2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Bombardier Inc., Model CL-600-2B16 (601-3A, 601-3R, and 604 Variants) airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a determination that certain airplanes have outdated magnetic variation (MagVar) tables inside navigation systems. This proposed AD would require revising the existing airplane flight manual (AFM) to update the Flight Management System (FMS) and Inertial Reference System (IRS) limitations. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

This interim final rule with comment period (IFC) implements the Most Favored Nation (MFN) Model, a new Medicare payment model under section 1115A of the Social Security Act (the Act). The MFN Model will test whether more closely aligning payment for Medicare Part B drugs and biologicals (hereafter, referred to as ``drugs'') with international prices and removing incentives to use higher-cost drugs can control unsustainable growth in Medicare Part B spending without adversely affecting quality of care for beneficiaries.

The Immediate Office of the Secretary (IOS) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to assist the Department in identifying redundant, overlapping, or inconsistent regulations.

The Department of Justice (``Department'') proposes to amend Executive Office for Immigration Review (``EOIR'') regulations governing the filing and adjudication of motions to reopen and reconsider and to add regulations governing requests for discretionary stays of removal.

The Coast Guard will enforce a special local regulation on December 5, 2020 to provide for the safety and security of certain navigable waters along the Intracoastal Waterway during the Palm Beach Holiday Boat Parade. During the enforcement period, all non-participant persons and vessels will be prohibited from entering, transiting, anchoring in, or remaining within the regulated area unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Miami or a designated representative. The operator of any vessel in the regulated area must comply with instructions from the Coast Guard or designated representative.

The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing Company Model 727 series airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a determination that excessive sealant coating on internal wing Structural Significant Items (SSIs) may not reveal cracks during inspections required by AD 98-11-03 R1. This proposed AD would require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate inspections that will give no less than the required damage tolerance rating (DTR) for certain SSIs of the wing. This proposed AD would also require repetitive inspections for cracking of the affected SSIs and repair if necessary. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is removing three regulations governing the application and selection process for Intermediary Lending Pilot (ILP) program Intermediaries. These regulations are no longer necessary because SBA is no longer authorized to select new ILP Intermediaries. The removal of these regulations will assist the public by simplifying SBA's regulations. SBA is also making two conforming amendments to avoid confusion.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is correcting a final rule that published on November 13, 2020, establishing in regulation its processes and procedures for issuing guidance documents. This final rulemaking will implement the mandates of Executive Order 13891, Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents.

The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) proposes to add mining as a sector with infrastructure projects eligible for coverage under Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41). Current FAST-41 sectors include renewable and conventional energy production, electricity transmission, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource projects, broadband, pipelines, and manufacturing. The addition of mining as a FAST-41 sector would allow a qualified mining infrastructure project to become a FAST-41 covered project. FAST-41 coverage does not predetermine the outcome of any Federal decision making process, but is intended to improve the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of the Federal environmental review and authorization processes for covered infrastructure projects.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is issuing final regulations to enable certain Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans to apply for land allotments under Section 1119 of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of March 12, 2019 (Dingell Act). The Dingell Act requires the BLM to issue regulations to implement the Act's land allotment provisions. This action will enable certain Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans to apply for an allotment who, because of their military service, were not able to do so during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In this document, the Commission takes definitive steps to address the arbitrage and fraud that have increasingly undermined the system of intercarrier compensation that currently underpins toll free calling. Those steps include transitioning 8YY end office originating charges to bill-and-keep over approximately three years and creating a single charge for 8YY tandem switching and transport services and capping it at a lower, uniform rate. The order caps rates for the database queries necessary to route toll free calls, reduces them to a national uniform rate over approximately three years, and limits such database query charges to one per call. Finally, the Commission allows carriers to use existing mechanisms to recover lost revenue. The measures will reduce the incentives for carriers to engage in 8YY access arbitrage and lower the costs of 8YY services overall.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing approval of State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Utah on July 3, 2019, as supplemented on December 3, 2019, to satisfy certain regional haze requirements for the regional haze program's first implementation period (Utah SIP revisions). The EPA is approving the Utah SIP revision that provides an alternative to best available retrofit technology (BART) controls for nitrogen oxides (NOX) at the PacifiCorp Hunter and Huntington power plants. The EPA finds that the NOX BART Alternative for Hunter and Huntington achieves greater reasonable progress toward natural visibility conditions than BART, in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the EPA's Regional Haze Rule. In conjunction with this approval, we are withdrawing the Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that addresses NOX BART for the Hunter and Huntington power plants that EPA promulgated in 2016. The EPA is also approving Utah's December 3, 2019 SIP supplement that requires reporting of all deviations from compliance with the applicable requirements under particulate matter (PM) BART and the NOX BART Alternative, including the emission limits for Hunter and Huntington. The EPA is taking these actions pursuant to sections 110 and 169A of the CAA.

We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), propose to designate critical habitat for the seven threatened corals in U.S. waters in the Indo-Pacific (Acropora globiceps, Acropora jacquelineae, Acropora retusa, Acropora speciosa, Euphyllia paradivisa, Isopora crateriformis, and Seriatopora aculeata) pursuant to section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Seventeen specific occupied areas containing physical features essential to the conservation of these coral species are being proposed for designation as critical habitat; these areas contain approximately 600 square kilometers (km\2\; 230 square miles) of marine habitat. We have considered positive and negative economic, national security, and other relevant impacts of the proposed designations, and we propose to exclude two areas from the critical habitat designations due to anticipated impacts on national security. We are soliciting comments from the public on all aspects of the proposal, including our identification of the geographical area and depths occupied by the species, the physical and biological feature essential to the coral species' conservation and identification, areas not included and excluded, and consideration of impacts of the proposed action.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for arrowtooth flounder in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2020 arrowtooth flounder initial total allowable catch (ITAC) in the BSAI.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is proposing a regulation to ensure that national banks and Federal savings associations offer and provide fair access to financial services.

This action proposes to revoke the Class E surface airspace at Tri-County Regional Airport, Lone Rock, WI, and amend the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Tri-County Regional Airport and Richland Airport, Richland Center, WI. The FAA is proposing this action as the result of airspace reviews caused by the decommissioning of the Lone Rock VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) navigation aid as part of the VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON) Program. The names and geographic coordinates of the airports would also be updated to coincide with the FAA's aeronautical database.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to partially approve and partially disapprove a revision to the Wisconsin State Implementation Plan (SIP) for attaining the 2010 primary, health- based 1-hour sulfur dioxide (SO2) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS or ``standard'') for the Oneida County SO2 nonattainment area. This SIP revision (hereinafter referred to as Wisconsin's Oneida County SO2 plan or plan) includes Wisconsin's attainment demonstration and other attainment planning elements required under the Clean Air Act (CAA). EPA is proposing to approve some elements of the Oneida County SO2 plan and disapprove some elements of the plan, including the attainment demonstration, since it contains facility credit for a stack height that does not meet the regulations for good engineering practice stack height regarding the prohibition of air pollution dispersion techniques.

This rulemaking proposes to codify three menu planning flexibilities established by the interim final rule titled, Child Nutrition Programs: Flexibilities for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Requirements published November 30, 2017, and made permanent with some modifications by a final rule of the same title published December 12, 2018, hereafter referred to as the 2018 Final Rule. An April 2020 court decision vacated and remanded the 2018 Final Rule. In response to the vacatur and remand of the 2018 Final Rule, this rule proposes targeted changes to: Allow National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program operators to permanently offer flavored, low-fat milk as part of a reimbursable meal and for sale as a competitive beverage and allow flavored, low-fat milk in the Special Milk Program for Children and in the Child and Adult Care Food Program for participants ages 6 and older; allow for half of the weekly grains in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program menus to be whole grain-rich; and provide schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Programs more time for gradual sodium reduction by retaining Sodium Target 1 through the end of school year (SY) 2023- 2024, continuing to Target 2 in SY 2024-2025, and eliminating the Final Target.

FMCSA requests public comments on the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) petition for rulemaking concerning the rights of parties to a brokered transaction to review the records of the transaction and its request that the Agency issue regulatory guidance concerning dispatch services. TIA believes transparency in broker transactions is provided through other means in today's market place and that the regulatory guidance would ensure that interested parties can distinguish between a dispatch service and an authorized broker.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is amending the Hazardous Materials Regulations in response to 24 petitions for rulemaking submitted by the regulated community between February 2015 and March 2018. This final rule updates, clarifies, or provides relief from various regulatory requirements without adversely affecting safety. PHMSA also, as of the effective date of this final rule, withdraws its September 28, 2017 enforcement discretion regarding the phase-out of mobile refrigeration systems.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is amending its regulations to improve the accuracy of data reported to, and maintained by, swap data repositories (``SDRs''), and to provide enhanced and streamlined oversight over SDRs and data reporting generally. Among other changes, the amendments modify existing requirements for SDRs to establish policies and procedures to confirm the accuracy of swap data with both counterparties to a swap and require reporting counterparties to verify the accuracy of swap data pursuant to those SDR procedures. The amendments also update existing requirements related to corrections for data errors and certain provisions related to SDR governance.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is amending certain regulations setting forth the real-time public swap reporting and dissemination requirements for swap data repositories (``SDRs''), derivatives clearing organizations (``DCOs''), swap execution facilities (``SEFs''), designated contract markets (``DCMs''), swap dealers (``SDs''), major swap participants (``MSPs''), and swap counterparties that are neither SDs nor MSPs. The amendments, among other things, address certain issues related to reporting post- priced swaps (``PPS'') and disseminating swaps associated with prime brokerage arrangements. In addition, the Commission is adopting technical amendments to certain provisions in other parts of its regulations.

FMCSA clarifies the definition of the terms ``any agricultural commodity,'' ``livestock,'' and ``non-processed food,'' as the terms are used in the definition of ``agricultural commodity'' for the purposes of the Agency's ``Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers'' regulations. Under current regulations, drivers transporting agricultural commodities, including livestock, from the source of the commodities to a location within 150 air miles of the source, during harvest and planting seasons as defined by each State, are exempt from the HOS requirements. Furthermore, the HOS requirement for a 30-minute rest break does not apply to drivers transporting livestock in interstate commerce while the livestock are on the commercial motor vehicle. This interim final rule (IFR) clarifies the meaning of these existing definitional terms to ensure that the HOS exemptions are utilized as Congress intended.

This document contains proposed regulations to except certain partnership-related items from the centralized partnership audit regime that was created by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, and sets forth alternative rules that will apply. The centralized partnership audit regime does not apply to a partnership-related item if the item involves a special enforcement matter described in these regulations. Additionally, these regulations propose changes to the regulations to account for changes to the Internal Revenue Code (Code). Finally, these proposed regulations also make related and clarifying amendments to the final regulations under the centralized partnership audit regime. The proposed regulations would affect partnerships and partners to whom special enforcement matters apply.