2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action amends the Class D airspace, the Class E surface airspace, the Class E airspace designated as an extension to Class D and Class E surface airspace, and the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Alpena County Regional Airport, Alpena, MI. This action is due to an airspace review caused by the decommissioning of the Au Sable VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) navigation aid, which provided navigation information for the instrument procedures at this airport, as part of the VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON) Program. The name of MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena, Alpena MI, is also being updated to coincide with the FAA's aeronautical database. Airspace redesign is necessary for the safety and management of instrument flight rules (IFR) operations at this airport.

This action proposes to amend Class D airspace at Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport, Conroe, TX; Scholes International Airport at Galveston, Galveston, TX; and Sugar Land Regional Airport, Houston, TX; amend Class E surface airspace at Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport, Scholes International Airport at Galveston, and Sugar Land Regional Airport; revoke the Class E airspace designated as an extension to a Class E surface area at Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport, Temple, TX; amend the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Chambers County Airport, Anahuac, TX; Scholes International Airport at Galveston; Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport; Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport, Angleton/ Lake Jackson, TX; and Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport; and remove Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Wood No. 2 Airport, Brookshire, TX, and Covey Trails Airport, Fulshear, TX, which are contained within the Houston, TX, airspace legal description. The FAA is proposing this action as the result of the decommissioning of the Hobby and Temple VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) navigation aids, which provided navigation information for the instrument procedures at these airports, as part of the VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON) Program. The geographic coordinates of Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport, Chambers County Airport, and Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport, and the names of Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport, Scholes International Airport at Galveston, and Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport would also be updated to coincide with the FAA's aeronautical database.

This action proposes to establish four United States Area Navigation (RNAV) ATS routes (T-340, T-342, T-344, and T-346) in the Hawaiian Islands. The proposed RNAV ATS routes will facilitate the movement of aircraft among the Hawaiian Islands and will promote operational efficiencies to current and proposed RNAV Standard Instrument Departures (SID) and RNAV Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STAR), which will enhance the capacity for Hawaiian airports.

This rule codifies in the regulations the prior approval of North Dakota's hazardous waste management program and incorporates by reference authorized provisions of the State's statutes and regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses the regulations entitled, ``Approved State Hazardous Waste Management Programs,'' to provide notice of the authorization status of State programs, and to incorporate by reference those provisions of the State statutes and regulations that are authorized and that EPA will enforce under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The EPA previously provided notices and opportunity for comments on the Agency's decisions to authorize the State of North Dakota program and the EPA is not now reopening the decisions, nor requesting comments, on the North Dakota authorization as previously published in the Federal Register documents specified in Section I.C. of this final rule document.

This proposed rule describes when an owner or operator is required to file a report of an accidental release and the required content of such a report. The purpose of the proposed rule is to ensure that the CSB receives rapid, accurate reports of any accidental release that meets established statutory criteria.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor (Department) is issuing this document to advise the public of an extension to the public comment period. Initially, the proposed rule established a public comment period from November 7, 2019 through December 9, 2019. The Department has extended the deadline for submitting public comments to December 11, 2019, due to a website outage.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is correcting a rule that was published in the Federal Register on November 18, 2019, regarding miscellaneous corrections to NRC regulations. The action is necessary to insert language that was inadvertently omitted from the regulatory text.

This action extends the prohibition against certain flight operations in specified areas of the Sanaa Flight Information Region (FIR) (OYSC) by all: U.S. air carriers; U.S. commercial operators; persons exercising the privileges of an airman certificate issued by the FAA, except when such persons are operating U.S.-registered aircraft for a foreign air carrier; and operators of U.S.-registered civil aircraft, except when the operator of such aircraft is a foreign air carrier. The FAA finds this action necessary to address the continued hazards to persons and aircraft engaged in such flight operations from the ongoing fighting and instability in Yemen, as well as terrorist and militant activity. The FAA also republishes, with minor revisions, the approval process and exemption information for this flight prohibition Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR); makes a technical correction to the SFAR to show that operations on jet route M999 are permitted; makes editorial changes to this SFAR to clarify prohibited and permitted operations; makes a minor editorial change to the title of the rule; and makes other minor revisions for consistency with other recently published flight prohibition SFARs.

The National Labor Relations Board (the Board) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register on August 12, 2019, seeking comments from the public regarding its proposed amendments to Part 103 of its Rules and Regulations, specifically concerning the Board's blocking charge policy, the voluntary recognition bar, and Section 9(a) recognition in the construction industry. On October 10, 2019, the date to submit comments to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was extended for 60 days. The date to submit comments to the Notice is now extended an additional 30 days.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) proposes amending its rule covering official time for representatives who are employees of the federal government. The Commission seeks to clarify that its rule concerning official time does not apply to representatives who serve in an official capacity in a labor organization that is the exclusive representative of employees in an appropriate unit. The Commission is doing this because it believes that the relevant labor relations statute articulates the best policy for determining if someone receives official time when they act for a labor organization and the Commission does not want its regulations to undermine this approach.

In response to the United States Supreme Court decision in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, and the United States Attorney General's October 7, 2017 Memorandum on Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty pursuant to Executive Order No. 13798, the Department of Education (Department) proposes revising the current regulations regarding the eligibility of faith-based entities to participate in the Federal Student Aid programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), and the eligibility of students to obtain certain benefits under those programs. The Secretary is also proposing to simplify the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program requirements to minimize the number of TEACH Grants that are converted to Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and to update, strengthen, and clarify other areas of the TEACH Grant Program regulations.

The Commission is acknowledging a recent filing requesting the Commission initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider changes to analytical principles relating to periodic reports (Proposal Ten). This document informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.

The mission of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) is to improve early childhood, educational, and employment outcomes and raise expectations for all people with disabilities, their families, their communities, and the Nation. As such, the Department of Education (Department) proposes a funding priority and requirements under the Technical Assistance on State Data Collection program. The Department may use the proposed priority for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2020 and later years. We take this action to focus attention on an identified national need to provide technical assistance (TA) to improve the capacity of States to meet the data collection requirements under Parts B and C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The National Technical Assistance Center to Improve State Capacity to Collect, Report, Analyze, and Use Accurate IDEA Part B and Part C Fiscal Data (Fiscal Data Center) would support States in collecting, reporting, and determining how to best analyze and use their IDEA Part B and C fiscal data to establish and meet high expectations for each child with a disability and would customize its TA to meet each State's specific needs.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving several Tennessee State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), on behalf of Knox County's Air Quality Management Division by a letter dated May 24, 2018. The submissions revise four sections of Knox County's Air Quality Management Regulations covering definitions, opening burning, permits and emissions reporting requirements. These actions are being approved pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act).

At the request of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), this notice announces a control date of December 10, 2019, that may be used as a reference date for a future management action to limit future access to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Pacific cod pot catcher/processor sector. This notice is intended to promote awareness of possible rulemaking and provide notice to the public that any participation in the BSAI Pacific cod pot catcher/processor sector after the control date may not ensure continued access to this fishery under a future management action. This notice is also intended to discourage speculative entry into this fishery while the Council considers whether and how access to the fishery may be further limited under a future management action.

This action proposes to amend VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal airways V-59, V-92, V-115, and V-117 due to the planned decommissioning of the VOR portion of the Newcomerstown, OH (CTW), VOR/ Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) navigation aid (NAVAID). The Newcomerstown VOR is being decommissioned in support of the FAA's VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON) program and service availability issues.

This document contains a final regulation providing guidance on how certain organizations that provide employee benefits must calculate unrelated business taxable income (UBTI).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) is adopting certain amendments containing the regulations applicable to commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTAs). The amendments (Final Rules) are consistent with and/or expand upon no- action and exemptive letters issued by the Commission's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO). In particular, the Commission intends to increase regulatory certainty by amending two regulations. In the first, the Commission is providing clarification that the exclusion from the CPO definition currently provided for a registered investment company (RIC) should be claimed by the entity most commonly understood to solicit for or ``operate'' the RIC, i.e., its investment adviser, and is adding an exclusion for the investment advisers of business development companies (BDCs), which share many operational similarities with RICs. In the second, the Commission is adopting amendments to the ``Reporting Person'' definition that would eliminate the filing requirements for Forms CPO-PQR and CTA-PR for certain classes of CPOs and CTAs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the ``Commission'' or the ``SEC'') is proposing amendments under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the ``Advisers Act'' or the ``Act'') to the rules that prohibit certain investment adviser advertisements and payments to solicitors, respectively. The proposed amendments to the advertising rule reflect market developments since the rule's adoption in 1961. The proposed amendments to the solicitation rule update its coverage to reflect regulatory changes and the evolution of industry practices since we adopted the rule in 1979. The Commission is also proposing amendments to Form ADV that are designed to provide the Commission with additional information regarding advisers' advertising practices. Finally, the Commission is proposing amendments under the Advisers Act to the books and records rule, to correspond to the proposed changes to the advertising and solicitation rules.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on a portion of the Ohio River in Brookport, IL. This action is necessary to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by the demolition of Lock and Dam 52 involving explosives. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Ohio Valley or a designated representative.

This rule amends the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulation on Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans by substituting a new table for determining expected retirement ages for participants in pension plans undergoing distress or involuntary termination with valuation dates falling in 2020. This table is needed to compute the value of early retirement benefits and, thus, the total value of benefits under a plan.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) reviews performance measures established by the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and the Office of Engineering and Technology (collectively the Bureaus) for recipients of Connect America Fund (CAF) high-cost universal service support to ensure that those standards strike the right balance between ensuring effective use of universal service funds while granting the flexibility providers need given the practicalities of network deployment in varied circumstances.

NMFS is correcting a final rule that published on October 15, 2019, issuing regulations to implement catch handling and monitoring requirements to allow Pacific halibut (halibut) bycatch to be sorted on the deck of trawl catcher/processors (C/Ps) and motherships participating in the non-pollock groundfish fisheries off Alaska. The final rule incorrectly stated that the collection-of-information requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) had been approved by the Office of Management and Business (OMB) at the time the final rule was published. The final rule also inadvertently omitted amendatory language to remove a now obsolete and unnecessary regulation. The intent of this final rule is to make corrections and to stay the effectiveness of associated collection-of-information requirements.

The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Airbus Helicopters Model AS332C, AS332C1, AS332L, and AS332L1 helicopters. This proposed AD would require determining the accumulated hours time-in-service (TIS) of certain part-numbered main gearbox (MGB) suspension bar attachment fittings (fittings) and bolts, and would establish new life limits. This proposed AD is prompted by the outcome of tests and analyses performed by Airbus Helicopters. The actions of this proposed AD are intended to address an unsafe condition on these products.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving three state implementation plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia. These revisions address reasonably available control technology (RACT) requirements under the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for three facilities in Northern Virginia through source-specific determinations. This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act (CAA).