January 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

Comments are requested on proposed flood hazard determinations, which may include additions or modifications of any Base Flood Elevation (BFE), base flood depth, Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) boundary or zone designation, or regulatory floodway on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), and where applicable, in the supporting Flood Insurance Study (FIS) reports for the communities listed in the table below. The purpose of this notice is to seek general information and comment regarding the preliminary FIRM, and where applicable, the FIS report that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided to the affected communities. The FIRM and FIS report are the basis of the floodplain management measures that the community is required either to adopt or to show evidence of having in effect in order to qualify or remain qualified for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In addition, the FIRM and FIS report, once effective, will be used by insurance agents and others to calculate appropriate flood insurance premium rates for new buildings and the contents of those buildings.

NMFS establishes the annual harvest guideline for the commercial lobster fishery in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for calendar year 2016 at zero lobsters.

PHMSA is issuing this advisory bulletin to remind all owners and operators of gas and hazardous liquid pipelines of the potential for damage to pipeline facilities caused by severe flooding and actions that operators should consider taking to ensure the integrity of pipelines in the event of flooding, river scour, and river channel migration.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury, is publishing its inventory of Privacy Act systems of records.

This notice contains a summary of a petition seeking relief from specified requirements of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, the FAA's exemption process. Neither publication of this notice nor the inclusion or omission of information in the summary is intended to affect the legal status of the petition or its final disposition.

This notice contains a summary of a petition seeking relief from specified requirements of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, the FAA's exemption process. Neither publication of this notice nor the inclusion or omission of information in the summary is intended to affect the legal status of the petition or its final disposition.

Pursuant to Section 189a.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing this regular biweekly notice. The Act requires the Commission to publish notice of any amendments issued, or proposed to be issued, and grants the Commission the authority to issue and make immediately effective any amendment to an operating license or combined license, as applicable, upon a determination by the Commission that such amendment involves no significant hazards consideration, notwithstanding the pendency before the Commission of a request for a hearing from any person. This biweekly notice includes all notices of amendments issued, or proposed to be issued from December 22, 2015, to January 4, 2016. The last biweekly notice was published on January 5, 2016.

This rule finalizes provisions of the proposed rule entitled Review of Major Changes in Program Design and Management Evaluation Systems, which was published May 3, 2011. This final rule amends the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly the Food Stamp Program) regulations to implement section 4116 of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (FCEA). Section 4116 of the FCEA, Review of Major Changes in Program Design, requires the United States Department of Agriculture (the Department) to identify standards for major changes in operations of State agencies' administration of SNAP. The provision also requires State agencies to notify the Department if they implement a major change in operations and to collect and report data that can be used to identify and correct problems relating to integrity and access, particularly for certain vulnerable households. This final rule establishes criteria for changes that would be considered ``major changes'' in program operations and identifies the data State agencies must report in order to identify problems relating to integrity and access. It also sets forth when and how State agencies must report on the implementation of a major change. This rule also amends Management Evaluation (ME) Review regulations by modifying the requirements for State reviews. The rule revises the definitions of large, medium and small project areas. Finally, it removes sections of the regulations pertaining to coupons and coupon storage since they are obsolete.

This document announces the withdrawal of pesticide petitions requesting the establishment or modification of tolerances or tolerance exemptions for residues of pesticide chemicals in or on various commodities. The petitions were either withdrawn voluntarily by the petitioners or by the Agency.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Bombardier, Inc. Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a revision by the manufacturer to the Certification Maintenance Requirements (CMR) of the Airworthiness Limitation Items (ALI), in the Maintenance Requirement Manual (MRM), that introduces a new CMR task that requires repetitive operational checks of the propeller overspeed governor. This proposed AD would require revising the airplane maintenance program or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate a new CMR task. We are proposing this AD to prevent dormant failure of the propeller overspeed governor, which may lead to a loss of propeller overspeed protection and result in high propeller drag in-flight.

In this document, the Commission adopted a number of procedures and procedural changes designed to assist AM broadcasters to better serve the public, thereby advancing the Commission's fundamental goals of localism, competition, and diversity in broadcast media.

This notice announces an open meeting of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). SEAB was reestablished pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) (the Act). This notice is provided in accordance with the Act.

Cambridge Isotope Lab applied to be registered as a manufacturer of a certain basic class of controlled substance. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) grants Cambridge Isotope Lab registration as a manufacturer of this controlled substance.

Pursuant to section 994(a), (o), and (p) of title 28, United States Code, the United States Sentencing Commission is considering promulgating certain amendments to the sentencing guidelines, policy statements, and commentary. This notice sets forth the proposed amendments and, for each proposed amendment, a synopsis of the issues addressed by that amendment. This notice also sets forth a number of issues for comment, some of which are set forth together with the proposed amendments, and one of which (regarding retroactive application of proposed amendments) is set forth in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION portion of this notice. The proposed amendments and issues for comment in this notice are as follows: (1) A multi-part proposed amendment to the Guidelines Manual to respond to recently enacted legislation and miscellaneous guideline issues, including (A) revisions to Appendix A (Statutory Index) to respond to new offenses established by the Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act (USA FREEDOM Act) of 2015, Public Law 114-23 (June 2, 2015), and related issues for comment; (B) revisions to Appendix A (Statutory Index) to respond to changes made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Public Law 114-74 (Nov. 2, 2015), to existing criminal statutes, and related issues for comment; (C) a revision to Appendix A (Statutory Index) to reference offenses under 18 U.S.C. 1715 (Firearms as nonmailable items) to Sec. 2K2.1 (Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition; Prohibited Transactions Involving Firearms or Ammunition) and a revision to Sec. 2K2.1 to establish a base offense level for such offenses, and a related issue for comment; and (D) a technical amendment to the Background Commentary to Sec. 2T1.6 (Failing to Collect or Truthfully Account for and Pay Over Tax); (2) a two-part proposed amendment to the policy statement pertaining to ``compassionate release,'' Sec. 1B1.13 (Reduction in Term of Imprisonment as a Result of Motion by Director of Bureau of Prisons), including (A) a detailed request for comment on whether any changes should be made to the policy statement and (B) a proposed amendment illustrating one possible set of changes to the policy statement, i.e., to reflect the criteria set forth in the program statement used by the Bureau of Prisons; (3) a proposed amendment to Sec. Sec. 5B1.3 (Conditions of Probation) and 5D1.3 (Conditions of Supervised Release) to revise, clarify, and rearrange the provisions in the Guidelines Manual on conditions of probation and supervised release, and related issues for comment; (4) a proposed amendment to Sec. 2E3.1 (Gambling; Animal Fighting Offenses) to provide higher penalties for animal fighting offenses and to respond to two new offenses relating to attending an animal fighting venture that were established by section 12308 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, Public Law 113-79 (Feb. 7, 2014), and related issues for comment; (5) a proposed amendment to the child pornography guidelines, Sec. Sec. 2G2.1 (Sexually Exploiting a Minor by Production of Sexually Explicit Visual or Printed Material; Custodian Permitting Minor to Engage in Sexually Explicit Conduct; Advertisement for Minors to Engage in Production), 2G2.2 (Trafficking in Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor; Receiving, Transporting, Shipping, Soliciting, or Advertising Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor; Possessing Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor with Intent to Traffic; Possessing Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor), and 2G2.6 (Child Exploitation Enterprises), to address circuit conflicts and application issues that have arisen when applying these guidelines, including issues in (A) application of the vulnerable victim adjustment when the offense involves minors who are unusually young and vulnerable (such as infants or toddlers) and (B) application of the tiered distribution enhancement and, in particular, determining the appropriate tier of enhancement to apply when the offense involves a peer-to-peer file-sharing program or network, and related issues for comment; and (6) a multi-part proposed amendment to the guidelines for immigration offenses, including (A) revisions to Sec. 2L1.1 (Smuggling, Transporting, or Harboring an Unlawful Alien) to provide options for raising the base offense level for alien smuggling offenses and address offenses involving unaccompanied minors in alien smuggling offenses, and a related issue for comment, and (B) revisions to Sec. 2L1.2 (Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States) to (i) generally reduce the use of the ``categorical approach'' in applying the guidelines by measuring the seriousness of a defendant's prior conviction by the length of the sentence imposed on the prior conviction rather than by the type of offense (e.g., ``crime of violence''); (ii) provide higher alternative base offense levels for defendants who have one or more prior convictions for illegal reentry offenses; (iii) provide a new tiered enhancement for defendants who engage in criminal conduct after reentering the United States; (iv) correspondingly reduce the existing tiered enhancement at subsection (b)(1) for defendants who had one or more prior convictions before being deported; and (v) related issues for comment.

The Department of Commerce (the ``Department'') preliminarily determines that de minimis countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers/exporters of certain hot-rolled steel flat products (``hot-rolled steel'') from the Republic of Korea (``Korea''). The period of investigation is January 1, 2014, through December 31, 2014. We invite interested parties to comment on this preliminary determination.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), this notice announces that NMFS intends to obtain information necessary to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans (HGMPs) submitted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) for NMFS's evaluation and determination under Limit 5 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) 4(d) Rule for threatened salmon and steelhead. The HGMPs specify the propagation of salmon, steelhead, and trout released in rivers, streams, and lakes throughout the Oregon Coast region. NMFS provides this notice to: (1) Advise other agencies and the public of its plans to analyze effects related to the action, and (2) obtain suggestions and information that may be useful to the scope of issues and alternatives to include in the EIS. This notice further serves to notify the public of the availability of the HGMPs for comment prior to a decision by NMFS on whether to approve the proposed hatchery programs.

EPA has submitted the following information collection request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA): ``Foreign Purchaser Acknowledgement Statement of Unregistered Pesticides'' (FPAS) and identified by EPA ICR No. 0161.13 and OMB Control No. 2070-0027. The ICR, which is available in the docket along with other related materials, provides a detailed explanation of the collection activities and the burden estimate that is only briefly summarized in this document. EPA has addressed the comments received in response to the previously provided public review opportunity issued in the Federal Register on May 8, 2015 (80 FR 26554). With this submission, EPA is providing an additional 30 days for public review.

This notice announces the availability of EPA's draft pollinator-only ecological risk assessment for the registration review of imidacloprid and opens a public comment period on this document. Registration review is EPA's periodic review of pesticide registrations to ensure that each pesticide continues to satisfy the statutory standard for registration, that is, the pesticide can perform its intended function without unreasonable adverse effects on human health or the environment. As part of the registration review process, the Agency has completed a comprehensive draft pollinator-only ecological risk assessment for all registered agricultural uses of imidacloprid, with focus on agricultural crops that are attractive to pollinators. After reviewing comments received during the public comment period, EPA will issue a revised pollinator risk assessment, explain any changes to the draft risk assessment, and respond to comments and may request public input on risk mitigation before completing a proposed registration review decision for imidacloprid. The revised risk assessment will also address the ecological risks for all other taxa, as well as a comprehensive draft human health risk assessment. Through the registration review program, EPA is ensuring that each pesticide's registration is based on current scientific and other knowledge, including its effects on human health and the environment.