December 18, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This proposed rule sets forth the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA or Department) intention to withdraw the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) final rule published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2017, by USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). The OLPP final rule amends the organic livestock and poultry production requirements in the USDA organic regulations by adding new provisions for livestock handling and transport for slaughter and avian living conditions; and expands and clarifies existing requirements covering livestock care and production practices and mammalian living conditions. The OLPP final rule was originally set to take effect on March 20, 2017. The effective date has been extended to May 14, 2018 under separate actions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving Vermont's Regional Haze Five-Year Progress Report (Progress Report), submitted on February 29, 2016 as a revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP). Vermont's SIP revision addresses requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's rules that require states to submit periodic reports describing the progress toward reasonable progress goals (RPGs) established for regional haze and a determination of adequacy of the State's existing regional haze SIP. EPA is approving Vermont's Progress Report on the basis that it addresses the progress report and adequacy determination requirements for the first implementation period covering through 2018.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is amending the worker safety and health program regulations to update the safety and health standards and delete the obsolete directives currently incorporated by reference in the code of federal regulations. The regulatory amendments do not alter substantive rights or obligations under current law.

As part of its implementation of, ``Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,'' (January 30, 2017) and, ``Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,'' (Feb. 24, 2017), the Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking comments and information from interested parties to assist DOE in identifying potential modifications to its ``Process Rule'' for the development of appliance standards to achieve meaningful burden reduction while continuing to achieve the Department's statutory obligations in the development of appliance standards. DOE will also hold a public meeting to receive input from interested parties on potential improvements to the ``Process Rule''. This RFI is the first in a series of steps DOE is taking to consider modifications to the ``Process Rule.'' Subsequently, DOE expects to expeditiously publish an ANPRM that will provide feedback on the public comment received in response to this notice and seek additional information on potential improvements to our process for developing and promulgating energy efficiency standards.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, information requirements associated with the Commission's Order, FCC 17-15. In this Order, the Commission minimized the compliance burdens imposed by the Uniform System of Accounts (USOA) on price cap and rate- of-return telephone companies, while ensuring that the Commission retains access to the information it needs to fulfill its regulatory duties. This document is consistent with the Order, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date of the rules.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-200 Freighter, -200, and -300 series airplanes; and Airbus Model A340-200, -300, -500, and -600 series airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report that the trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuator (THSA) might not function as intended after failure of the primary load path. This AD requires repetitive detailed visual inspections for discrepancies of the THSA upper attachments and no-back housing. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts a regulatory framework to facilitate the delivery of broadband services through satellite constellation networks. The Commission updates, clarifies and streamlines the current rules governing non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service systems to better reflect current technology and promote additional operational flexibility.