November 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have received an application for a permit to conduct activities intended to enhance the propagation and survival of endangered plant species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. We invite the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies to comment on this application. Before issuing the requested permit, we will take into consideration any information that we receive during the public comment period.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, this notice announces that the Office of Acquisition and Logistics, Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The PRA submission describes the nature of the information collection and its expected cost and burden and it includes the actual data collection instrument.

The Department of the Treasury will submit the following information collection requests to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. The public is invited to submit comments on these requests.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce a cost of living adjustment (COLA) of 2.5% in the royalty rates satellite carriers pay for a compulsory license under the Copyright Act. The COLA is based on the change in the Consumer Price Index from October 2017 to October 2018.

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the provisions of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Commission), and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) that a planning meeting of the Vermont Advisory Committee to the Commission will be convened by teleconference call at 11:00 a.m. (EST) on Friday, December 7, 2018. The purpose of the meeting is for discussing the proposal on school to prison pipeline issues in Vermont.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)'s Talent Acquisition and Workforce Shaping Center offers the general public and other Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a request for reinstatement of a revised information collection for the Standard Form (SF) 15, Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, as amended by the Clinger-Cohen Act, OPM is soliciting comments for this collection. The information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on November 21, 2017, allowing for a 60-day public comment period. Two comments were received for this information collection. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments.

The Retirement Services, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) offers the general public and other federal agencies the opportunity to comment on the revision of a currently approved information collection, Application for Death Benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (SF 3104); and Documentation & Elections in Support of Application for Death Benefits When Deceased Was an Employee at the Time of Death (SF 3104B).

On May 1, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule seeking comments in response to a petition requesting the revision of the EPA's regulatory definition of volatile organic compounds (VOC) to exempt cis-1,1,1,4,4,4-hexafluorobut-2-ene (also known as HFO-1336mzz-Z; CAS number 692-49-9). The EPA is now taking final action to revise the regulatory definition of VOC under the Clean Air Act (CAA). This final action adds HFO-1336mzz-Z to the list of compounds excluded from the regulatory definition of VOC on the basis that this compound makes a negligible contribution to tropospheric ozone (O3) formation.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming Buffalo Field Office intends to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and potential amendment for the 2015 Buffalo Field Office Approved Resource Management Plan (RMP). The Supplemental EIS is in response to a United States District Court, District of Montana, opinion and order (Western Organization of Resource Councils, et al vs BLM). This notice announces the beginning of the scoping process to solicit public comments and identify issues presented in the opinion and order.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or Agency) is amending its regulation addressing requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks' (Banks) Affordable Housing Program (AHP or Program). The final rule amends the regulation to: Provide the Banks additional authority to allocate their AHP funds; authorize the Banks to establish separate competitive funds that target specific affordable housing needs in their districts; provide the Banks additional flexibility in designing their project selection scoring systems to address affordable housing needs in their districts; remove the requirement for retention agreements for owner-occupied units where the AHP subsidy is used solely for rehabilitation; provide for a calculation of household subsidy repayment amount that prioritizes return of the household's investment in the housing to the household; reduce administrative burdens related to calculating and obtaining household subsidy repayments based on net proceeds of the sale of a home; further align certain project monitoring requirements with those of other federal government funding programs; clarify the requirements for remediating AHP noncompliance; clarify certain operational requirements; and streamline and reorganize the regulation.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are publishing a draft list of the nonnative bird species that have been introduced by humans into the United States or U.S. territories and to which the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) does not apply. The Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act (MBTRA) of 2004 amends the MBTA by stating that the MBTA applies only to migratory bird species that are native to the United States or U.S. territories, and that a native migratory bird species is one that is present as a result of natural biological or ecological processes. The MBTRA requires that we publish a list of all nonnative, human- introduced bird species to which the MBTA does not apply. We published that list in 2005, and are starting the process to update it with this notice. This notice identifies those species that are not protected by the MBTA, even though they belong to biological families referred to in treaties that the MBTA implements, as their presence in the United States or U.S. territories is solely the result of intentional or unintentional human-assisted introductions. This notice presents a draft list of species that are not protected by the MBTA to reflect current taxonomy, to remove one species that no longer occurs in a protected family, and to remove one species as a result of new distributional records documenting its natural occurrence in the United States.

This rulemaking adopts as final, with changes, proposed amendments to VA's regulations governing payment of per diem to States for nursing home care, domiciliary care, and adult day health care for eligible veterans in State homes. This rulemaking reorganizes, updates, and clarifies State home regulations, authorizes greater flexibility in adult day health care programs, and establishes regulations regarding domiciliary care, with clarifications regarding the care that State homes must provide to veterans in domiciliaries.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a request to renew an existing approved Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This ICR is scheduled to expire on February 28, 2019. Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below.

The FHWA, on behalf of Caltrans, is issuing this notice to announce actions taken by Caltrans that are final. The actions relate to a proposed highway project (Interstate 405 [I-405]) from Interstate 5 (I-5) to State Route 55 [SR-55]) in the Cities of Irvine and Costa Mesa, in the County of Orange, State of California. Those actions grant licenses, permits, and approvals for the project.

This notice announces the third meeting of the Motorcyclist Advisory Council (MAC) to the FHWA. The purpose of this meeting is to advise the Secretary of Transportation, through the Administrator of the FHWA, on infrastructure issues of concern to motorcyclists, including barrier design, road design, construction, and maintenance practices, and the architecture and implementation of intelligent transportation system technologies, pursuant to Section 1426 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

NMFS announces a public meeting of the False Killer Whale Take Reduction Team (FKWTRT) on November 29, 2018 in order to provide recommendations on amendments to the False Killer Whale Take Reduction Plan (FKWTRP). The meeting will be held via conference call. Members of the public may submit written comments; the comments must be received within 14 days of the completion of the meeting.

DHS NPPD IP will submit the following information collection request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. DHS previously published this information collection request (ICR) in the Federal Register on Thursday, August 16, 2018 for a 60-day public comment period. 0 comments were received by DHS. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments. To provide greater transparency, NPPD is making an adjustment from the 60 day notice to show all related costs in the 30 day notice.

The registrant listed below has applied for and been granted registration by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an importer of various classes of schedule I or II controlled substances.