May 21, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary of Agriculture is issuing this rule to implement the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). CFAP provides assistance to agricultural producers impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. This rule establishes provisions for direct payments to producers of eligible commodities. This rule specifies the eligibility requirements, payment calculations, and application procedures for CFAP.

On April 2, 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) posted an interim final rule announcing the implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The CARES Act temporarily adds a new program, titled the ``Paycheck Protection Program,'' to the SBA's 7(a) Loan Program. The CARES Act also provides for forgiveness of up to the full principal amount of qualifying loans guaranteed under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP is intended to provide economic relief to small businesses nationwide adversely impacted by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). SBA posted additional interim final rules on April 3, 2020, April 14, 2020, April 24, 2020, April 28, 2020, April 30, 2020, May 5, 2020, May 8, 2020, May 13, 2020, and May 14, 2020, and the Department of the Treasury posted an additional interim final rule on April 28, 2020. This interim final rule supplements the previously posted interim final rules by providing guidance on additional eligibility requirements related to entities with foreign affiliates, and requests public comment.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) is adopting a final rule amending its railroad performance data reporting regulations to include chemical and plastics traffic as a distinct reporting category for the ``cars-held'' metric.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Learjet Inc. Model 60 airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report of a reverse thrust command accelerating the airplane instead of decelerating the airplane. The acceleration with reverse thrust commanded occurred when the thrust reverser doors were in the stowed position instead of the deployed position. This AD requires installing a thrust reverser (T/R) Voice Command Warning System (VCWS) to alert the crew of a T/R malfunction. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The U.S. Department of Energy (``DOE'') is initiating an effort to determine whether to amend the current energy conservation standards for consumer water heaters. This request for information (``RFI'') solicits information from the public to help DOE determine whether amended standards for consumer water heaters would result in significant energy savings and whether such standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified. DOE welcomes written comments from the public on any subject within the scope of this document (including topics not raised in this RFI).

This proposed rule would modify certain provisions in the regulations of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that implement section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended by the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018. Specifically, this proposed rule would modify the mandatory declaration provision for certain foreign investment transactions involving a U.S. business that produces, designs, tests, manufactures, fabricates, or develops one or more critical technologies. It also makes clarifying amendments to the definition for the term ``substantial interest.''

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) proposes to deregulate and detariff the end user interstate access charges currently included on consumers' and small businesses' local telephone bills. The proposal would also prohibit carriers from separately listing these charges on customers' bills and address issues related to the Universal Service Fund's and other federal programs' historic reliance on these charges in certain circumstances. The need to regulate and tariff those charges is declining as consumers and businesses continue to rapidly migrate away from traditional telephone service provided by local exchange carriers to next-generation voice service options. Detariffing and deregulating these charges will give carriers the flexibility to price their services competitively. Eliminating these charges from consumers' telephone bills will make it easier for consumers to understand their telephone bills, compare prices among voice service providers, and better ensure that a voice service provider's advertised price is closer to the total price that appears on its customers' bills.

In accordance with the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is redesignating the Indianapolis, Indiana area from nonattainment to attainment for the 2010 sulfur dioxide (SO2) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The area is comprised of Perry, Wayne, and Center Townships in Marion County, Indiana. EPA is also approving, as a revision to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP), Indiana's maintenance plan for this area. EPA proposed to approve Indiana's redesignation request and maintenance plan on April 30, 2019 and received two public comment submissions.