November 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Navy (DoN) is issuing a final rule to comport with current policy as stated in JAG Instruction 5803.1 (Series) governing the professional conduct of attorneys practicing under the cognizance and supervision of the Judge Advocate General. The rule generally aligns with the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing approval of a revision to a State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of New Mexico through the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on March 14, 2014. New Mexico's SIP revision addresses requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the EPA's rules that require states to submit periodic reports describing progress toward reasonable progress goals (RPGs) established for regional haze and a determination of the adequacy of the State's existing regional haze SIP (RH SIP).

This final rule amends HUD's Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program (Section 108 Program) regulations to permit HUD to collect fees from Section 108 borrowers to offset the credit subsidy costs of Section 108 loan guarantees. The Department of Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Acts of 2014 and 2015 authorize HUD, for each of those fiscal years, to collect fees from borrowers to offset the credit subsidy costs for the guaranteed loans. This final rule amends HUD's Section 108 Program regulations to ensure that HUD can begin to make Section 108 loan guarantee commitments without appropriated credit subsidy budget authority, in accordance with applicable law. This final rule follows publication of the February 5, 2015, proposed rule and adopts the proposed rule with minor, clarifying changes to how HUD will determine and announce the amount of the fee. Elsewhere in today's Federal Register, HUD is publishing a document that sets the fee that it will charge borrowers under the Section 108 Program for loan guarantee commitments awarded in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016.

The Coast Guard proposes to change the operating schedule that governs the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) Railroad Bridge across the New River, mile 2.5, at Fort Lauderdale, FL. This proposed rule implements requirements for the operator designed to ensure that adequate notice of bridge closure times are available to the waterway traffic. It also changes the on demand schedule to an operating regulation requiring the bridge to be open at least 60 minutes in every 2 hour period. Modifying the bridge operating schedule will allow the bridge owner to operate the bridge remotely with assistance from the onsite bridge tender.

NMFS is implementing a 2,000 lb possession limit for Atlantic herring in or from management Area 1A, based on the projection that 92 percent of the 2015 annual seasonal catch limit for that area will have been harvested by the effective date. Federally permitted vessels may not fish for, possess, transfer, receive, land, or sell more than 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) of Atlantic herring in or from Area 1A for the remainder of the fishing year, and federally permitted dealers may not purchase more than 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) of herring from federally permitted vessels for the duration of this action. This action is necessary to comply with the regulations implementing the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan and is intended to prevent over harvest in Area 1A.

These special conditions are issued for Embraer Model EMB-545 and EMB-550 airplanes. These airplanes will have a novel or unusual design feature associated with a seat configuration of side-facing seats positioned forward of aft-facing seats, and with a structural armrest between the side-facing and aft-facing seats. 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.

The Secretary proposes to amend the regulations regarding the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards in order to require that all Department grantees awarded direct competitive grant funds openly license to the public all copyrightable intellectual property created with Department grant funds. These proposed changes would increase the Department's ability to be more strategic with limited resources, broadening the impact of its investments by allowing stakeholders, such as local educational agencies (LEAs), State educational agencies (SEAs), institutions of higher education (IHEs), and other entities, to benefit from these investments, even if they are not themselves recipients of Department funds. An open licensing requirement would also allow the Department to sustain innovations beyond the grant period by encouraging subject matter experts and users to adapt, update, and build upon grant products, stimulating quality and innovation in the development of educational resources. Finally, the proposed requirement would promote equity and access to Department-funded technology and materials and increase transparency and accountability for the Department and its grantees.

Under the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving revisions to the Oklahoma State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Oklahoma designee. The revisions are administrative in nature and modify redundant or erroneous text within the SIP. The revisions also incorporate new definitions and the current national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for four criteria pollutants; delete a subchapter that addresses motor vehicle pollution control devices; and add requirements for certain incinerators.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Connecticut. The revision amends Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies (RCSA) section 22a-174-20 to update the requirements for controlling volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from large aboveground storage tanks. The intended effect of this action is to approve these regulations into the Connecticut SIP. This action is being taken in accordance with the Clean Air Act (CAA).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to approve revisions to the North Carolina State Implementation Plan (SIP), submitted by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Division of Air Quality (DAQ), on February 5, 2013, and supplemented on July 27, 2015. The submissions pertain to conflict of interest requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and were submitted to satisfy the infrastructure SIP sub- element related to the state board for the 2010 Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), 2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) NAAQS, 2008 8-hour Ozone NAAQS and 2008 Lead NAAQS. The CAA requires that each state adopt and submit a SIP for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of each NAAQS promulgated by EPA, commonly referred to as an ``infrastructure'' SIP, which includes conflict of interest requirements. EPA is taking final action to approve the portions of North Carolina's 2010 NO2 infrastructure SIP, 2010 SO2 infrastructure SIP, 2008 8-hour ozone infrastructure SIP, and 2008 Lead infrastructure SIP as meeting these State board requirements. EPA is also taking final action to convert conditional approvals related to the state board requirements for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS, and the 1997 Annual Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) and 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS to full approval under the CAA. EPA notes that all other applicable North Carolina infrastructure SIP elements for the above listed NAAQS have been or will be addressed in separate rulemakings.

This final rule prescribes uniform procedures for the disposition of DoD personal property and establishes the sequence of processes for disposition of personal property of the DoD Components. Subpart A implements the statutory authority and regulations under which DoD personal property disposal takes place, as well as the scope and applicability for the program; defines the responsibilities of personnel and agencies involved in the Defense Materiel Disposition Program; provides procedures for disposal of excess property and scrap; and provides procedures for property donations, loans, and exchanges. Subpart B implements policy for reutilization, transfer, excess property screening, and issue of surplus property and foreign excess personal property (FEPP), scrap released by qualified recycling programs (QRPs), and non-QRP scrap; and provides guidance for removing excess material through security assistance programs and foreign military sales (FMS).

This final rule, promulgated under the Clean Water Act (CWA), protects public health and the environment from toxic metals and other harmful pollutants, including nutrients, by strengthening the technology-based effluent limitations guidelines and standards (ELGs) for the steam electric power generating industry. Steam electric power plants contribute the greatest amount of all toxic pollutants discharged to surface waters by industrial categories regulated under the CWA. The pollutants discharged by this industry can cause severe health and environmental problems in the form of cancer and non-cancer risks in humans, lowered IQ among children, and deformities and reproductive harm in fish and wildlife. Many of these pollutants, once in the environment, remain there for years. Due to their close proximity to these discharges and relatively high consumption of fish, some minority and low-income communities have greater exposure to, and are therefore at greater risk from, pollutants in steam electric power plant discharges. The final rule establishes the first nationally applicable limits on the amount of toxic metals and other harmful pollutants that steam electric power plants are allowed to discharge in several of their largest sources of wastewater. On an annual basis, the rule reduces the amount of toxic metals, nutrients, and other pollutants that steam electric power plants are allowed to discharge by 1.4 billion pounds; it reduces water withdrawal by 57 billion gallons; and, it has social costs of $480 million and monetized benefits of $451 to $566 million.

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA), as part of its annual public notification process, is publishing for notice an index of the 18 Board policy statements currently in existence. Most of the policy statements remain unchanged since our last Federal Register notice on October 22, 2014 (79 FR 63033), except for three as discussed below on Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity, Travel, and Rules for the Transaction of Business of the FCA Board.

The Department of State is updating its regulations regarding nonimmigrant visa format, and records retention procedures. These updates reflect changes in technology, including the current practice of issuing machine-readable visas and the planned future practice of issuing visas electronically. The Department is also removing an obsolete records retention provision and a visa review provision, both of which are now addressed in the Foreign Affairs Manual.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is classifying a gastrointestinal microorganism multiplex nucleic acid-based assay into class II (special controls). The Agency is classifying the device into class II (special controls) in order to provide a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness of the device.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing a limited approval and limited disapproval of, and other actions on, revisions to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) portion of the applicable state implementation plan (SIP) for the State of Arizona (State or Arizona) under the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act). These revisions submitted by Arizona are primarily intended to serve as a replacement of ADEQ's existing SIP-approved rules for the issuance of New Source Review (NSR) permits for stationary sources, including review and permitting of major and minor sources under the Act. After a lengthy stakeholder process, the State submitted a NSR program for SIP approval that satisfies most of the applicable CAA and NSR regulatory requirements, and which will significantly update ADEQ's existing SIP- approved NSR program. It also represents an overall strengthening of ADEQ's SIP-approved NSR program by clarifying and enhancing the NSR requirements for major and minor stationary sources. This final action updates the applicable plan while allowing ADEQ to remedy certain deficiencies in ADEQ's rules.

The Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs the Belt Line Railroad Bridge across the South Branch of the Elizabeth River, mile 2.6, between Portsmouth and Chesapeake, VA. This deviation allows the bridge to remain in the closed-to-navigation position to facilitate a tie replacement project.

The Commission issues final amendments to expand coverage of the Lighting Facts label, require room air conditioner labels on packaging instead of the units themselves, enhance the durability of appliance labels, and improve plumbing disclosure requirements. This Notice completes the Commission's recent regulatory review of the Energy Labeling Rule.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, east of the Port St. Lucie Inlet. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by a grounded vessel outside the Port St. Lucie Inlet. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Miami.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A330-200, -200 Freighter, and -300 series airplanes; and Model A340-200 and -300 series airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by reports that cracks were found on an adjacent hole of certain frames of the center wing box (CWB). This proposed AD would require removing fasteners, a rototest inspection of fastener holes, installing new fasteners; and if necessary, oversizing the holes and doing rototest inspections for cracks, and repairing any cracking that is found. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct cracking on certain holes of certain frames of the CWB, which could affect the structural integrity of the airplane.

In this request for information (RFI), we seek public input to inform the potential development of standards with regard to Medicaid beneficiaries' access to covered services under the Medicaid program. Specifically, we are interested in obtaining information on core access to care measures and metrics that could be used to measure access to care for beneficiaries in the Medicaid program (including in fee-for- service and managed care delivery systems) and used to develop local, state and national thresholds and goals to inform and improve access in the program. We are also interested in feedback on approaches to using the metrics, which could include setting access goals and thresholds and formal processes for beneficiaries to raise access concerns.

EPA is finalizing updates and revisions to the existing worker protection regulation for pesticides. This final rule will enhance the protections provided to agricultural workers, pesticide handlers, and other persons under the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) by strengthening elements of the existing regulation, such as training, notification, pesticide safety and hazard communication information, use of personal protective equipment, and the providing of supplies for routine washing and emergency decontamination. EPA expects this final rule to prevent unreasonable adverse effects from exposure to pesticides among agricultural workers and pesticide handlers, vulnerable groups (such as minority and low-income populations, child farmworkers, and farmworker families) and other persons who may be on or near agricultural establishments, and to mitigate exposures that do occur. In order to reduce compliance burdens for family-owned farms, in the final rule EPA has expanded the existing definition of ``immediate family'' and continued the existing exemption from many provisions of the WPS for owners and members of their immediate families.