2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has proposed amendments to the ``Rule Concerning the Use of Prenotification Negative Option Plans,'' to be retitled the ``Rule Concerning Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Plans'' (``Negative Option Rule'' or ``Rule''). The proposed changes are calculated to combat unfair or deceptive business practices, including recurring charges for products or services consumers do not want and cannot cancel without undue difficulty. In response to the notice of proposed rulemaking, several commenters requested an informal hearing. The informal hearing will be conducted virtually on January 16, 2024, at 10 a.m. Eastern, and the Commission's Chief Presiding Officer, the Chair, has appointed Administrative Law Judge for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Honorable Carol Fox Foelak, to serve as the presiding officer of the informal hearing.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) published a document in the Federal Register of November 16, 2023, concerning a request for public input from the science and engineering research and education community on implementing NSF Public Access Plan 2.0: Ensuring Open, Immediate, and Equitable Access to National Science Foundation Funded Research. The links in the notice for the request for information and documentation did not publish; this notice serves to provide those links. The rest of the notice is being published in whole. This plan, described in SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION, represents an update to NSF current public access requirements in response to recent White House Office of Science and Technology Policy guidance. A primary consideration during the development of NSF's plan has been potential equity impacts of public access requirements. NSF's goal is to improve equity throughout the research life cycle, making data and opportunities available to all researchers, including those from marginalized communities and historically under-resourced institutions of higher education in the U.S. NSF is committed to considering the needs of the diverse US research community, including identifying possible unintended consequences that the plan and its implementation could produce.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has determined the regulatory review period for ZYNLONTA and is publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the determination because of the submission of an application to the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that human biological product.

The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment on the proposed extension of the Quarterly Summary of State & Local Government Tax Revenues, prior to the submission of the information collection request (ICR) to OMB for approval.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are reopening the comment periods on notices announcing three incidental take permit applications, three proposed habitat conservation plans, and related documents. We are taking this action because of a disruption in the public's access to regulations.gov as a means of viewing documents and submitting comments when the three notices were initially published. We invite comments from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies. If you already submitted a comment, you do not need to resubmit it.

PHMSA has determined that the minimum random drug testing rate for covered employees will remain at 25 percent during calendar year 2024. For calendar year 2023 reporting, DOT is introducing MFA login procedures for submitting D&A testing data into the DAMIS database. This notice also explains how pipeline operators and contractors will obtain MFA login information.

We are revising the regulations to designate the State of Alabama as a commercial citrus-producing area in the current citrus canker regulations, and to update the scientific name for citrus canker used in the regulations. The State of Alabama has stated that it has commercial citrus production in the State, and the scientific name used in the regulations for citrus canker is obsolete and no longer used. These actions will update the regulations in order to provide Alabama protections that are afforded under the regulations to commercial citrus-producing States and be current as to the scientific name for citrus canker.

The FirstNet Authority Board will convene an open public meeting of the Board and Board Committees.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, NSF proposes to establish a new agency system of records, entitled Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Request and Appeal Records, NSF-81. This system comprises records of requests and administrative appeals filed by individuals seeking access to agency records under the Freedom of Information Act, and requests and appeals by individuals seeking to access or amend agency records, if any, that NSF may maintain about them under the Privacy Act. System records about individual requesters, and their attorneys or representatives, if applicable, include the original request for access, amendment, and any administrative appeal, and other supporting documentation, which can include memoranda, correspondence, notes, copies of records released to the requester, and other file materials compiled or generated in the processing and disposition of the individual's request or appeal.

On October 31, 2023, HUD published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking entitled ``Removing Criminal Conviction Restrictions for Testers in FHIP- and FHAP-Funded Testing Programs,'' proposing to eliminate the tester restrictions for Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) grantees and for Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies that forbid FHIP and FHAP recipients from using fair housing testers with prior felony convictions or convictions of crimes involving fraud or perjury. The proposed rule provided for a 60- day comment period, which would have ended January 2, 2024. HUD has determined that a 9-day extension of the comment period, until January 11, 2024, is appropriate. This extension will allow interested persons additional time to analyze the proposal and prepare their comments.

The Department of State has submitted the information collections described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we are requesting comments on these collections from all interested individuals and organizations. The purpose of this Notice is to allow 30 days for public comment.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS or the Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing a pilot for the Section 502 Direct Home Loan program to test alternative eligibility criteria related to community representation for Community Land Trust (CLT) organizations. The Agency intends to evaluate the impact of allowing eligibility criteria other than membership open to all residents of the geographic area which could meet the intent of the statutory requirements for CLTs to have specific community representation. This notification outlines the pilot parameters and provides contact information for additional details about the pilot.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report and Order that adopts measures designed to address two fraudulent practices bad actors use to take control of consumers' cell phone accounts and wreak havoc on people's financial and digital lives without ever gaining physical control of a consumer's phone. The Report and Order revises the Commission's Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) and Local Number Portability (LNP) rules to require wireless providers to adopt secure methods of authenticating a customer before redirecting a customer's phone number to a new device or provider. The Report and Order also require wireless providers to immediately notify customers whenever a SIM change or port-out request is made on customers' accounts, and take additional steps to protect customers from SIM swap and port-out fraud.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Commission or CPSC) is issuing a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPR) to revise the agency's rule for Certificates of Compliance (certificates). The SNPR proposes to align the certificate rule with other CPSC rules on testing and certification, and to implement, for imported CPSC- regulated products and substances, electronic filing of certificates (eFiling) with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

This action amends the Class E airspace at Roseau, MN. This action is the result of an airspace review caused by the decommissioning of the Roseau very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) as part of the VOR Minimum Operating Network (MON) Program. The name and geographic coordinates of the airport are also being updated to coincide with the FAA's aeronautical database. This action brings the airspace into compliance with FAA orders to support instrument flight rule (IFR) operations.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below is being forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension of a previously approved collection. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following collection of information was published on September 5, 2023. There were no comments. As the September 5, 2023, Notice solicits comments from the public on whether it is appropriate for the Department to continue to collect information on oversales from airlines, the issues raised by these comments are beyond the scope of this Notice and will not be addressed here. Specifically, having obsolete regulations that allow three legacy carriers and one discount carrier to control 80% of the domestic aviation market, while banning foreign competitors from offering U.S. domestic flights, and allowing airlines to book to 100% capacity or overbook to increase their revenue stream. With respect to the overbooking comment, the FAA has no jurisdiction in this matter, however, the Department does. And although it is not the Department's policy or purpose to dictate how airlines internally manage their business; this ended with deregulation of the aviation industry in 1979, it is the Department's policy and purpose to protect and standardize how the airlines treat their passengers.

This action proposes to amend Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal airways V-13, V-133, and V-300, and United States (U.S.) Area Navigation (RNAV) route T-331; establish Canadian RNAV routes Q-924, T-765, T-776, and T-810 in U.S. airspace; and revoke Jet Route J-533 and VOR Federal airway V-348. The FAA is proposing this action due to the planned decommissioning of the Thunder Bay, Ontario (ON), Canada, VOR navigational aid (NAVAID). This action is in support of NAV CANADA's NAVAID Modernization Program within Canada.