUA, the Navajo Community College Assistance Act of 1978, as amended (NCCA) authorizes Federal assistance to the Navajo Nation in construction, maintenance, and operation of Din[eacute] College. This proposed rule would update the TCCUA's implementing regulations in light of amendments to the TCCUA in 1983, 1986, 1998 and 2008 and the NCCA's implementing regulations in light of amendments to the NCCA in 2008.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a redesignation substitute demonstration provided by the State of Texas that the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria 1-hour ozone nonattainment area (HGB area) has attained the revoked 1-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) due to permanent and enforceable emission reductions, and that it will maintain that NAAQS for ten years from the date of the EPA's approval of this demonstration. Final approval of the redesignation substitute demonstration will result in the State no longer being required to adopt any additional applicable 1-hour ozone NAAQS requirements for the area which have not already been approved into the State Implementation Plan (SIP). In addition, final approval will allow Texas to seek to revise the Texas SIP to remove anti- backsliding measures from the active portion of its SIP if it can demonstrate, pursuant to Clean Air Act (CAA) section 110(1), that such revision would not interfere with attainment or maintenance of any applicable NAAQS, or any other requirement of the CAA.

This final rule implements Amendment 6 to the 2006 Consolidated Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) (Amendment 6) to increase management flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of the Atlantic shark fisheries; prevent overfishing while achieving on a continuing basis optimum yield; and rebuild overfished shark stocks. Specifically, this final rule increases the large coastal shark (LCS) retention limit for directed shark permit holders to a maximum of 55 LCS per trip, with a default limit of 45 LCS per trip, and reduces the sandbar shark research fishery quota to account for dead discards of sandbar sharks during LCS trips; establishes a management boundary in the Atlantic region along 34[deg]00' N. latitude for the small coastal shark (SCS) fishery, north of which harvest and landings of blacknose sharks is prohibited and south of which the quota linkage between blacknose sharks and non- blacknose SCS is maintained; implements a non-blacknose SCS total allowable catch (TAC) of 489.3 mt dw and a commercial quota of 264.1 mt dw in the Atlantic region; apportions the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) regional commercial quotas for aggregated LCS, blacktip, and hammerhead sharks into western and eastern sub-regional quotas along 88[deg]00' W. longitude; implements a non-blacknose SCS TAC of 999.0 mt dw, increases the commercial non-blacknose SCS quota to 112.6 mt dw, and prohibits retention of blacknose sharks in the GOM; and removes the current upgrading restrictions for shark directed limited access permit (LAP) holders.

This document primarily proposes to amend OSHA regulations to remove the detailed descriptions of State plan coverage, purely historical data, and other unnecessarily codified information. In addition, this document proposes to move most of the general provisions of subpart A of part 1952 into part 1902, where the general regulations on State plan criteria are found. It also proposes to amend several other OSHA regulations to delete references to part 1952, which would no longer apply. The purpose of these proposed revisions is to eliminate the unnecessary codification of material in the Code of Federal Regulations and save the time and funds currently expended in publicizing State plan revisions. The proposed streamlining of OSHA State plan regulations would not change the areas of coverage or any other substantive components of any State plan. It also does not affect the rights and responsibilities of the State plans, or any employers or employees, except to eliminate the burden on State plan designees to keep paper copies of approved State plans and plan supplements in an office, and to submit multiple copies of proposed State plan documents to OSHA. This document also contains a request for comments for an Information Collection Request (ICR) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), which covers all collection of information requirements in OSHA State plan regulations.