August 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. Models PC-6, PC-6/350, PC-6/350-H1, PC-6/350-H2, PC-6/A, PC-6/A-H1, PC-6/A-H2, PC-6/B-H2, PC-6/B1-H2, PC-6/B2-H2, PC-6/ B2-H4, PC-6/C-H2, PC-6/C1-H2, PC-6-H1, and PC-6-H2 airplanes. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) issued by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as rudder shaft assemblies with incorrect rivet configurations. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

This action proposes to amend nine VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal airways, V-15, V-26, V-55, V-78, V-100, V-159, V-175, V- 219, and V-307, and two Area Navigation (RNAV) routes, T-285 and T-354, in the Northcentral United States. The modifications are necessary due to the planned decommissioning of the VOR portion of the Park Rapids, MN, VOR/Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME); Sioux City, IA, VOR/ Tactical Air Navigation (VORTAC); and Huron, SD, VORTAC navigation aids (NAVAIDs). The NAVAIDs provide navigation guidance for segments of the affected air traffic service (ATS) routes. The VORs are being decommissioned as part of the FAA's VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON) program.

This final rule updates the payment rates used under the prospective payment system (PPS) for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for fiscal year (FY) 2021. We are also making changes to the case-mix classification code mappings used under the SNF PPS and making two minor revisions in the regulation text. Additionally, we are adopting the recent revisions in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statistical area delineations. This rule also updates the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program that affects Medicare payment to SNFs.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Model S-76C helicopters. This AD was prompted by reports of inaccurate main gear box (MGB) indications in flight. This AD requires updating the remote data acquisition unit (RDAU) software and re-identifying the RDAU and, for certain helicopters, updating the software of the display unit (DU) and re- identifying the DU. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 is issuing a Notice of Intent to Delete Cimarron Mining Corporation Superfund Site (Site) located in Carrizozo, New Mexico, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comments on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is an appendix of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of New Mexico, through the New Mexico Environment Department, have determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA, other than operation and maintenance, monitoring and five-year reviews, have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

The Coast Guard proposes to modify the operating schedule that governs the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad Bridge, mile 0.68, and the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad Bridge, mile 1.89, both over the Indiana Harbor Canal near the town of East Chicago, IN. Canadian National, the owner and operator of these bridges has requested to stop continual drawtender service to both bridges and operate the bridges only while trains are crossing the bridge.

This document maintains the number of National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (Dairy Board) importer members at one member, as is stated in the Dairy Promotion and Research Order (Dairy Order). The Dairy Order requires that at least once every three years, after the initial appointment of importer members on the Dairy Board, the Secretary shall review the average volume of domestic production of dairy products compared to the average volume of imports of dairy products into the United States during the previous three years and, on the basis of that review, if warranted, reapportion the importer representation on the Dairy Board to reflect the proportional shares of the United States market served by domestic production and imported dairy products.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposes amending the USDA organic regulations to strengthen oversight and enforcement of the production, handling, and sale of organic agricultural products. The proposed amendments are intended to protect integrity in the organic supply chain and build consumer and industry trust in the USDA organic label by strengthening organic control systems, improving farm to market traceability, and providing robust enforcement of the USDA organic regulations. Topics addressed in this proposed rule include: Applicability of the regulations and exemptions from organic certification; National Organic Program Import Certificates; recordkeeping and product traceability; certifying agent personnel qualifications and training; standardized certificates of organic operation; unannounced on-site inspections of certified operations; oversight of certification activities; foreign conformity assessment systems; certification of grower group operations; labeling of nonretail containers; annual update requirements for certified operations; compliance and appeals processes; and calculating organic content of multi-ingredient products.

This final rule updates the prospective payment rates, the outlier threshold, and the wage index for Medicare inpatient hospital services provided by Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities (IPF), which include psychiatric hospitals and excluded psychiatric units of an Inpatient Prospective Payment System hospital or critical access hospital. In addition, we are adopting more recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations, and applying a 2-year transition for all providers negatively impacted by wage index changes. We are also removing the term licensed independent practitioner(s) from the regulations for psychiatric hospitals. On April 6, 2020, we published an interim final rule with comment period to implement this statutorily mandated change. This final rule responds to comments on the interim final rule regarding changes to the term licensed independent practitioner, finalizes the implementing regulation, and explains how the new procedure will be put into practice. These changes will be effective for IPF discharges beginning with the 2021 Fiscal Year (FY), which runs from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 (FY 2021).

Section 2003 of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act) requires generally that prescriptions for controlled substances covered under a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan or Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan (MA/PD) be transmitted by a health care practitioner electronically in accordance with an electronic prescription drug program, beginning January 1, 2021. Further, section 2003 of the SUPPORT Act provides CMS with the authority to, through rulemaking, enforce and specify appropriate penalties for noncompliance with the requirement for electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). The SUPPORT Act requires CMS to specify, through rulemaking, circumstances and processes by which it may waive the EPCS requirement. This Request for Information (RFI) seeks input from stakeholders about whether CMS should include exceptions to the EPCS and under what circumstances, and whether CMS should impose penalties for noncompliance with this mandate in its rulemaking, and what those penalties should be.

This action removes Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Schuylkill County/Joe Zerbey Airport, Pottsville, PA due to the extension of runway 11. This action also updates the geographic coordinates of the airport, and Schuylkill Medical Center Heliport (formerly Pottsville Hospital). Controlled airspace is necessary for the safety and management of instrument flight rules (IFR) operations in the area.

This action modifies Class E airspace by adding an area, designated as an extension to a Class D or Class E surface area. This action also implements several administrative amendments to the airspace legal descriptions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve, through parallel processing, a draft Mississippi State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision, submitted through a letter dated April 23, 2020, addressing best available retrofit technology (BART) determinations for 14 electric generating units (EGUs) (``draft BART SIP''). These EGUs were initially addressed in EPA's prior limited approval and limited disapproval actions on Mississippi's regional haze SIP because of deficiencies arising from the State's reliance on the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) to satisfy certain regional haze requirements. EPA proposes to approve the draft BART SIP and finds that it corrects the deficiencies that led to the limited approval and limited disapproval of the State's regional haze SIP; to withdraw the limited disapproval of the regional haze SIP; and to replace the prior limited approval with a full approval of the regional haze SIP as meeting all regional haze requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the first implementation period. In addition, EPA is proposing to approve the State's first periodic report describing progress towards reasonable progress goals (RPGs) established for regional haze and the associated determination that the State's regional haze SIP is adequate to meet these RPGs for the first implementation period (``Progress Report''). The State submitted the progress report as a SIP revision by letter dated October 4, 2018.

The FAA is revising an earlier proposal for certain Piper Aircraft, Inc. (Piper) Models PA-28-140, PA-28-150, PA-28-160, PA-28- 180, PA-28-235, PA-32-260, and PA-32-300 airplanes. This action revises the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) by including a revision to the manufacturer's service information, including an additional inspection method, and removing the requirement to install the access panel. The FAA is proposing this airworthiness directive (AD) to address the unsafe condition on these products. Since the actions in the revised service information would impose an additional burden over those in the NPRM, the FAA is reopening the comment period to allow the public the chance to comment on these changes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of New Hampshire. This revision addresses the infrastructure requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This proposed action includes all elements of these infrastructure requirements except for the ``Good Neighbor'' or ``transport'' provisions, which will be addressed in a future action. We are also proposing to grant the state an exemption from the infrastructure SIP contingency plan obligation for ozone, and to conditionally approve several elements of New Hampshire's submittal relating to air-quality modeling requirements. In addition, we are proposing to correct errors in our previous approval of an infrastructure SIP submission from New Hampshire for the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS and to conditionally approve several elements of that submittal. The infrastructure requirements are designed to ensure that the structural components of each state's air quality management program are adequate to meet the state's responsibilities under the CAA. This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act.

NMFS approves and implements through regulations measures included in Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan, as adopted by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. This action is necessary to establish conservation and management measures for Atlantic chub mackerel. It is intended to promote the sustainable utilization and conservation of Atlantic chub mackerel by integrating this species as a stock in the fishery under the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. This amendment identifies goals and objectives for managing Atlantic chub mackerel; specifies status determination criteria; designates essential fish habitat; establishes a specifications process; sets annual catch limits for 2020-2022; and implements accountability measures, possession limits, permitting and reporting requirements, exempted fisheries, and other administrative measures for Atlantic chub mackerel caught from Maine through North Carolina.

This document contains corrections to final regulations Treasury Decision 9896 that were published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. The final regulations providing guidance regarding hybrid dividends and certain amounts paid or accrued pursuant to hybrid arrangements, which generally involve arrangements whereby U.S. and foreign tax law classify a transaction or entity differently for tax purposes.

NMFS issues a proposed rule that would remove the regulatory prohibition on continuing to fish after a partial offload in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BS/AI) Crab Rationalization (CR) Program. This proposed action is needed to provide CR crab fishery participants operational flexibility to conduct their business in an efficient manner, in particular when emergencies or special circumstances arise. This proposed rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson- Stevens Act), the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for BS/AI King and Tanner Crabs (Crab FMP), and other applicable laws.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Bombardier, Inc., Model BD-700-1A10 and BD-700-1A11 airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report that the anti-fretting coating on the piston rods of certain ram air turbine (RAT) deployment actuators may have been incorrectly applied. This AD requires a review of airplane maintenance records or an inspection of the RAT deployment actuator to determine the serial number and, depending on the findings, replacement with an upgraded RAT deployment actuator. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2019-23-03, which applies to certain Dassault Aviation Model FALCON 900EX airplanes. AD 2019-23-03 requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive maintenance requirements and/or airworthiness limitations. Since the FAA issued AD 2019-23-03, the FAA has determined that new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations are necessary. This proposed AD would continue to require those maintenance or inspection program revisions, and would also require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate additional new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD, which will be incorporated by reference. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) sets or adjusts patent fees as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Act or AIA), as amended by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 (SUCCESS Act). The USPTO is a business-like operation where the demand for patent products and services and the cost of operations are affected by external factors, such as the economy, legislation, court decisions, and increases in the costs of supplies and contract services, as well as internal factors, such as changes in patent examination processes and procedures. The fee adjustments are needed to provide the Office with a sufficient amount of aggregate revenue to recover the aggregate cost of patent operations in future years (based on assumptions and estimates found in the FY 2021 Congressional Justification (FY 2021 Budget)) and to allow the Office to continue progress toward achieving its strategic goals.

This final rule adjusts certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It also removes certain fee exemptions, changes fee waiver requirements, alters premium processing time limits, and modifies intercountry adoption processing. USCIS conducted a comprehensive biennial fee review and determined that current fees do not recover the full cost of providing adjudication and naturalization services. Therefore, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is adjusting USCIS fees by a weighted average increase of 20 percent, adding new fees for certain immigration benefit requests, establishing multiple fees for nonimmigrant worker petitions, and limiting the number of beneficiaries for certain forms. This final rule is intended to ensure that USCIS has the resources it needs to provide adequate service to applicants and petitioners.

The Postal Service proposes to amend Publication 52, Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail (Pub 52), to incorporate requirements for mailers to separate all air-eligible hazardous material (HAZMAT) from surface only transportation HAZMAT shipments and other non-HAZMAT items when tendering mail to the Postal Service in the domestic mail. Air eligible products, services or classes include Priority Mail Express[supreg], Priority Mail[supreg], First-Class Package Service[supreg], Priority Mail Return Service[supreg] or First- Class Package Return Service[supreg] and surface only transportation are mail using Parcel Select[supreg], Parcel Select Lightweight[supreg], USPS Retail Ground[supreg], or USPS Ground Return Service [supreg]. Additionally, the Postal Service for consistency will incorporate the current standard operating procedures for separation as it pertains to acceptance and dispatch personnel.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a state implementation plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This revision pertains to the Commonwealth's plan, submitted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), for maintaining the 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) (referred to as the ``1997 ozone NAAQS'') in the Franklin County, Pennsylvania area (Franklin County Area). This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act (CAA).