April 9, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing this final rule to adjust certain civil monetary penalties for inflation pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.

The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services proposes priorities, requirements, and definitions to fund a Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management (VRTAC-QM) and a Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Quality Employment (VRTAC-QE), Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers 84.264J and 84.264K. The Assistant Secretary may use these priorities, requirements, and definitions for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2020 and later years. We take this action to focus Federal financial assistance on identified national needs and to improve employment outcomes under the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program and raise expectations for all people with disabilities. We intend the VRTAC-QM to provide training and technical assistance to State VR agencies that will better enable VR personnel to manage available resources, improve effective service delivery, and increase the number and quality of employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. We intend the VRTAC-QE to provide training and technical assistance to State VR agencies that will better enable VR personnel, especially VR counselors, to implement innovative and effective VR and employment strategies and practices to increase the number and quality of employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

On March 27, 2020, the NCUA Board (Board) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register requesting comment on the Board's proposal to amend the NCUA's corporate credit union regulation (proposed rule). The proposed rule would update, clarify, and simplify several provisions of the NCUA's corporate credit union regulation. The proposed rule provided a 60-day comment period that was set to close on May 26, 2020. To allow interested persons more time to consider and submit their comments, the Board has determined that an extension of the comment period for an additional 60 days is appropriate.

In accordance with the Great Lakes Pilotage Act of 1960, the Coast Guard is establishing new base pilotage rates for the 2020 shipping season. This final rule will adjust the pilotage rates to account for changes in district operating expenses, an increase in the number of pilots, and anticipated inflation. The Coast Guard estimates that this final rule will result in a 1 percent net increase in pilotage costs, compared to the 2019 season. In addition, the Coast Guard is clarifying the rules related to the working capital fund.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is adopting amendments to the margin requirements for uncleared swaps for swap dealers (``SD'') and major swap participants (``MSP'') for which there is no prudential regulator (the ``CFTC Margin Rule''). Specifically, the Commission is adopting an amendment, along with certain conforming, technical changes, to extend the compliance schedule for the posting and collection of initial margin (``IM'') under the CFTC Margin Rule to September 1, 2021, for entities with smaller average daily aggregate notional amounts of swaps and certain other financial products (``Final Rule''). The compliance schedule currently extends from September 1, 2016 to September 1, 2020. The revised compliance schedule mitigates the potential of a market disruption, which could be triggered by the large number of entities that would come into the scope of the IM requirements at the end of the current compliance schedule on September 1, 2020.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to open, for the first time, eight National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) that are currently closed to hunting and sport fishing. In addition, we propose to open or expand hunting and sport fishing at 89 other NWRs, and add pertinent station-specific regulations for other NWRs that pertain to migratory game bird hunting, upland game hunting, big game hunting, and sport fishing for the 2020-2021 season. We also propose to open hunting or sport fishing on nine units of the National Fish Hatchery System (NFHs). We also propose to add pertinent station- specific regulations that pertain to migratory game bird hunting, upland game hunting, big game hunting, and sport fishing at these nine NFHs for the 2020-2021 season. Further, we propose to open 41 limited- interest easement NWRs in North Dakota for upland game and big game hunting, and sport fishing in accordance with State regulations. Access to these NWRs is controlled by the current landowners, and, therefore, they are not fully open to the public unless authorized by the landowner. We also propose to make regulatory changes to existing station-specific regulations in order to reduce the regulatory burden on the public, increase access for hunters and anglers on Service lands and waters, and comply with a Presidential mandate for plain language standards. Lastly, we propose to prohibit domestic sheep, goat, and camelid pack animals on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

EPA is amending the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) regulations by extending the submission deadline for 2020 reports from September 30, 2020, to November 30, 2020. This is a one-time extension for the 2020 submission period only. The CDR regulations require manufacturers (including importers) of certain chemical substances included on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory (TSCA Inventory) to report data on the manufacturing, processing, and use of the chemical substances.