October 26, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS is exchanging unused flathead sole and rock sole Community Development Quota (CDQ) for yellowfin sole CDQ acceptable biological catch (ABC) reserves in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. This action is necessary to allow the 2017 total allowable catch of yellowfin sole in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area to be harvested.

The Coast Guard is withdrawing its advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) concerning the Bridge of Lions (SR A1A) across the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, mile 777.9, at St. Augustine, Florida. The City of St. Augustine proposed to modify the bridge operating schedule to alleviate vehicle traffic congestion. However, the Coast Guard has determined it would be inappropriate to move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking. The Coast Guard believes placing additional restrictions to the bridge would add additional hazards to mariners and effect the safe navigation of vessels awaiting bridge openings.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) proposes to approve Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standard CIP-003-7 (Cyber SecuritySecurity Management Controls), submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). Proposed Reliability Standard CIP-003-7 improves upon the current Commission-approved CIP Reliability Standards by clarifying the obligations pertaining to electronic access control for low impact BES Cyber Systems; adopting mandatory security controls for transient electronic devices (e.g., thumb drives, laptop computers, and other portable devices frequently connected to and disconnected from systems) used at low impact BES Cyber Systems; and requiring responsible entities to have a policy for declaring and responding to CIP Exceptional Circumstances related to low impact BES Cyber Systems. In addition, the Commission proposes to direct NERC to develop certain modifications to the NERC Reliability Standards to provide clear, objective criteria for electronic access controls for low impact BES Cyber Systems; and address the need to mitigate the risk of malicious code that could result from third-party transient electronic devices.

These special conditions are issued for Boeing Model 777-300ER airplanes with high-wall suites installed in the passenger cabin. This installation is novel or unusual, and the applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this interior configuration. 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 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to notify the public that it has received a negative declaration for the City of Philadelphia Air Management Services (Philadelphia AMS) for sewage sludge incineration (SSI) units. This negative declaration certifies that SSI units subject to the requirements of sections 111(d) and 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) do not exist within the City of Philadelphia in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. EPA is accepting the negative declaration in accordance with the requirements of the CAA. In the Final Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register, EPA is accepting the negative declaration as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

As required under section 8(b)(10)(D) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA is proposing reporting requirements for applicable persons to provide information to assist in the preparation of an ``inventory of mercury supply, use, and trade in the United States,'' where ``mercury'' is defined as ``elemental mercury'' and ``a mercury compound.'' The requirements would be applicable to any person who manufactures (including imports) mercury or mercury-added products, or otherwise intentionally uses mercury in a manufacturing process. Based on the inventory of information collected, the Agency is directed to ``identify any manufacturing processes or products that intentionally add mercury; and . . . recommend actions, including proposed revisions of Federal law or regulations, to achieve further reductions in mercury use.'' At this time, EPA is not making such identifications or recommendations.

This rule establishes a de minimis quantity exemption threshold under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) regulations regarding a national research and promotion program for softwood lumber. In response to a 2016 federal district court decision, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted a new analysis to determine a reasonable and appropriate de minimis threshold. Based on that analysis, this rule establishes the de minimis quantity threshold at 15 million board feet (mmbf) and entities manufacturing (and domestically shipping) or importing less than 15 mmbf per year will be exempt from paying assessments under the regulations.

The United States Copyright Office (``Copyright Office'' or ``Office'') is conducting the seventh triennial rulemaking proceeding under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (``DMCA''), concerning possible temporary exemptions to the DMCA's prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. In this proceeding, the Copyright Office has established a new, streamlined procedure for the renewal of exemptions that were granted during the sixth triennial rulemaking. It is also considering petitions for new exemptions to engage in activities not currently permitted by existing exemptions. On June 30, 2017, the Office published a Notice of Inquiry requesting petitions to renew existing exemptions and comments in response to those petitions, as well as petitions for new exemptions to engage in activities not currently permitted by existing exemptions. The Office has carefully considered the comments received in response to that Notice. With this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (``NPRM''), the Office intends to recommend each of the existing exemptions for readoption. This NPRM also initiates three rounds of public comment on the newly-proposed exemptions. Interested parties are invited to make full legal and evidentiary submissions in support of or in opposition to the proposed exemptions, in accordance with the requirements set forth below.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 737-200, -200C, -300, -400, and -500 series airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports of skin doublers that disbonded from their skin panels. This AD requires repetitive inspections of fuselage skin panels, and applicable on-condition actions. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

This document corrects a correction to a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-134247-16) that was published in the Federal Register on Friday, September 15, 2017. The notice of proposed rulemaking, published on January 6, 2017, under section 1441 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code), relates to withholding of tax on certain U.S. source income paid to foreign persons and requirements for certain claims for refund or credit of income tax made by foreign persons.