2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are proposing to amend the regulations that govern the importation of animals and animal products to revise the conditions for the importation of live sheep, goats, and certain other non-bovine ruminants, and products derived from sheep and goats, with regard to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and scrapie. We are proposing to remove BSE- related import restrictions on sheep and goats and most of their products, and to add import restrictions related to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies for certain wild, zoological, or other non- bovine ruminant species. The conditions we are proposing for the importation of specified commodities are based on internationally accepted scientific literature and will in general align our regulations with guidelines set out in the World Organization for Animal Health's Terrestrial Animal Health Code.

The Secretary amends the regulations that govern the Equity Assistance Centers (EAC) program, authorized under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title IV), and removes the regulations that govern the State Educational Agency Desegregation (SEA Desegregation) program, authorized under Title IV. These regulations govern the application process for new EAC grant awards. These regulations update the definitions applicable to this program; remove the existing selection criteria; and provide the Secretary with flexibility to determine the number and composition of geographic regions for the EAC program.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is determining that the San Joaquin Valley nonattainment area has attained the 1-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard. This determination is based on sufficient, quality-assured, and certified data for the 2012-2014 period. Ozone data collected in 2015 show continued attainment of the standard in the San Joaquin Valley.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing its decision to grant a 1-year extension of the attainment date for the Oakridge, Oregon nonattainment area to meet the 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS from December 31, 2015 to December 31, 2016, on the basis that the State has met the criteria for such an extension under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

This rule implements a recommendation from the California Olive Committee (Committee) to suspend the incoming size-grade authority under the California olive marketing order (order), which regulates the handling of olives in California. The rule also makes conforming changes to the corresponding size-grade requirements in the order's rules and regulations to adapt them to the suspension. The Committee locally administers the order and is comprised of California olive producers and handlers operating within the production area. The suspension and revisions are intended to allow the Committee time to develop new incoming size-grade authority that will reflect currently- available technology and meet the industry's future needs.

This document contains final regulations on the arbitrage restrictions under section 148 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) applicable to tax-exempt bonds and other tax-advantaged bonds issued by State and local governments. These final regulations amend existing regulations to address certain market developments, simplify certain provisions, address certain technical issues, and make existing regulations more administrable. These final regulations affect State and local governments that issue tax-exempt and other tax-advantaged bonds.

These special conditions are issued for the Cirrus Design Corporation (Cirrus), model SF50 airplane. This airplane will have a novel or unusual design feature(s) associated with a whole airplane parachute recovery system. 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 Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs the Metro-North Bridge across the Mianus River, mile 1.0, at Greenwich, Connecticut. This deviation is necessary to allow the bridge owner to perform superstructure repairs and replace timber ties.

NMFS is closing the U.S. pelagic longline fishery for bigeye tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean because the fishery has reached the 2016 catch limit. This action is necessary to ensure compliance with NMFS regulations that implement decisions of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

The Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs Seattle Department of Transportation's (SDOT) Fremont Bridge, across the Lake Washington Ship Canal, mile 2.6, at Seattle, WA. The deviation is necessary to accommodate heavy pedestrian and cycling traffic across the bridge during the `Fun Ride' fundraising event. The deviation allows the bridge to remain in the closed-to-navigation position and need not open to maritime traffic.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Bombardier, Inc. Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a determination by the manufacturer that shims might not have been installed between certain longerons and longeron joint fittings. This proposed AD would require repetitive inspections of the external surface of the fuselage skin panel for loose or working fasteners, and corrective action if necessary; a detailed visual inspection of the longeron joint fittings for the existence of shims and, if necessary, repetitive inspections of the longeron and the longeron joint fittings for any cracking, and corrective action if necessary. This proposed AD would also provide terminating action for certain repetitive inspections. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct missing shims between the longerons and longeron joint fittings. Such missing shims could result in a gapping condition and lead to stress corrosion cracking of the longeron joint fittings, and could adversely affect the structural integrity of the wing-to-fuselage attachment joints.

This final rule amends the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulation on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single- Employer Plans to prescribe interest assumptions under the regulation for valuation dates in August 2016. The interest assumptions are used for paying benefits under terminating single-employer plans covered by the pension insurance system administered by PBGC.

This proposed rule would amend the Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Order (Soybean Order) and the Beef Promotion and Research Order (Beef Order) to add provisions allowing soybean and beef producers to request, under certain circumstances, that their assessments paid to a State board or council authorized under their respective statutes, be redirected to the national program. The proposed rule also would make technical amendments to the Beef Order.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a final rule in the Federal Register on May 24, 2016, amending its licensing, inspection, and annual fee regulations to establish a variable annual fee structure for light-water small modular reactors. The final rule contained a grammatical error in a definition, an incorrect reference format, and an incomplete signature date. This document corrects the final rule by revising the sections that contain these errors and completing the signature date.

These special conditions are issued for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (Gulfstream) Model GVII-G500 airplane. This airplane will have a novel or unusual design feature when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for transport-category airplanes. This design feature is a digital systems architecture requiring isolation or protection from unauthorized internal access. 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 final rule updates the regulations regarding classified information to reflect changes in organizational structure, update the legal authorities, incorporate new references, and refer historical researchers and former Presidential appointees to Executive Order 13526.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to revise the current federal Clean Water Act selenium water quality criteria applicable to the San Francisco Bay and Delta to ensure that the criteria are set at levels that protect aquatic life and aquatic- dependent wildlife, including federally listed threatened and endangered species. The San Francisco Bay and Delta ecosystem is at risk due to environmental degradation, including impacts from elevated levels of selenium, and state and federal actions are underway to restore the waterway. Scientific evidence indicates that elevated selenium levels can contribute to the decline of fish and aquatic- dependent birds. EPA promulgated the San Francisco Bay and Delta's existing selenium criteria in 1992 as part of the National Toxics Rule, using EPA's recommended aquatic life criteria values at the time. However, the latest science on selenium fate and bioaccumulation indicates that the existing criteria are not protective of aquatic life and aquatic-dependent wildlife in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Therefore, EPA is proposing to revise the existing selenium criteria, taking into account available science, legal requirements, and EPA policies and guidance. EPA's proposal will address the Administrator's determinationdescribed in this preamblethat EPA's previously promulgated water quality criteria are not adequate to protect the designated uses for these waters.

This rule proposes to make the following changes to current regulations implementing the Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Act: Adopting the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program's List of WTC-Related Health Conditions (List), the WTC Health Program's standards for certifying that an injury is covered for treatment under the Program, and related regulatory provisions, establishing payment offset provisions between the PSOB Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and revising the provisions that define when the statutory presumption of line-of-duty death resulting from certain heart attacks, strokes, and vascular ruptures is rebutted. The proposed changes based on the WTC Health Program's List and related provisions would provide a means for claimants to establish that certain public safety officers with chronic, often latent, health conditions sustained a line-of-duty injury under the PSOB Act. The proposed payment offset provisions are intended to implement statutory amendments to the PSOB Act requiring such offset and to facilitate claims processing. Similarly, the proposed rule implementing the statutory presumption associated with certain heart attacks, strokes, and vascular ruptures is intended to amend the current regulation to conform to recent amendments to the PSOB Act and to improve the processing of such claims.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a summary of the Commission's Third Report and Order, 81 FR 33026, May 24, 2016 which fully modernizes the Lifeline program so it supports broadband services and obtains high value from the expenditure of Universal Service funds. This document clarifies the effective dates for the rules as they were published in the Federal Register, in order to promote consistency with the effective dates found in the Commission's Third Report and Order. Additionally, this document clarifies rules subject to certain effective dates in order to reflect implementation changes being made to the program.

The Coast Guard is creating temporary safety zones around each tall ship visiting the Great Lakes during the Tall Ships Challenge 2016 race series. These safety zones will provide for the regulation of vessel traffic in the vicinity of each tall ship in the navigable waters of the United States. The Coast Guard is taking this action to safeguard participants and spectators from the hazards associated with the limited maneuverability of these tall ships and to ensure public safety during tall ships events.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Indiana Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation (AMLR) Plan (hereinafter, the Plan) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Indiana proposes to revise its Plan to reflect the 2006 changes to SMCRA. This document gives the times and locations that the Indiana Plan and this proposed amendment to that Plan are available for your inspection, the comment period during which you may submit written comments on the amendment, and the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.

NMFS is reapportioning the seasonal apportionments of the 2016 Pacific halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for the trawl deep-water and shallow-water species fishery categories in the Gulf of Alaska. This action is necessary to account for the actual halibut PSC use by the trawl deep-water and shallow-water species fishery categories from May 15, 2016, through June 30, 2016. This action is consistent with the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is amending the Agency's regulations by removing certain regulations that include obsolete references. FDA is taking this action to improve the accuracy of the regulations.

This document contains final regulations modifying regulations under section 7602(a) of the Internal Revenue Code relating to administrative summonses. Specifically, these final regulations clarify that persons with whom the IRS or the Office of Chief Counsel (Chief Counsel) contracts for services described in section 6103(n) and its implementing regulations may be included as persons designated to receive summoned books, papers, records, or other data and, in the presence and under the guidance of an IRS officer or employee, participate fully in the interview of a witness summoned by the IRS to provide testimony under oath. These regulations may affect taxpayers, a taxpayer's officers or employees, and any third party who is served with a summons, as well as any other person entitled to notice of a summons.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve in part and disapprove in part portions of the April 23, 2013, State Implementation Plan (SIP) submission, submitted by the State of Alabama, through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), for inclusion into the Alabama SIP. This proposal pertains to the infrastructure requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the 2010 1-hour sulfur dioxide (SO2) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). The CAA requires that each state adopt and submit a SIP for the implementation, maintenance and enforcement of each NAAQS promulgated by EPA, which is commonly referred to as an ``infrastructure'' SIP. ADEM certified that the Alabama SIP contains provisions that ensure the 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS is implemented, enforced, and maintained in Alabama. With the exception of provisions respecting state boards, which EPA is proposing to disapprove, and interstate transport, which EPA is not proposing any action at this time, EPA is proposing to determine that portions of Alabama's infrastructure SIP submission provided to EPA on April 23, 2013, satisfy the required infrastructure elements for the 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS.