September 14, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Labor's (Department) Final Rule amending regulations regarding domestic service employment, which extends Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections to most home care workers, had an effective date of January 1, 2015. The Department has not begun enforcement of the Final Rule both because of its previously announced time-limited non-enforcement policy and because it is a party to a federal lawsuit regarding the amended regulations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an opinion in that case in favor of the Department on August 21, 2015. The Department will not bring enforcement actions against any employer for violations of FLSA obligations resulting from the amended domestic service regulations for 30 days after the date the Court of Appeals issues a mandate making its opinion effective.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing approval of State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Colorado on March 31, 2010, May 16, 2012, and May 13, 2013. The revisions are to Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (Commission) Regulation Number 3, Parts A, B, and D and Common Provisions Regulation. The revisions include administrative changes to permitting requirements for stationary sources, updates to the fine particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) implementation rules related to the federal New Source Review (NSR) Program, changes to address previous revisions to Air Pollutant Emission Notice (APEN) regulations that EPA disapproved or provided comments on, revisions to definitions, and minor editorial changes. Also in this action, EPA is proposing to correct a final rule pertaining to Colorado's SIP published on April 24, 2014. In our April 24, 2014 action, regulatory text and corresponding ``incorporation by reference'' (IBR) materials were inadvertently excluded for (1) greenhouse gas permitting revisions to the Common Provisions Regulation, and (2) minor editorial changes to the Common Provisions Regulation and Parts A, B, and D of Regulation Number 3 (adopted October 10, 2010). This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

Louisiana has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for final authorization of the changes to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The EPA has determined that these changes satisfy all requirements needed to qualify for final authorization, and is authorizing the State's changes through this direct final action. The EPA is publishing this rule to authorize the changes without a prior proposal because we believe this action is not controversial and do not expect comments that oppose it. Unless we receive written comments which oppose this authorization during the comment period, the decision to authorize Louisiana's changes to its hazardous waste program will take effect. If we receive comments that oppose this action, we will publish a document in the Federal Register withdrawing this rule before it takes effect, and a separate document in the proposed rules section of this Federal Register will serve as a proposal to authorize the changes.

The Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs the Saugus RR Bridge, across the Saugus River, mile 2.1, at Saugus, Massachusetts. This deviation is necessary to facilitate essential maintenance repairs. This deviation allows the bridge to remain in the closed position during the maintenance repairs.

We are amending the fruits and vegetable regulations to allow citrus fruit from the entire country of Peru to be imported into the continental United States. Currently, the regulations allow the importation of citrus fruit to the United States from five approved citrus-producing zones in Peru, subject to a systems approach. However, based on the findings of a pest list and commodity import evaluation document, we have determined that this systems approach also mitigates the plant pest risk associated with citrus fruit produced in all other areas of Peru. This action will allow the importation of citrus fruit from the entire country of Peru while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of plant pests into the continental United States.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is proposing to amend its regulations by revising an existing restricted area regulation and establishing a new restricted area along portions of the Tyndall Air Force Base (AFB) facility shoreline that will be activated on a temporary basis. The duration of temporary restricted area activations will be limited to those periods where it is warranted or required by specific and credible security threats and will be inactive at all other times. The restricted area will be partitioned using 23 pairs of coordinates to facilitate quick geographic recognition. Tyndall AFB is surrounded on three sides by water with approximately 129 miles of unprotected coastline. This includes several areas where the lack of security or lack of restriction on access to these areas leaves Tyndall AFB personnel and resources vulnerable to unauthorized activities. This amendment is necessary to implement an enhanced threat security plan for Tyndall AFB which will allow temporary activation of one or more portions of the restricted area as necessary to provide the appropriate level of security required to address the specific and credible threat triggering the need for activation. This proposal is an amended version of the proposal published in the Federal Register on May 9, 2013 (78 FR 27126).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing notice of the availability of preliminary lists of units eligible for allocations of emission allowances under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). Under the CSAPR federal implementation plans (FIPs), portions of each covered state's annual emissions budgets for each of the four CSAPR emissions trading programs are reserved for allocation to electricity generating units that commenced commercial operation on or after January 1, 2010 (new units) and certain other units not otherwise obtaining allowance allocations under the FIPs. The quantities of allowances allocated to eligible units from each new unit set-aside (NUSA) under the FIPs are calculated in an annual one- or two-round allocation process. EPA previously completed the first round of NUSA allowance allocations for the 2015 control periods for all four CSAPR trading programs and is now making available preliminary lists of units eligible for allocations in the second round of the NUSA allocation process for the CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Trading Program. EPA has posted a spreadsheet containing the preliminary lists on EPA's Web site. EPA will consider timely objections to the lists of eligible units contained in the spreadsheet and will promulgate a document responding to any such objections no later than November 15, 2015, the deadline for recording the second-round allocations of CSAPR NOX Ozone Season allowances in sources' Allowance Management System accounts. This notice of availability may concern CSAPR-affected units in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

This final rule amends NHTSA's regulation requiring motor vehicle manufacturers and replacement equipment manufacturers to notify owners and purchasers of a defect or noncompliance in vehicles or equipment that they produced. The amendments in this final rule will clarify that a manufacturer of replacement equipment providing a defect or noncompliance notification pursuant to this regulation can inform the purchaser of the replacement equipment of the manufacturer's intent to remedy the defect or noncompliance by refunding the purchase price of the replacement equipment. NHTSA is amending this regulation so that the regulation conforms to changes in the defect and noncompliance remedy provisions in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act) contained in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).

Pursuant to section 763(i) of Title VII (``Title VII'') of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (``Dodd-Frank Act''), the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is proposing amendments to rule 13n-4 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act'') related to regulatory access to security-based swap data held by security-based swap data repositories. The proposed rule amendments would implement the conditional Exchange Act requirement that security-based swap data repositories make data available to certain regulators and other authorities, and would set forth a conditional exemption from the statutory indemnification requirement associated with that regulatory access provision.

We propose to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2012-12- 04, which applies to certain The Boeing Company Model 737-300, -400, and -500 series airplanes. AD 2012-12-04 currently requires repetitive external detailed inspections and nondestructive inspections to detect cracks in the fuselage skin along the chem-mill steps at stringers S-1 and S-2R, between station (STA) 400 and STA 460, and repair if necessary. Since we issued AD 2012-12-04, we have determined that, for certain airplanes, the skin pockets adjacent to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) antenna are susceptible to widespread fatigue damage. This proposed AD would require a preventive modification of the fuselage skin at crown stringers S-1 and S-2R. This proposed AD would reduce inspection thresholds and repetitive intervals for certain airplanes. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct fatigue cracking of the fuselage skin panels at the chem-mill steps, which could result in sudden fracture and failure of the fuselage skin panels, and consequent rapid decompression of the airplane.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to revise the current federal Clean Water Act (CWA) human health criteria applicable to waters under the state of Washington's jurisdiction to ensure that the criteria are set at levels that will adequately protect Washington residents, including tribes with treaty-protected rights, from exposure to toxic pollutants. EPA promulgated Washington's existing criteria for the protection of human health in 1992 as part of the National Toxics Rule (NTR), (amended in 1999 for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)) using the Agency's recommended criteria values at the time. EPA derived those criteria using a fish consumption rate (FCR) of 6.5 grams per day (g/day) based on national surveys. However, the best available data now demonstrate that fish consumers in Washington, including tribes with treaty-protected rights, consume much more fish than 6.5 g/day. There are also new data and scientific information available to update the toxicity and exposure parameters used to calculate human health criteria. Therefore, EPA proposes to revise the federal human health criteria applicable to waters under Washington's jurisdiction to take into account the best available science, including local and regional information, as well as applicable EPA policies, guidance, and legal requirements, to protect human health.