November 23, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve two submissions from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) revising the State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the State of Missouri. The SIP revision submissions address the Clean Air Act (CAA) section 172 requirement to submit a base year emissions inventory for Missouri's partial Jackson County and partial Jefferson County nonattainment areas of the 2010 1-hour Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).

This document contains proposed regulations addressing the effect of recent legislative changes to the basic exclusion amount used in computing Federal gift and estate taxes. The proposed regulations will affect donors of gifts made after 2017 and the estates of decedents dying after 2017.

In response to a request from the public, NHTSA is announcing a two-week extension of the comment period on the ANPRM on a Pilot Program for Collaborative Research on Motor Vehicles with High or Full Driving Automation. The comment period for the ANPRM was originally scheduled to end on November 26, 2018. It will now end on December 10, 2018.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD), comprised of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS), Rural Housing Service (RHS), and Rural Utilities Service (RUS), hereafter referred to as the Agency, proposes amending the Agency's Environmental Policies and Procedures regulation to allow the Agency Administrators limited flexibility to obligate federal funds for infrastructure projects prior to completion of the environmental review while ensuring full compliance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures prior to project construction and disbursement of funding. The proposed change will allow RD to more fully meet the Administration's goals to speed the initiation of infrastructure projects and encourage planned community economic development without additional cost to taxpayers or change to environmental review requirements.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing approval of the emissions inventory, modeled attainment demonstration, determination for Major Stationary Source Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT), determination for On-Road Mobile Sources Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM), determination for Cache County Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) Program as additional reasonable measures, determination for Off-Road Mobile Sources RACM, and the 2015 Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets (MVEB) portions of the attainment plan submitted by Utah on December 16, 2014, to address Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act) requirements for the 2006 24-hour fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in the Logan, Utah (UT)Idaho (ID) Moderate PM2.5 nonattainment area. These actions are being taken under section 110 of the CAA.

The Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that governs the California Route 160 Drawbridge across Three Mile Slough, mile 0.1, near Rio Vista, CA. The deviation is necessary to conduct preventative maintenance. This deviation allows the bridge to remain in the closed-to-navigation position.

The Coast Guard will enforce a safety zone for a fireworks display located between mile marker (MM) 94 and (MM) 95, above Head of Passes. This action is needed to provide for the safety of life on navigable waterways during this event.

The OCC, the Board, and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations for their regulations that implement section 129H of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Section 129H of TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for ``higher-risk mortgages,'' termed ``higher-priced mortgage loans'' or ``HPMLs'' in the agencies' regulations. The OCC, the Board, the Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (collectively, the Agencies) issued joint final rules implementing these requirements, effective January 18, 2014. The Agencies' rules exempted, among other loan types, transactions of $25,000 or less, and required that this loan amount be adjusted annually based on any annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the OCC, the Board, and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. However, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2018, the exemption threshold will increase from $26,000 to $26,700, effective January 1, 2019.

The Board and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations and commentary for the agencies' regulations that implement the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the CLA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer leases be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Board and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. However, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage change in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W as of June 1, 2018, the exemption threshold will increase from $55,800 to $57,200 effective January 1, 2019. Because the Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Truth in Lending Act's threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions, the Board and the Bureau are making similar amendments to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus SAS Model A350-941 airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by reports of an overheat failure mode of the hydraulic engine-driven pump (EDP), and a determination that the affected EDP needs to be replaced with an improved EDP. This proposed AD would require replacement of a certain EDP with an improved EDP. We are proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

In this Policy Statement, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) states its policy regarding the treatment of Accumulated Deferred Income Taxes for both accounting and ratemaking purposes as to Commission-jurisdictional public utilities, natural gas pipelines and oil pipelines, in light of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In addition, the Commission addresses the accounting and ratemaking treatment of Accumulated Deferred Income Taxes following the sale or retirement of an asset.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Zodiac Aero Evacuation Systems (also known as Air Cruisers Company) fusible plugs installed on emergency evacuation equipment for various transport category airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports indicating that affected fusible plugs activated (vented gas) below the rated temperature. This AD requires an inspection of the fusible plugs to determine the part number and lot number, and replacement of all affected fusible plugs. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

This major final rule addresses changes to the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) and other Medicare Part B payment policies to ensure that our payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the relative value of services, as well as changes in the statute. This final rule also finalizes policies included in the interim final rule with comment period in ``Medicare Program; CY 2018 Updates to the Quality Payment Program; and Quality Payment Program: Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstance Policy for the Transition Year'' that address the extreme and uncontrollable circumstances MIPS eligible clinicians faced as a result of widespread catastrophic events affecting a region or locale in CY 2017, such as Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria. In addition, this final rule addresses a subset of the changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) proposed in the August 2018 proposed rule ``Medicare Program; Medicare Shared Savings Program; Accountable Care OrganizationsPathways to Success''. This final rule also addresses certain other revisions designed to update program policies under the Shared Savings Program. The interim final rule implements amendments made by the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act to the Medicare telehealth provisions in the Social Security Act and regarding permissible telehealth originating sites for purposes of treatment of a substance use disorder or a co-occurring mental health disorder for telehealth services furnished on or after July 1, 2019 to an individual with a substance use disorder diagnosis.