2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In its September 20, 2016 order, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia remanded to FinCEN the final rule imposing a prohibition on covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for, or on behalf of, FBME Bank, Ltd. In its memorandum opinion accompanying that order, the Court stated that the agency had not responded meaningfully to FBME's comments regarding the agency's treatment of aggregate Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) data. The Court found that those comments challenged FinCEN's interpretation of SAR data on at least four distinct grounds. In this supplement to the final rule, FinCEN provides further explanation addressing FBME's comments.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a revision to the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District (YSAQMD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). This revision concerns emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter (PM) from confined animal facilities (CAFs). We are proposing to approve a local rule to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act). We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.

This action amends Class C airspace at El Paso International Airport, El Paso, TX, by removing a cutout from the Class C airspace area that excludes the airspace within a 2-mile radius of West Texas Airport and the airspace beyond an 8-mile arc from the El Paso International Airport beginning at the 115[deg] bearing from the airport clockwise to the Rio Grande River. Additionally, this rule removes West Texas Airport from the Class C airspace description as the airport is closed, and amends the El Paso International Airport geographic coordinates to coincide with the FAA's aeronautical database. The FAA is taking this action to enable more efficient operations at El Paso International Airport.

The U.S. Copyright Office is proposing to amend the regulation governing supplementary registration to reflect certain technical upgrades that will soon be made to the electronic registration system. In most cases applicants will be required to submit an online application in order to correct or amplify the information set forth in a basic registration. This will increase the efficiency of the supplementary registration process for both applicants and the Office alike. In addition, the Office is amending the regulation to codify and update certain practices that are set forth in the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition and to improve the readability of the regulation.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Rolls-Royce plc (RR) RB211-Trent 875-17, RB211-Trent 877-17, RB211- Trent 884-17, RB211-Trent 884B-17, RB211-Trent 892-17, RB211-Trent 892B-17, and RB211-Trent 895-17 turbofan engines. This AD requires repetitive inspections of the engine upper bifurcation fairing and repairing or replacing any fairing that fails inspection. This AD was prompted by a report of cracking and material release from an engine upper bifurcation fairing. We are issuing this AD to prevent failure of the engine fire protection system, engine fire, and damage to the airplane.

The proposed action would implement four sections of the Agricultural Act of 2014, (2014 Farm Bill), affecting eligibility, benefits, and program administration requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Section 4007 clarifies that participants in a SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) program are eligible for benefits if they are enrolled or participate in specific programs that will assist SNAP recipients in obtaining the skills needed for the current job market. Section 4008 prohibits anyone convicted of Federal aggravated sexual abuse, murder, sexual exploitation and abuse of children, sexual assault, or similar State laws, and who are also not in compliance with the terms of their sentence or parole or are a fleeing felon, from receiving SNAP benefits. Section 4009 prohibits households containing a member with substantial lottery and gambling winnings from receiving SNAP benefits, until the household meets the allowable financial resources and income eligibility requirements of the program. Section 4009 also provides that State SNAP agencies are required, to the maximum extent practicable, to establish cooperative agreements with gaming entities in the State to identify SNAP recipients with substantial winnings. Section 4015 requires all State agencies to have a system in place to verify income, eligibility and immigration status.

This document denies a petition for rulemaking, submitted by Ms. Scheryn Bennett, requesting that the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) require every vehicle to be equipped with an emergency glass breaking tool. The data available to the agency shows there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the actual number of occupants that may have died due solely to drowning while trapped in an immersed vehicle. The potential effectiveness of such a tool to successfully aid an occupant's safe exit from an immersed vehicle is also not known. In the absence of a requirement that each vehicle have a glass breaking tool, nothing prevents vehicle manufacturers from providing a tool or other means to allow vehicle evacuation during immersion. Additionally, consumers can purchase their own tool and locate it in the vehicle where they would be likely to access it in an emergency.

Pursuant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Significant New Alternatives Policy program, this action lists certain substances as acceptable, subject to use conditions; lists several substances as unacceptable; and changes the listing status for certain substances from acceptable to acceptable, subject to narrowed use limits, or to unacceptable. This action also exempts propane in certain refrigeration end-uses from the Clean Air Act section 608 prohibition on venting, release, or disposal. In addition, this action applies unacceptability determinations for foam-blowing agents to closed cell foam products and products containing closed cell foam that are manufactured or imported using these foam blowing agents.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing to revise its regulations governing employment in the excepted service. The proposed rules will clarify the existing policy on exemptions from excepted service selection procedures, and provide additional procedures for passing over a preference eligible veteran. The intended effect of these proposed changes is to strengthen the application of veterans' entitlements in the excepted service.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, we, the Agency) is amending the regulations for food additives permitted in feed and drinking water of animals to provide for the safe use of guanidinoacetic acid as a substance that spares arginine and serves as a precursor of creatine in broiler chicken and turkey feeds. This action is in response to a food additive petition filed by Alzchem AG.

The Board and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations and commentary for the agencies' regulations that implement the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended TILA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Board and Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. The final rule memorializes this as well as the agencies' calculation method for determining the adjustment in years following a year in which there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2016, the exemption threshold will remain at $54,600 through 2017. The Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Consumer Leasing Act's threshold for exempt consumer leases. Accordingly, the Board and the Bureau are adopting similar amendments to the commentaries to each of their respective regulations implementing the Consumer Leasing Act elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

The OCC, the Board, and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations for their regulations that implement section 129H of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Section 129H of TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for ``higher-risk mortgages,'' termed ``higher-priced mortgage loans'' or ``HPMLs'' in the agencies' regulations. The OCC, the Board, the Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (collectively, the Agencies) issued joint final rules implementing these requirements, effective January 18, 2014. The Agencies' rules exempted, among other loan types, transactions of $25,000 or less, and required that this loan amount be adjusted annually based on any annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the OCC, the Board and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. The final rule will memorialize this as well as the agencies' calculation method for determining the adjustment in years following a year in which there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2016, the exemption threshold will remain at $25,500 through 2017.

The Department of Justice proposes to amend the regulations of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) governing the annual statutory limitation on cancellation of removal and suspension of deportation decisions. First, the rule proposes to eliminate certain procedures created in 1998 that were used to convert 8,000 conditional grants of suspension of deportation and cancellation of removal to outright grants before the end of fiscal year 1998. The need for such procedures ceased to exist after the end of fiscal year 1998. Second, the Department proposes to authorize immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals (Board) to issue final decisions denying applications, without restriction, regardless of whether the annual limitation has been reached. This proposed amendment would decrease the high volume of reserved decisions that results when the annual limitation is reached early in the fiscal year; reduce the associated delays caused by postponing the resolution of pending cases before EOIR; and provide an applicant with knowledge of a decision in the applicant's case on or around the date of the hearing held on the applicant's suspension or cancellation application.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce 90- day findings on three petitions to list or reclassify wildlife or plants under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Based on our review, we find that one petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted, and we are not initiating a status review in response to this petition. We refer to this as the ``not- substantial'' petition finding. We also find that two petitions present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned actions may be warranted. Therefore, with the publication of this document, we announce that we plan to initiate a review of the status of these species to determine if the petitioned actions are warranted. To ensure that these status reviews are comprehensive, we are requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding these species. Based on the status reviews, we will issue 12- month findings on the petitions, which will address whether the petitioned action is warranted, as provided in section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (``OSHRC'') is proposing revisions to its regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (``FOIA''). These proposed revisions account for statutory amendments included in the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 (``FOIA Improvement Act''), as well as the addition of procedures pertaining to confidential commercial information and preservation of records, clarifications of existing procedures, and updates to contact information.

The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing revisions and confidentiality determinations for the petroleum and natural gas systems source category of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. In particular, this action adds new monitoring methods for detecting leaks from oil and gas equipment in the petroleum and natural gas systems source category consistent with the fugitive emissions monitoring methods in the recently finalized new source performance standards for the oil and gas industry. This action also adds emission factors for leaking equipment to be used in conjunction with these monitoring methods to calculate and report greenhouse gas emissions resulting from equipment leaks. Finally, this action finalizes reporting requirements and confidentiality determinations for nine new or substantially revised data elements contained in these amendments.

This final rule implements provisions of the Affordable Care Act that expand access to health coverage through improvements in Medicaid and coordination between Medicaid, CHIP, and Exchanges. This rule finalizes most of the remaining provisions from the ``Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Programs, and Exchanges: Essential Health Benefits in Alternative Benefit Plans, Eligibility Notices, Fair Hearing and Appeal Processes for Medicaid and Exchange Eligibility Appeals and Other Provisions Related to Eligibility and Enrollment for Exchanges, Medicaid and CHIP, and Medicaid Premiums and Cost Sharing; Proposed Rule'' that we published in the January 22, 2013, Federal Register. This final rule continues our efforts to assist states in implementing Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, appeals, and enrollment changes required by the Affordable Care Act.

This action extends the comment period for an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on refunding baggage fees for delayed checked bags that was published in the Federal Register on October 31, 2016. The Department of Transportation is extending the period for persons to submit comments on this rulemaking from November 30, 2016, to January 17, 2017. This extension is in response to a petition by Airlines for America.

NMFS announces its approval of two transfers of 2016 commercial bluefish quota from the Commonwealth of Virginia to the State of New York. The approval of these transfers complies with the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provision. This announcement also informs the public of the revised commercial quotas for Virginia and New York.

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) adopts final rules to implement passenger rail-related dispute resolution provisions under the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act).

The Commission is initiating a review to determine whether competitive products provide the appropriate minimum contribution to the Postal Service's institutional costs. This advance notice informs the public of the docket's initiation, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). This revision includes regulatory amendments that allow gasoline dispensing facilities (GDFs) to decommission their Stage II vapor recovery systems as of January 2, 2015, and a demonstration that such removal is consistent with the Clean Air Act and EPA guidance. This revision also includes regulatory amendments that strengthen Massachusetts' requirements for Stage I vapor recovery systems at GDFs. The intended effect of this action is to approve Massachusetts' revised vapor recovery regulations. This action is being taken in accordance with the Clean Air Act.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. This rule clarifies that agency acquisition personnel are permitted and encouraged to engage in responsible and constructive exchanges with industry, so long as those exchanges are consistent with existing law and regulation and do not promote an unfair competitive advantage to particular firms.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Fokker Services B.V. Model F28 airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports indicating that the main landing gear (MLG) could not be extended and locked down during approach. This AD requires inspection of the restrictor check valve filter screens to detect any degraded or failed filter screens, and installation of serviceable parts. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

We are superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2014-12-06 for certain Airbus Model A300 B4-600, B4-600R, and F4-600R series airplanes, and Model A300 C4-605R Variant F airplanes (collectively called Model A300-600 series airplanes); and Airbus Model A310 series airplanes. AD 2014-12-06 required repetitive ultrasonic or detailed inspections of the external area of the aft cargo door sill beam for cracking, and repair if necessary, and provided an optional one-time high frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspection that would terminate the repetitive inspections. This new AD requires the previously optional terminating HFEC inspection, and requires that it be done repetitively. This AD was prompted by findings of multiple fatigue cracks in the aft cargo door that indicated the need for additional, repetitive, HFEC inspections. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.