Public Availability of Government Accountability Office Records, 37545-37546 [2017-16986]
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37545
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
Vol. 82, No. 154
Friday, August 11, 2017
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER
contains notices to the public of the proposed
issuance of rules and regulations. The
purpose of these notices is to give interested
persons an opportunity to participate in the
rule making prior to the adoption of the final
rules.
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
OFFICE
4 CFR Part 81
Public Availability of Government
Accountability Office Records
AGENCY:
Government Accountability
Office.
ACTION:
Proposed rule.
These proposed revisions
would clarify procedures to obtain
Government Accountability Office
(GAO) records. Specifically, the
proposed revisions would add
procedures for requesting records of
GAO’s Office of Inspector General. The
proposed revisions would also clarify
that documents prepared by GAO or
GAO’s Office of Inspector General for
referral to another agency for law
enforcement purposes are not subject to
the regulations in this Part. The existing
regulatory language on this point is
imprecise.
SUMMARY:
Comments must be received on
or before September 25, 2017.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be
submitted by any of the following
methods:
Email: bielecj@gao.gov.
Mail: Government Accountability
Office, Office of the General Counsel,
Attn: Legal Services, Room 7838, 441 G
Street NW., Washington, DC 20548.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John
A. Bielec, Assistant General Counsel,
202–512–2846.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: GAO is
not subject to the Administrative
Procedure Act and accordingly is not
required by law to seek comments
before issuing a final rule. However,
GAO has decided to invite interested
persons to participate in this rulemaking
by submitting written comments
regarding the proposed revisions.
Application of the Administrative
Procedure Act to GAO is not to be
inferred from this invitation for
comments.
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GAO will consider all comments
received on or before the closing date
for comments. GAO may change the
proposed revisions based on the
comments received.
GAO proposes to amend section 81.2
by specifically providing that GAO’s
Office of Inspector General (OIG) will
process any requests under this Part for
OIG records. The OIG, which was
established by statute in 2008, audits
and investigates matters related to
GAO’s operations. The OIG executes its
responsibilities independently of and
free from interference or control by any
other office or body within GAO. In
keeping with and to best preserve this
independence, the OIG itself should
process requests for its records. In doing
so, consistent with its independent role
and section 81.5(a), when the OIG
receives a request for records that
originated in GAO, the OIG will refer
the requester to GAO. These revisions
would provide that with respect to any
request for OIG records, throughout this
Part the term ‘‘Counsel to the Inspector
General’’ would be substituted for
‘‘Chief Quality Officer’’ and the term
‘‘Inspector General’’ would be
substituted for ‘‘Comptroller General’’.
In addition, paragraph 81.6(g) would
be amended to clarify that documents
prepared by GAO for referral to another
agency for law enforcement purposes
are exempt from the procedures in this
Part. Paragraph 81.6(g) currently
provides that records that GAO has
already provided to another agency for
law enforcement purposes are exempt.
However, paragraph 81.6(g) does not
specifically address requests for records
that GAO, including the OIG, created for
referral to another agency for law
enforcement purposes, but has not yet
provided to another agency. For
instance, during an investigation into
possible criminal activity, the GAO OIG
creates documents that may be
forwarded to another agency for law
enforcement purposes at the conclusion
of the OIG’s investigation. The current
regulations are unclear as to whether
such records, which have not yet been
forwarded to another agency, would be
subject to this Part if requested before
the conclusion of the investigation. The
proposed changes would clarify that
records compiled for referral to another
agency for law enforcement purposes
are exempt from this Part.
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List of Subjects in 4 CFR Part 81
Administrative practice and
procedure, Archives and records,
Freedom of information, Requests for
records.
For the reasons stated in the
preamble, the Government
Accountability Office proposes to
amend 4 CFR part 81 as follows:
PART 81—PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
OFFICE RECORDS
1. The authority citation for part 81
continues to read as follows:
■
Authority: 31 U.S.C. 711.
2. Amend § 81.2 as follows:
a. redesignate the existing text as
paragraph (a);
■ b. add paragraph (b) to read as
follows:
■
■
§ 81.2
Administration.
*
*
*
*
*
(b) Requests for records of GAO’s
Office of Inspector General (OIG) shall
be processed by the Counsel to the
Inspector General in accordance with
this Part. The Inspector General will
decide any administrative appeals of
decisions of the Counsel to the Inspector
General concerning such requests.
Accordingly, with regard to any public
request to inspect or copy records of the
OIG, in this Part the term ‘‘Counsel to
the Inspector General’’ is to be
substituted for ‘‘Chief Quality Officer’’
and the term ‘‘Inspector General’’ is to
be substituted for ‘‘Comptroller
General’’. All requests to inspect or
obtain a copy of an identifiable record
of the OIG must be submitted in writing
to the Counsel to the Inspector General,
U.S. Government Accountability Office,
Suite 1808, 441 G Street NW.,
Washington, DC 20548 or emailed to
oighotline@.gov.
■ 3. Amend § 81.6 by revising paragraph
(g) to read as follows:
§ 81.6 Records which may be exempt from
disclosure.
*
*
*
*
*
(g) Records compiled for law
enforcement purposes that originate in
another agency, or records prepared for
referral to and/or provided by GAO or
the OIG to another agency for law
enforcement purposes.
*
*
*
*
*
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37546
Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 154 / Friday, August 11, 2017 / Proposed Rules
Dated July 27, 2017.
Susan A. Poling,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2017–16986 Filed 8–10–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 1610–02–P
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service
9 CFR Part 94
[Docket No. APHIS–2013–0061]
RIN 0579–AD96
Restrictions on the Importation of
Fresh Pork and Pork Products From a
Region in Mexico
Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Proposed rule; withdrawal.
AGENCY:
We are withdrawing a
proposed rule that would have defined
a low-risk classical swine fever region in
Mexico from which we would have
allowed the importation of fresh pork
and pork products into the United
States under certain conditions. We are
taking this action after reopening our
risk evaluation of the classical swine
fever status of Mexico using updated
information.
DATES: As of August 11, 2017, the
proposed rule published on July 29,
2014, at 79 FR 43974, is withdrawn.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr.
Chip Wells, Senior Staff Veterinarian,
Regionalization Evaluation Services,
National Import Export Services, VS,
APHIS, USDA, 4700 River Road Unit 38,
Riverdale, MD 20737–1231;
Chip.J.Wells@aphis.usda.gov; (301) 851–
3317.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July
29, 2014, we published in the Federal
Register (79 FR 43974–43980, Docket
No. APHIS–2013–0061) a proposal 1 to
amend the regulations by recognizing a
new Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS)-defined
low-risk classical swine fever (CSF)
region that would consist of all Mexican
States except the nine States we
currently recognize as CSF-free and the
State of Chiapas, which we did not
propose to recognize as CSF-free or low
risk. We proposed to allow imports of
pork and pork products from the
APHIS-defined Mexican CSF region into
the United States under certain
asabaliauskas on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with PROPOSALS
SUMMARY:
conditions. The proposed requirements
were intended to ensure that the pork
and pork products were derived from
swine housed on farms that met strict
biosanitary standards and were not
subject to contamination by means of
commingling with animals or animal
products that did not meet our
requirements.
We solicited comments concerning
our proposal for 60 days ending
September 29, 2014. We received 10
comments by that date. They were from
producers’ associations, the Government
of Mexico, and individuals. The
commenters addressed a number of
issues, including the possible CSF risk
posed by allowing such imports, our
plans for implementing and enforcing
the provisions of the proposed rule, and
whether our requirements for imports
from the proposed CSF low-risk region
in Mexico were equivalent to those in
place for the existing CSF low-risk
region in the European Union.
In 2015, the World Organization for
Animal Health recognized Mexico as
CSF-free. The Government of Mexico
then requested that APHIS suspend its
rulemaking and instead continue
evaluating Mexico for CSF status.
In response to that request, APHIS
reopened its evaluation of the CSF
status of Mexico, conducting a site visit
in 2015. Findings from the resulting
2015 site visit report, along with
updated surveillance data and
information submitted by the
Government of Mexico, led APHIS to
determine that concerns identified in
the earlier risk assessment that
supported the July 2014 proposed rule
had been addressed and that current
conditions would support CSF-free
recognition for all of Mexico.
Therefore, we are withdrawing the
July 29, 2014, proposed rule referenced
above.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, 7781–
7786, and 8301–8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and
136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and
371.4.
Done in Washington, DC, August 7, 2017.
Michael C. Gregoire,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2017–16980 Filed 8–10–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410–34–P
1 To view the proposed rule, supporting
documents, and the comments we received, go to
https://www.regulations.gov/
#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2013-0061.
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
14 CFR Part 39
[Docket No. FAA–2017–0766; Product
Identifier 2017–NM–046–AD]
RIN 2120–AA64
Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing
Company Airplanes
Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking
(NPRM).
AGENCY:
We propose to adopt a new
airworthiness directive (AD) for all The
Boeing Company Model 737–100, –200,
–200C, –300, –400, and –500 series
airplanes. This proposed AD was
prompted by an evaluation by the
design approval holder (DAH)
indicating that the gore web lap splices
of the aft pressure bulkhead are subject
to widespread fatigue damage (WFD).
This proposed AD would require
repetitive inspections of the gore webs,
gore web lap splices, and repair webs,
as applicable, of the aft pressure
bulkhead, and applicable on-condition
actions. We are proposing this AD to
address the unsafe condition on these
products.
DATES: We must receive comments on
this proposed AD by September 25,
2017.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments,
using the procedures found in 14 CFR
11.43 and 11.45, by any of the following
methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
• Fax: 202–493–2251.
• Mail: U.S. Department of
Transportation, Docket Operations, M–
30, West Building Ground Floor, Room
W12–140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC 20590.
• Hand Delivery: Deliver to Mail
address above between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays.
For service information identified in
this NPRM, contact Boeing Commercial
Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data
Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster
Blvd., MC 110–SK57, Seal Beach, CA
90740–5600; telephone 562–797–1717;
Internet https://
www.myboeingfleet.com. You may view
this referenced service information at
the FAA, Transport Standards Branch,
1601 Lind Avenue SW., Renton, WA.
For information on the availability of
this material at the FAA, call 425–227–
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\11AUP1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 154 (Friday, August 11, 2017)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 37545-37546]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-16986]
========================================================================
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
========================================================================
Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 154 / Friday, August 11, 2017 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 37545]]
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
4 CFR Part 81
Public Availability of Government Accountability Office Records
AGENCY: Government Accountability Office.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: These proposed revisions would clarify procedures to obtain
Government Accountability Office (GAO) records. Specifically, the
proposed revisions would add procedures for requesting records of GAO's
Office of Inspector General. The proposed revisions would also clarify
that documents prepared by GAO or GAO's Office of Inspector General for
referral to another agency for law enforcement purposes are not subject
to the regulations in this Part. The existing regulatory language on
this point is imprecise.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 25, 2017.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
Email: bielecj@gao.gov.
Mail: Government Accountability Office, Office of the General
Counsel, Attn: Legal Services, Room 7838, 441 G Street NW., Washington,
DC 20548.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John A. Bielec, Assistant General
Counsel, 202-512-2846.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: GAO is not subject to the Administrative
Procedure Act and accordingly is not required by law to seek comments
before issuing a final rule. However, GAO has decided to invite
interested persons to participate in this rulemaking by submitting
written comments regarding the proposed revisions. Application of the
Administrative Procedure Act to GAO is not to be inferred from this
invitation for comments.
GAO will consider all comments received on or before the closing
date for comments. GAO may change the proposed revisions based on the
comments received.
GAO proposes to amend section 81.2 by specifically providing that
GAO's Office of Inspector General (OIG) will process any requests under
this Part for OIG records. The OIG, which was established by statute in
2008, audits and investigates matters related to GAO's operations. The
OIG executes its responsibilities independently of and free from
interference or control by any other office or body within GAO. In
keeping with and to best preserve this independence, the OIG itself
should process requests for its records. In doing so, consistent with
its independent role and section 81.5(a), when the OIG receives a
request for records that originated in GAO, the OIG will refer the
requester to GAO. These revisions would provide that with respect to
any request for OIG records, throughout this Part the term ``Counsel to
the Inspector General'' would be substituted for ``Chief Quality
Officer'' and the term ``Inspector General'' would be substituted for
``Comptroller General''.
In addition, paragraph 81.6(g) would be amended to clarify that
documents prepared by GAO for referral to another agency for law
enforcement purposes are exempt from the procedures in this Part.
Paragraph 81.6(g) currently provides that records that GAO has already
provided to another agency for law enforcement purposes are exempt.
However, paragraph 81.6(g) does not specifically address requests for
records that GAO, including the OIG, created for referral to another
agency for law enforcement purposes, but has not yet provided to
another agency. For instance, during an investigation into possible
criminal activity, the GAO OIG creates documents that may be forwarded
to another agency for law enforcement purposes at the conclusion of the
OIG's investigation. The current regulations are unclear as to whether
such records, which have not yet been forwarded to another agency,
would be subject to this Part if requested before the conclusion of the
investigation. The proposed changes would clarify that records compiled
for referral to another agency for law enforcement purposes are exempt
from this Part.
List of Subjects in 4 CFR Part 81
Administrative practice and procedure, Archives and records,
Freedom of information, Requests for records.
For the reasons stated in the preamble, the Government
Accountability Office proposes to amend 4 CFR part 81 as follows:
PART 81--PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
RECORDS
0
1. The authority citation for part 81 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 31 U.S.C. 711.
0
2. Amend Sec. 81.2 as follows:
0
a. redesignate the existing text as paragraph (a);
0
b. add paragraph (b) to read as follows:
Sec. 81.2 Administration.
* * * * *
(b) Requests for records of GAO's Office of Inspector General (OIG)
shall be processed by the Counsel to the Inspector General in
accordance with this Part. The Inspector General will decide any
administrative appeals of decisions of the Counsel to the Inspector
General concerning such requests. Accordingly, with regard to any
public request to inspect or copy records of the OIG, in this Part the
term ``Counsel to the Inspector General'' is to be substituted for
``Chief Quality Officer'' and the term ``Inspector General'' is to be
substituted for ``Comptroller General''. All requests to inspect or
obtain a copy of an identifiable record of the OIG must be submitted in
writing to the Counsel to the Inspector General, U.S. Government
Accountability Office, Suite 1808, 441 G Street NW., Washington, DC
20548 or emailed to oighotline@.gov.
0
3. Amend Sec. 81.6 by revising paragraph (g) to read as follows:
Sec. 81.6 Records which may be exempt from disclosure.
* * * * *
(g) Records compiled for law enforcement purposes that originate in
another agency, or records prepared for referral to and/or provided by
GAO or the OIG to another agency for law enforcement purposes.
* * * * *
[[Page 37546]]
Dated July 27, 2017.
Susan A. Poling,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2017-16986 Filed 8-10-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 1610-02-P
