October 20, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its regulation governing delegated authority to settle administrative tort claims pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) to $500,000. This regulation also amends the delegated authority to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to $5,000 to settle non-medical malpractice claims pursuant to the FTCA.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or ``Agency'') is determining that the Imperial County nonattainment area would have attained the 2015 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) by the August 3, 2021 ``Marginal'' area attainment date, but for emissions emanating from outside the United States. As a result of this final action, the Imperial County nonattainment area will no longer be subject to the Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements pertaining to reclassification upon failure to attain and therefore will remain classified as a Marginal nonattainment area for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. This action discharges the EPA's statutory obligation to determine whether the Imperial County ozone nonattainment area attained the NAAQS by the attainment date.

The Department proposes to require U.S. air carriers, foreign air carriers, and ticket agents to clearly disclose passenger-specific or itinerary-specific baggage fees, change fees, and cancellation fees to consumers whenever fare and schedule information is provided to consumers for flights to, within, and from the United States. The Department also proposes to require these entities to clearly disclose passenger-specific or itinerary-specific fees for adjacent seating whenever fare and schedule information is provided to consumers traveling with young children on flights to, within, and from the United States, and make these fees transactable. The Department further proposes to require that carriers provide useable, current, and accurate information regarding baggage fees, change fees, cancellation fees, and adjacent seating fees if any to ticket agents that sell or display the carrier's fare and schedule information. This rulemaking implements the Executive order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which directs the Department to take various actions to promote the interests of American workers, businesses, and consumers, including considering initiating a rulemaking to ensure that consumers have ancillary fee information at the time of ticket purchase.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to determine that the Imperial County, California fine particulate matter (PM2.5) nonattainment area (``Imperial PM2.5 nonattainment area'') attained the 2012 annual PM2.5 national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS or ``standard'') by its December 31, 2021 ``Moderate'' area attainment date. This proposed determination is based upon ambient air quality monitoring data from 2019 through 2021. We are also proposing to make a clean data determination (CDD) based on our determination that preliminary air quality monitoring data from 2022 indicate the Imperial PM2.5 nonattainment area continues to attain the 2012 annual PM2.5 NAAQS. If we finalize this CDD, certain Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements that apply to the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (ICAPCD or ``District'') will be suspended for so long as the area continues to meet the 2012 annual PM2.5 NAAQS. The area will remain designated as nonattainment for the 2012 annual PM2.5 NAAQS. The EPA is also proposing to approve a revision to California's state implementation plan (SIP) consisting of the 2012 emissions inventory for the Imperial PM2.5 nonattainment area, submitted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB or ``State'') on July 18, 2018.

This action establishes United States Area Navigation (RNAV) route T-374 in the vicinity of Kotzebue, AK, in support of a large and comprehensive T-route modernization project for the state of Alaska.

FMCS requests evaluations from clients to create tailored training as well as post-training evaluations to continue to provide world-class training to all sectors.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is issuing this notice to inform the public that FMCS has performed a reorganization to optimize client services, internal communications, and agency resources.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 60- day public comment period associated with release of the draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Toxicological Review of Hexavalent Chromium. The draft document was prepared by the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD). EPA is releasing this draft IRIS assessment for public comment in advance of a Science Advisory Board (SAB) led peer review. SAB will convene a public meeting to discuss the draft report with the public during Step 4 of the IRIS Process. The external peer reviewers will consider public comments submitted to the EPA docket in response to this notice and any others provided at the public meeting when reviewing this document. EPA will consider all comments submitted to the docket when revising the document post-peer review. This draft assessment is not final as described in EPA's information quality guidelines, and it does not represent, and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or views.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, the Agency, or we) is announcing the availability of a guidance for industry entitled ``Laboratory Accreditation for Analyses of Foods: What You Need to Know About the FDA Regulation: Guidance for IndustrySmall Entity Compliance Guide.'' The small entity compliance guide (SECG) is intended to help small entities comply with the final rule entitled ``Laboratory Accreditation for Analyses of Foods.''

This action amends VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal airway V-36 by establishing an airway segment within United States (U.S.) airspace over Lake Superior. The new V-36 airway segment replaces a similar segment that was inadvertently removed in a previous rulemaking action supporting NAV CANADA's Navigational Aid (NAVAID) Modernization Program. This action also supports cross border airway connectivity with NAV CANADA's V-36 airway between the Thunder Bay, ON, Canada, VOR/Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) and the Wawa, ON, Canada, VOR/DME NAVAIDs.

The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2020-20-05 and AD 2022-09-16, which apply to certain Airbus SAS Model A318 series; A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, -133, -151N, and -153N; A320 series; and A321 series airplanes. AD 2020-20-05 and AD 2022-09-16 require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations. Since the FAA issued AD 2020-20-05 and AD 2022-09-16, the FAA has determined that new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations are necessary. This proposed AD would continue to require the actions in AD 2022-09-16 and 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 is proposed for incorporation by reference. This proposed AD would also revise the applicability to include additional airplanes. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Embraer S.A. Model ERJ 190-100 STD, -100 LR, -100 ECJ, -100 IGW, -200 STD, -200 LR, and -200 IGW airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a report of uncommanded setting of the barometric reference in both primary flight displays (PFDs) due to the architecture of data communication of the Control I/O modules, which interconnect the display controllers to the air data system. This proposed AD would require installing updated Primus EPIC software, as specified in an Ag[ecirc]ncia Nacional de Avia[ccedil][atilde]o Civil (ANAC) AD, which is proposed for incorporation by reference. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for all navigable waters of the Corpus Christi Shipping Channel in a zone defined by the following coordinates; 27[deg]50'31.28'' N, 97[deg]04'17.23'' W; 27[deg]50'31.73'' N, 97[deg]04'15.44'' W; 27[deg]50'29.06'' N, 97[deg]04'16.61'' W; 27[deg]50'29.32'' N, 97[deg]04'14.82'' W. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by pipelines that will be removed from the floor of the Corpus Christi Shipping Channel. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Sector Corpus Christi or a designated representative.

This document provides notice of the pendency before the Department of Labor (the Department) of a proposed individual exemption from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). If the proposed exemption is granted, certain asset managers with specified relationships to JPMorgan Chase Co. (JPMC) (the JPMC Affiliated qualified professional asset managers (QPAMs) and the JPMC Related QPAMs) will not be precluded from relying on the exemptive relief provided by Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 84-14 (PTE 84-14 or the QPAM Exemption), notwithstanding the judgment of conviction against JPMC, as described below.

The OCC, the Board, and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations for their regulations that implement section 129H of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Section 129H of TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for ``higher-risk mortgages,'' termed ``higher-priced mortgage loans'' or ``HPMLs'' in the agencies' regulations. The OCC, the Board, the Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (collectively, the Agencies) jointly issued final rules implementing these requirements, effective January 18, 2014. The Agencies' rules exempted, among other loan types, transactions of $25,000 or less, and required that this loan amount be adjusted annually based on any annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the OCC, the Board, and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. Additionally, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted because the CPI-W decreased, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2022, the exemption threshold will increase from $28,500 to $31,000, effective January 1, 2023.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering renewal of Operating Facility License No. R-130, held by the Regents of the University of California for the University of California Davis (UCD, the licensee), for the continued operation of the McClellan Nuclear Research Center (MNRC) Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics (TRIGA) reactor (the reactor, facility), located in the city of North Highlands, Sacramento County, California. In connection with the renewed license, the licensee also seeks to operate at a maximum licensed power level of 1.0 megawatt-thermal (MWt). The NRC is issuing an environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) associated with the proposed action.

This notice announces an in-person/virtual hybrid subcommittee meeting of the whole of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Hanford. The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.