April 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On February 4, 2020, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested input from its licensees and members of the public to identify outdated or duplicative administrative requirements that may be eliminated without an adverse effect on public health or safety, common defense and security, protection of the environment, or regulatory efficiency and effectiveness. The public comment period originally was scheduled to close on April 6, 2020. The NRC has decided to extend the public comment period to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments.

This proposed rule would revise the Department of Commerce (Department) regulations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act. The revisions would clarify and update the language of procedural requirements pertaining to the inclusion of Social Security account numbers (SSNs) on documents that the Department sends by mail. These revisions are necessary to implement the Social Security Number Fraud Prevention Act of 2017, which restricts the inclusion of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) on documents sent by mail by the Federal Government.

NMFS Office of Protected Resources, upon request from the University of California Santa Cruz's Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (UCSC/PISCO), hereby issues regulations and a Letter of Authorization to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to rocky intertidal monitoring surveys along the Oregon and California coasts over the course of five years. These regulations, which allow for the issuance of Letters of Authorization (LOA) for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified timeframes, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposes to revise its existing regulations that implemented section 219 of the Federal Power Act in light of the changes in transmission development and planning over the last few years.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), a Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), hereinafter referred to as RUS or the Agency, is issuing a final rule to establish the Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP) as authorized by Section 6407 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, as amended and the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to assist rural families and small businesses achieve cost savings by providing loans to eligible entities that agree to make loans to qualified consumers to implement durable cost-effective energy efficiency measures. This rule describes the eligibility requirements, the application process, the criteria that will be used by RUS to assess Applicants' creditworthiness and how to obtain application materials.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is amending certain of its regulations governing the labeling and advertising of wine, distilled spirits, and malt beverages to address comments it received in response to a notice of proposed rulemaking, Notice No. 176, published on November 26, 2018. In this document, TTB is finalizing certain liberalizing and clarifying changes that were proposed, and that could be implemented quickly and provide industry members greater flexibility. TTB is also identifying certain other proposals that will not be adopted, including the proposal to define an ``oak barrel'' for purposes of aging distilled spirits, the proposal to require that statements of composition for distilled spirits specialty products list components in ``intermediate'' products and list distilled spirits and wines used in distilled spirits specialty products in order of predominance, and the proposal to adopt new policies on the use of cross-commodity terms. TTB continues to consider the remaining issues raised by comments it received that are not addressed in this document. TTB plans to address those issues in subsequent rulemaking documents. The regulatory amendments in this document will not require industry members to make changes to alcohol beverage labels or advertisements and instead will afford them additional flexibility to make certain changes if they wish.

The U.S. Department of State (the Department) is issuing this document to inform the public of a preliminary injunction ordered by a Federal district court on March 6, 2020, affecting the Department.

The Secretary proposes to amend the general, establishing eligibility, maintaining eligibility, and losing eligibility sections of the Institutional Eligibility regulations issued under the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), related to distance education and innovation. In addition, the Secretary proposes to amend the Student Assistance General Provisions regulations issued under the HEA.

This rule amends the Department of Justice regulations relating to the organization of the Board of Immigration Appeals (``Board'') by adding two Board member positions, thereby expanding the Board to 23 members.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in the West Yakutat District of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2020 total allowable catch of pollock in the West Yakutat District of the GOA.

The Coast Guard is proposing to establish special local regulations for certain waters of the Upper Potomac River. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters located at National Harbor, MD, during a swim event on June 20, 2020. This proposed rulemaking would prohibit persons and vessels from entering the regulated area unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Maryland-National Capital Region or the Coast Guard Patrol Commander. We invite your comments on this proposed rulemaking.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is withdrawing approval of eight new animal drug applications (NADAs) at the sponsor's request because the products are no longer manufactured or marketed.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Vermont. This revision addresses the infrastructure requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act)including the interstate transport provisionsfor the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The infrastructure requirements are designed to ensure that the structural components of each state's air- quality management program, including provisions prohibiting emissions that will have certain adverse air-quality effects in other states, are adequate to meet the state's responsibilities under the CAA. EPA is also proposing to approve State of Vermont Executive Order (E.O.) 19- 17, Executive Code of Ethics, which Vermont submitted with its infrastructure submission for the 2015 ozone NAAQS to be added to the SIP. Because E.O. 19-17 supersedes and replaces E.O. 09-11, EPA is also proposing to remove E.O. 09-11 from the Vermont SIP. This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing approval of revisions to the Tennessee State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted through two letters dated June 25, 2008, and September 12, 2018. The SIP revisions were submitted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) on behalf of the Chattanooga/ Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau and modify the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) regulations in the Chattanooga portion of the Tennessee SIP to address changes to the federal new source review (NSR) regulations in recent years for the implementation of the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). Additionally, the SIP revisions include updates to Chattanooga's regulations of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and other miscellaneous typographical and administrative updates. This action is being taken pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act).

This rule identifies communities where the sale of flood insurance has been authorized under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that are scheduled for suspension on the effective dates listed within this rule because of noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) receives documentation that the community has adopted the required floodplain management measures prior to the effective suspension date given in this rule, the suspension will not occur and a notice of this will be provided by publication in the Federal Register on a subsequent date. Also, information identifying the current participation status of a community can be obtained from FEMA's Community Status Book (CSB). The CSB is available at https:// www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-statu s-book.

EPA is proposing to revoke the significant new use rule (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for the chemical substance identified generically as alpha 1,3-polysaccharide, which was the subject of premanufacture notice (PMN) identified as P-16-581. EPA issued a SNUR based on this PMN which designated certain activities as significant new uses. EPA has received test data for the chemical substance and is proposing to revoke the SNUR based on these new data.

On October 16, 2017, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) published a document announcing the Express Bridge Loan Pilot Program (Express Bridge Pilot). In that document, SBA provided an overview of the Express Bridge Pilot and modified an Agency regulation relating to loan underwriting for loans made under the Express Bridge Pilot. On May 7, 2018, SBA published a document to revise certain program requirements. SBA continues to refine and improve the design of the Express Bridge Pilot and is issuing this document to expand program eligibility to include small businesses nationwide adversely impacted under the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Emergency Declaration (COVID- 19 Emergency Declaration) issued by President Trump on March 13, 2020. Further, SBA is revising program requirements to allow Express Bridge Pilot loans made under the COVID-19 Emergency Declaration to be approved through March 13, 2021. The modification of eligibility criteria and program requirements will allow small businesses adversely impacted by the COVID-19 emergency to qualify for loans through the Express Bridge Pilot. Finally, SBA is extending the term of the Express Bridge Pilot from September 30, 2020 to March 13, 2021, to assist small businesses that may experience delayed effects resulting from the COVID-19 emergency to benefit from the Express Bridge Pilot and to allow SBA to continue its evaluation of the program.

In December 2017, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a consumer product safety standard for children's folding chairs and stools. The standard incorporated by reference the applicable ASTM voluntary standard. We are publishing this direct final rule revising the CPSC's mandatory standard for children's folding chairs and stools to incorporate by reference the most recent version of the applicable ASTM standard.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) amends its rules related to the two methods that may be used for determining and achieving compliance with the Commission's existing limits on human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields: Exemptionconsideration of whether a particular device or deployment is so clearly compliant, based on criteria in the Commission's rules, that it qualifies as exempt from the requirement to undertake a more thorough RF exposure analysisand evaluationa more specific examination of an individual site or device, which considers factors beyond those utilized for exemption and may be performed with a variety of computational and/or measurement methodologies. It also amends the rules related to an increasingly important part of demonstrating and maintaining RF exposure compliance: mitigationthe restriction from or limitation of RF exposure in controlled areas to keep RF exposure within the Commission's established limits by, for example, using signs or barriers. The amended rules are intended to provide more efficient, practical, and consistent RF exposure evaluation procedures and mitigation measures to help ensure compliance with the existing RF exposure limits. The amended rules replace the various inconsistent service-specific criteria for exempting parties from performing an evaluation to demonstrate compliance with the RF exposure limits with new, streamlined criteria. The amended rules also allow the use of any valid computational method to determine potential RF exposure levels, remove the minimum evaluation distance requirement for frequencies above 6 GHz, and establish post-evaluation RF exposure mitigation procedures (e.g., signage), to help ensure that persons are not exposed to RF emissions in excess of the existing limits. The Commission also affirms its prior decision to classify the pinna (outer ear) as an extremity in RF exposure compliance testing, finds no appropriate basis for and thus declines to propose amendments to existing RF exposure limits at this time, and terminates the inquiry in which it sought comment on the Commission's existing guidelines for limiting RF exposure to humans.