December 4, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to request comment on the OCC's proposed approach to determine the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) evaluation measure benchmarks, retail lending distribution test thresholds, and community development minimums under the general performance standards. The proposal further explains how the OCC would assess significant declines in CRA activities levels in connection with performance context following the initial establishment of the benchmarks, thresholds, and minimums. Finally, the proposed rule would make clarifying and technical amendments to the CRA final rule.

On July 22, 2016, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 became law. One provision of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 amended the Controlled Substances Act to allow for the partial filling of prescriptions for schedule II controlled substances under certain conditions. The Drug Enforcement Administration is hereby proposing to amend its regulations to conform to this new statutory provision and to set forth the corresponding regulatory requirements.

On September 17, 2019, HUD published a proposed rule implementing sections 102, 103 and 104 of the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA) of 2016. The comment period for the proposed rule closed on November 18, 2019. Among other things, Sec. 960.507 of the rule proposed adding a section addressing the treatment of families in public housing whose family income exceeds the new limit in HOTMA. Before finalizing the rule, HUD seeks additional public comment on the implementation of the public housing income limit, specifically public housing agencies' (PHAs') discretion in addressing over-income families. This notice therefore re-opens the public comment period on the HOTMA proposed rule for an additional 30 days solely to seek comment on these specific issues. HUD is not soliciting comment on any other issues related to HUD's September 17, 2019, proposed rule.

We are adopting amendments to Regulation S-T and the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system (``EDGAR'') Filer Manual (``EDGAR Filer Manual'' or ``Filer Manual'') to permit the use of electronic signatures in signature authentication documents required under Regulation S-T in connection with electronic filings on EDGAR that are required to be signed. We are also adopting corresponding revisions to several rules and forms under the Securities Act of 1933 (``Securities Act''), Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act''), and Investment Company Act of 1940 (``Investment Company Act'') to permit the use of electronic signatures in signature authentication documents in connection with certain other filings.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (``EOIR'') is proposing to implement electronic filing and records applications for all cases before the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (``BIA''). The proposed rule would update the relevant regulations necessary to implement these electronic filing and records applications, including requiring certain users to file documents electronically and changes to service of process. EOIR further proposes clarifications to the regulations regarding law student filing and accompaniment procedures.

The NCUA Board (Board) seeks public comment on a proposed rule to amend its regulations by removing the prohibition on the capitalization of interest in connection with loan workouts and modifications. The Board has determined that the current prohibition on authorizing additional advances to finance unpaid interest may be overly burdensome and, in some cases, hamper a federally insured credit union's (FICU's) good-faith efforts to engage in loan workouts with borrowers facing difficulty because of the economic disruption that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. Advancing interest may avert the need for alternative actions that would be more harmful to borrowers. The proposed rule would establish documentation requirements to help ensure that the addition of unpaid interest to the principal balance of a mortgage loan does not hinder the borrower's ability to become current on the loan. The proposed change would apply to workouts of all types of member loans, including commercial and business loans. The Board has also taken this opportunity to make several technical changes to the Appendix to improve its clarity and update certain references. For the convenience of readers, the Board is republishing the Appendix in its entirety so that the changes may be viewed in the context of the full document.

This action updates many of EPA's existing gasoline, diesel, and other fuel quality programs to improve overall compliance assurance and maintain environmental performance, while reducing compliance costs for industry and EPA. EPA is streamlining existing fuel quality regulations by removing expired provisions, eliminating redundant compliance provisions (e.g., duplicative registration requirements that are required by every EPA fuels program), removing unnecessary and out- of-date requirements, and replacing them with a single set of provisions and definitions that applies to all gasoline, diesel, and other fuel quality programs. This action does not change the stringency of the existing fuel quality standards.