January 9, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The General Services Administration (GSA) is issuing a final rule amending the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to clarify that the ordering-agency task and delivery order Ombudsman has jurisdiction and responsibility to review and resolve fair opportunity complaints on tasks and delivery orders placed against GSA multiple-award contracts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposes to designate approximately 52 square miles of waters encompassing and surrounding Maryland's Mallows Bay as the Mallows BayPotomac River National Marine Sanctuary (MPNMS or sanctuary). NOAA also proposes regulations to implement the sanctuary designation and establish the sanctuary's terms of designation to protect historical, archeological, and cultural resources of national significance. A draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and draft management plan (DMP) have also been prepared for this proposed action. The purpose of this action is to supplement and complement current Maryland state regulations and resource protection efforts to ensure long term protection of the nationally significant collection of historic shipwrecks and other maritime cultural heritage resources. NOAA is soliciting public comment on the proposed rule, draft environmental impact statement, and draft management plan. NOAA will also begin consultations under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and solicit public comments specifically related to the identification and assessment of the historic properties within the affected area in compliance with Section 106 review process.

This final rule revises the Environmental Protection Agency's (``EPA'') Consolidated Rules of Practice governing the administrative assessment of civil penalties and various other administrative adjudicatory hearings. These revisions simplify the administrative processing of cases by removing inconsistencies, codifying electronic filing and service procedures, and streamlining the procedures in cases initiated at EPA Headquarters. This rule also corrects some punctuation typographical errors found in the Consolidated Rules of Practice. This rule similarly revises EPA's procedures governing decisionmaking in permit appeals. These amendments are procedural in nature and none of these changes are intended to substantively alter the Agency's administrative enforcement actions or review of permit appeals.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve the second ten-year maintenance plans for the Ajo and Morenci areas in Arizona for the 1971 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for sulfur dioxide (SO2), and to correct an error in the description of the Ajo, Arizona SO2 maintenance area in the Code of Federal Regulations.

In this final rule, the Department of Labor (DOL or Department) revises regulations issued pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (DBRA), the Service Contract Act (SCA), Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (CWHSSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) that include reference to the ``Employment Standards Administration'' at the DOL. The Employment Standards Administration was eliminated as part of agency reorganization in 2009 and its authorities and responsibilities were devolved into its constituent components, including the Wage and Hour Division (WHD). This action deletes reference to the Employment Standards Administration in the regulations administered by WHD. Additionally, this action updates Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control numbers associated with information collections in the appropriate regulations. WHD was assigned new control numbers by OMB and this action updates those references in the regulations to the current corresponding OMB control number. Further, this action updates cross-references that were not revised in the FMLA Final Rule published February 25, 2015.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding a subsurface intrusion (SsI) component to the Hazard Ranking System (HRS), which is the principal mechanism that EPA uses to evaluate sites for placement on the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is a list of national priorities among the known or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants throughout the United States. Sites on the NPL are priorities for further investigation to determine if further response actions are warranted. The subsurface intrusion component (this addition) expands the number of available options for EPA and state and tribal organizations performing work on behalf of EPA to evaluate actual and potential threats to public health from releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. This addition enables EPA to directly consider human exposure to hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants that enter regularly occupied structures through subsurface intrusion in assessing a site's relative risk, and thus, enable sites with subsurface intrusion contamination to be evaluated for placement on the NPL.