Processing Claims, Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise To Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022, 78543-78544 [2022-27861]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 245 / Thursday, December 22, 2022 / Rules and Regulations Coast Guard plans to provide notification of this enforcement period via Marine Safety Information Bulletin and Broadcast Notice to Mariners. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Coast Guard 33 CFR Part 165 [Docket No. USCG–2022–0846] Safety Zone; Annual Fireworks Displays and Other Events in the Eighth Coast Guard District Requiring Safety Zones ACTION: lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with RULES1 16:02 Dec 21, 2022 Jkt 259001 BILLING CODE 9110–04–P 38 CFR Part 3 The Coast Guard will enforce a safety zone for the Crescent City Countdown Club/New Year’s Celebration fireworks display, from December 31, 2022 at 11:30 p.m. through January 1, 2023 at 12:30 a.m., to provide for the safety of life on the navigable waterways during this event. Our regulation for annual fireworks displays and other events in the Eighth Coast Guard District identifies this safety zone on Mississippi River mile marker (MM) 93.5–96.5, New Orleans, LA. During the enforcement period, entry into this zone is prohibited unless authorized by the Captain of the Port or designated representative. DATES: The regulations in 33 Code of Federal Regulations, § 165.801, Table 5, line 10 will be enforced from 11:30 p.m. on December 31, 2022 through 12:30 a.m. on January 1, 2023. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions about this notification of enforcement, call or email Lieutenant Commander William Stewart, Sector New Orleans, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone (504)365–2246, email William.A.Stewart@uscg.mil. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Coast Guard will enforce a safety zone for the Crescent City Countdown Club/New Year’s Celebration fireworks display, from December 31, 2022 at 11:30 p.m. through January 1, 2023 at 12:30 a.m., to provide for the safety of life on the navigable waterways during this event. Our regulation for annual fireworks displays and other events in the Eighth Coast Guard District, 33 CFR 165.801, as updated by Federal Register Document 83 FR 55488, identifies this safety zone on Mississippi River MM 93.5–96.5, New Orleans, LA. During the enforcement period, as reflected in § 165.801(a) through (d), entry into this zone is prohibited unless authorized by the Captain of the Port or a designated representative. In addition to this notification of enforcement in the Federal Register, the VerDate Sep<11>2014 [FR Doc. 2022–27782 Filed 12–21–22; 8:45 am] DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Coast Guard, DHS. Notification of enforcement of regulation. AGENCY: SUMMARY: Dated: December 15, 2022. K.K. Denning, Captain, U.S. Coast Guard, Captain of the Port Sector New Orleans. Processing Claims, Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise To Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022 Department of Veterans Affairs. Notification of sub-regulatory guidance. AGENCY: ACTION: On August 10, 2022, the President signed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 (PACT Act) into law, establishing substantial legislative changes in laws administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). DATES: VA anticipates that the processing of PACT Act-related claims will begin on January 1, 2023. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Pierce, Assistant Director, Policy Staff, Compensation Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202–461–9700. (This is not a toll-free number.) SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: VA is drafting regulations to implement the PACT Act. Prior to the promulgation of those regulations, VA is providing subregulatory guidance to claims processors in the form of a Policy Letter. The Policy Letter, as it will be provided to claims processors, can be found as a supporting document at https:// www.regulations.gov. On August 10, 2022, Public Law 117– 168, the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, was signed into law. This historic, multifaceted law, which triggers changes to disability compensation examination requirements when there is evidence a Veteran has participated in a toxic exposure risk activity, expands presumptive locations associated with SUMMARY: PO 00000 Frm 00031 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 78543 radiation exposure, expands presumptive conditions and locations associated with herbicide exposure, amends the statute involving certain benefits for Persian Gulf War Veterans, establishes presumptive conditions associated with exposure to burn pits and other toxins, and provides an avenue for a claimant-elected reevaluation of previously denied dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) claims that can result in retroactive effective dates for benefits. Although the PACT Act does not explicitly require VA to implement its provisions through regulations, VA currently is drafting regulations to codify the statutory changes in regulation and to address any gaps and ambiguity in the statutory language. Due to the time required to promulgate regulations, VA will implement the law and begin processing PACT Act-related claims on January 1, 2023, based on the sub-regulatory guidance contained in the Policy Letter associated with this Notice. The issuance of this Policy Letter has the benefit of allowing VA to operationalize the PACT Act and deliver earned benefits to Veterans and their dependents as quickly as possible while simultaneously continuing efforts to promulgate the implementing regulations. Nothing in this guidance affects or alters section 804 of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. The PACT Act contains nine titles, each containing multiple sections. Not all titles and sections impact compensation, pension and/or death benefits, as the law also addresses matters such as the expansion of health care eligibility and requirements for research studies. This Policy Letter focuses on the titles and sections that impact eligibility for disability compensation and survivor benefits. The Policy Letter provides guidance to claims processors for implementing the provisions of sections 102, 203, 204, 302, 303, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405 and 406 of this law. Signing Authority Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, approved this document on November 15, 2022, and authorized the undersigned to sign and submit the document to the Office of the Federal Register for publication E:\FR\FM\22DER1.SGM 22DER1 78544 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 245 / Thursday, December 22, 2022 / Rules and Regulations electronically as an official document of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Luvenia Potts, Regulation Development Coordinator, Office of Regulation Policy & Management, Office of the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs. [FR Doc. 2022–27861 Filed 12–21–22; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 8320–01–P ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 40 CFR Part 52 [EPA–R09–OAR–2021–0318; FRL–10004– 02–R9] Air Plan Approval; California; San Diego County Air Pollution Control District; San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Final rule. AGENCY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to approve revisions to the San Diego SUMMARY: lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with RULES1 Local agency Rule # County Air Pollution Control District (SDCAPCD) and San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from architectural coating operations. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act). DATES: These rules is effective January 23, 2023. ADDRESSES: The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA–R09–OAR–2021–0318. All documents in the docket are listed on the https://www.regulations.gov website. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available through https:// www.regulations.gov, or please contact I. Proposed Action On September 19, 2022 (87 FR 57161), the EPA proposed to approve the following amended rules into the California SIP. Submitted 2/10/2021 (effective for state law purposes on 1/1/2022). 4/16/2020 (effective upon adoption but the new or revised VOC content limits were effective 1/1/2022). 4/20/2021, as an attachment to a letter dated 4/16/2021. 4/23/2020, as an attachment to a letter of the same date. Architectural Coatings .......... SJVUAPCD ..... 4601 Architectural Coatings .......... We proposed to approve these amended rules because we determined that they comply with the relevant CAA requirements. More specifically, we evaluated the amended rules and determined that they remain enforceable, that they implement reasonably available control measure (RACM)-level controls, and that they would not interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment or reasonable further progress (RFP) or any other requirement of the CAA. In our proposed rule, we also evaluated the specific contingency measure provisions in the rules (i.e., paragraph (b)(6) of SDCAPCD Rule 67.0.1 and section 4.3 of SJVUAPCD Rule 4601) and concluded that the provisions meet the requirements for contingency measures under CAA sections 172(c)(9) and 182(c)(9). While we found that the rules meet the requirements for stand-alone contingency measures, we indicated that we are not making any determination at this time as to whether these individual contingency measures are sufficient in themselves for their Jkt 259001 I. Proposed Action II. Public Comments and EPA Responses III. EPA Action IV. Incorporation by Reference V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews Adopted/amended/revised 67.0.1 16:02 Dec 21, 2022 Table of Contents Rule title SDCAPCD ...... VerDate Sep<11>2014 the person identified in the FOR FURTHER section for additional availability information. If you need assistance in a language other than English or if you are a person with disabilities who needs a reasonable accommodation at no cost to you, please contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Arnold Lazarus, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105. By phone: (415) 972–3024 or by email at lazarus.arnold@epa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us’’ and ‘‘our’’ refer to the EPA. INFORMATION CONTACT respective nonattainment areas to fully comply with the contingency measure requirements under CAA sections 172(c)(9) and 182(c)(9). As noted in the proposed rule, we will be taking action on the contingency measure SIP elements for San Diego County and San Joaquin Valley in separate rulemakings. Our proposed action contains more information on the rules and our evaluation. II. Public Comments and EPA Responses The EPA’s proposed action provided a 30-day public comment period. During this period, we received one germane comment, and that one comment was supportive of the proposed action. III. EPA Action No comments were submitted that change our assessment of the rules as described in our proposed action. Therefore, as authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the CAA, the EPA is fully approving these rules into the California SIP. Upon the effective date of this final rule, the February 10, 2021 version of PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 SDCAPCD Rule 67.0.1 and the April 16, 2020 version of SJVUAPCD Rule 4601 will replace the previously approved versions of these rules in the California SIP. IV. Incorporation by Reference In this rule, the EPA is finalizing regulatory text that includes incorporation by reference. In accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is finalizing the incorporation by reference of the SDCAPCD and SJVUAPCD rules identified in section I. of this preamble. These rules concern emissions of VOC from architectural coating operations. The EPA has made, and will continue to make, these documents available through www.regulations.gov and at the EPA Region IX Office (please contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this preamble for more information). V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to approve a E:\FR\FM\22DER1.SGM 22DER1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 245 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 78543-78544]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-27861]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

38 CFR Part 3


Processing Claims, Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring 
Our Promise To Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or the 
Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.

ACTION: Notification of sub-regulatory guidance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On August 10, 2022, the President signed the Sergeant First 
Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive 
Toxics Act of 2022, or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 (PACT Act) 
into law, establishing substantial legislative changes in laws 
administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

DATES: VA anticipates that the processing of PACT Act-related claims 
will begin on January 1, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Pierce, Assistant Director, 
Policy Staff, Compensation Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 
Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202-461-9700. (This is not a toll-
free number.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: VA is drafting regulations to implement the 
PACT Act. Prior to the promulgation of those regulations, VA is 
providing sub-regulatory guidance to claims processors in the form of a 
Policy Letter. The Policy Letter, as it will be provided to claims 
processors, can be found as a supporting document at https://www.regulations.gov.
    On August 10, 2022, Public Law 117-168, the Sergeant First Class 
Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act 
of 2022, or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, was signed into law. 
This historic, multifaceted law, which triggers changes to disability 
compensation examination requirements when there is evidence a Veteran 
has participated in a toxic exposure risk activity, expands presumptive 
locations associated with radiation exposure, expands presumptive 
conditions and locations associated with herbicide exposure, amends the 
statute involving certain benefits for Persian Gulf War Veterans, 
establishes presumptive conditions associated with exposure to burn 
pits and other toxins, and provides an avenue for a claimant-elected 
reevaluation of previously denied dependency and indemnity compensation 
(DIC) claims that can result in retroactive effective dates for 
benefits.
    Although the PACT Act does not explicitly require VA to implement 
its provisions through regulations, VA currently is drafting 
regulations to codify the statutory changes in regulation and to 
address any gaps and ambiguity in the statutory language. Due to the 
time required to promulgate regulations, VA will implement the law and 
begin processing PACT Act-related claims on January 1, 2023, based on 
the sub-regulatory guidance contained in the Policy Letter associated 
with this Notice. The issuance of this Policy Letter has the benefit of 
allowing VA to operationalize the PACT Act and deliver earned benefits 
to Veterans and their dependents as quickly as possible while 
simultaneously continuing efforts to promulgate the implementing 
regulations. Nothing in this guidance affects or alters section 804 of 
the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022.
    The PACT Act contains nine titles, each containing multiple 
sections. Not all titles and sections impact compensation, pension and/
or death benefits, as the law also addresses matters such as the 
expansion of health care eligibility and requirements for research 
studies. This Policy Letter focuses on the titles and sections that 
impact eligibility for disability compensation and survivor benefits. 
The Policy Letter provides guidance to claims processors for 
implementing the provisions of sections 102, 203, 204, 302, 303, 401, 
402, 403, 404, 405 and 406 of this law.

Signing Authority

    Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, approved this 
document on November 15, 2022, and authorized the undersigned to sign 
and submit the document to the Office of the Federal Register for 
publication

[[Page 78544]]

electronically as an official document of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs.

Luvenia Potts,
Regulation Development Coordinator, Office of Regulation Policy & 
Management, Office of the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2022-27861 Filed 12-21-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8320-01-P
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.