2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a revision to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP), authorizing temporary alternative opacity limitations at the BP Products North America, Inc. (BP) facility in Whiting, Indiana during startup and shutdown. This approval is consistent with the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA regulations regarding emissions during these periods in the refinery sector. EPA proposed to approve this SIP submission on August 17, 2022, and received no comments.

The NMFS Office of International Affairs, Trade, and Commerce proposes to revise its current implementing regulations to improve the uniformity and reliability of seafood inspection services by adopting recognized best practices for inspection. NMFS has not significantly revised or updated the existing regulations since first issuing them in 1971, though it has modified many operating procedures since implementation of the current regulations. NMFS anticipates that these revisions will benefit the seafood industry by streamlining seafood inspection services and providing improved, more accurate inspection results, as described below.

The FAA is withdrawing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register on June 15, 2023, proposing to amend Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal Airway V- 469; and to revoke VOR Federal Airways V-164, V-423, and V-576; due to the planned decommissioning of the Williamsport, PA (FQM), VOR/Distance Measuring Equipment (DME); Stonyfork, PA (SFK), VOR/DME; Danville, VA (DAN), VOR; Hancock, NY (HNK), VOR/DME; and Delancey, NY (DNY), VOR/ DME.

This regulation amends and extends a temporary exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of the BLB2 and AMR3 proteins in potato, when used as a plant-incorporated protectant (PIP) in accordance with the terms of Experimental Use Permit (EUP) No. 8971- EUP-3. J.R. Simplot Company, submitted a petition to EPA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), requesting the temporary tolerance exemption. This regulation eliminates the need under FFDCA to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of BLB2 and AMR3 proteins. The temporary tolerance exemption expires on March 31, 2025.

The Postal Service is amending Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM[supreg]) to require the use of USPS ShipTM (aka Package Platform) for the acceptance and payment of all commercial domestic and international parcel mailings and discontinue the use of the Electronic Verification System (eVS[supreg]).

This rule establishes, amends, suspends, or removes Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPS) and associated Takeoff Minimums and Obstacle Departure procedures (ODPs) for operations at certain airports. These regulatory actions are needed because of the adoption of new or revised criteria, or because of changes occurring in the National Airspace System, such as the commissioning of new navigational facilities, adding new obstacles, or changing air traffic requirements. These changes are designed to provide safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and to promote safe flight operations under instrument flight rules at the affected airports.

The Video Division, Media Bureau (Bureau), has before it a petition for rulemaking filed January 19, 2024 and amended on January 30, 2024, by Multimedia Holdings Corporation (Petitioner). The Petitioner requests the substitution of channel 33 for channel 13 at Jacksonville, Florida (Jacksonville), in the Table of TV Allotments.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for certain waters of the San Diego Bay. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards during the XPONENTIAL 2024 demonstration. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Sector San Diego.

NMFS announces the closure of the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Scallop Management Area for the remainder of the 2024 fishing year for Limited Access General Category vessels. Regulations require this action once NMFS projects that 100 percent of the Northern Gulf of Maine Set-Aside will be harvested. This action is intended to prevent the overharvest of the 2024 Northern Gulf of Maine Set-Aside.

The Department of State proposes to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) by increasing and specifying the fees required for registration with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC).

The Department of the Interior (the Department or DOI), acting through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is amending its risk management and financial assurance regulations. This final rule revises criteria for determining whether oil, gas, and sulfur lessees, right-of-use and easement (RUE) grant holders, and pipeline right-of- way (ROW) grant holders are required to provide financial assurance above the current minimum bonding levels to ensure compliance with their Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) obligations. This final rule streamlines the criteria for evaluating the financial health of lessees and grantees, codifies the use of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE) probabilistic estimates of decommissioning costs in setting the level of demands for supplemental financial assurance, removes restrictive provisions for third-party guarantees and decommissioning accounts, adds new criteria for cancelling supplemental financial assurance, and clarifies bonding requirements for RUEs serving Federal leases. BOEM estimates that a total of $6.9 billion in new supplemental financial assurance will be required from lessees and grant holders under this final rule to cover potential costs of decommissioning activities. This final rule significantly increases the amount of financial assurance available to the U.S. Government in the case of a lessee default and meaningfully reduces the risk to the government and consequently to the U.S. taxpayer. This final rulemaking does not apply to renewable energy activities.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended ("EPCA"), prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including dishwashers. In this direct final rule, the U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") is adopting amended energy conservation standards for dishwashers. DOE has determined that the amended energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy and are technologically feasible and economically justified.

The NCUA Board (Board) is issuing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to solicit comments on ways the agency can improve and update its records preservation program regulation and accompanying guidelines in the NCUA regulations. The Board is particularly interested in obtaining stakeholder input on the content of the regulation, which has not been updated in 15 years and may be outdated or at odds with current best practices. The Board is also interested in feedback on the structure of the part which may be confusing as it currently contains a combination of regulatory requirements and guidance.

The Department of Justice ("Department") issues its final rule revising the regulation implementing title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") to establish specific requirements, including the adoption of specific technical standards, for making accessible the services, programs, and activities offered by State and local government entities to the public through the web and mobile applications ("apps").

The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2022-13-11, which applies to all Airbus SAS Model A350-941 and -1041 airplanes. AD 2022-13-11 requires revising the existing airplane flight manual (AFM) for airplanes equipped with affected flight control units (FCUs) and replacing any affected FCU with a serviceable FCU. Since the FAA issued AD 2022-13-11, the FAA has determined that it is necessary to expand the applicability of the AFM revision requirement to all Model A350-941 and -1041 airplanes, including those equipped with serviceable FCUs. This proposed AD would continue to require certain actions in AD 2022-13-11, including replacing any affected FCU with a serviceable FCU, expand the requirement to revise the existing AFM for all airplanes, and prohibit the installation of affected parts, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD, which is proposed for incorporation by reference (IBR). The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Commission or CPSC) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) in September 2023 to address the risk of death and injury associated with infant suffocations, entrapments, falls, and other hazards associated with nursing pillows. CPSC is announcing the availability of, and seeking comment on, details about incident data relevant to the rulemaking that are associated with infants and the use of nursing pillows. The Commission is also seeking comments on how a final rule should address nursing pillow covers.

On March 28, 2023, the U.S. Department of State (Department of State) published in the Federal Register an interim final rule with request for comment (2023 Interim Final Rule) for the Exchange Visitor Program regulations that apply to sponsors the Department of State designates to conduct international educational and cultural exchange programs. In this final rule, the Department of State responds to public comments submitted in response to the 2023 Interim Final Rule and makes minor revisions to the regulations.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission ("Commission") seeks comment on additional action it can take to help survivors of domestic violence access safe and affordable connectivity, particularly in the context of connected car services which may be used to stalk, harass, and revictimize survivors of domestic violence.

This rule amends the requirements for investing lenders and investing mortgagees to gain or maintain their status as a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lender or mortgagee. This revision makes FHA's approval requirements consistent with investing mortgagees' and investing lenders' risk, reduces barriers to FHA approval for new investing mortgagees and investing lenders, and increases access to capital for all FHA-approved mortgagees and lenders. HUD is clarifying that the general annual certification requirement for lenders and mortgagees is applicable to investing lenders and investing mortgagees. HUD is also defining Government- Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) separately from other governmental-type entities to ensure that FHA requirements specific to loan origination do not apply to GSEs. Finally, HUD is eliminating obsolete language related to lender and mortgagee net worth requirements. This final rule adopts HUD's July 18, 2023, proposed rule with minor revisions.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) submitted amendment 127 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI), amendment 115 to the FMP for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), amendment 56 to the FMP for BSAI King and Tanner Crabs, amendment 17 to the FMP for the Salmon Fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) Off Alaska, and amendment 3 to the FMP for Fish Resources of the Arctic Management Area (amendments) to the Secretary of Commerce for review. If approved, these amendments would revise the FMPs by updating the description and identification of essential fish habitat (EFH) and updating information on adverse impacts to EFH based on the best scientific information available. These amendments are intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the FMPs, and other applicable laws.

This rulemaking proposes to update authorities and responsibilities for the Stars and Stripes Media Organization (often abbreviated as Stripes) to reaffirm its editorial independence in providing media products not only to military service members and DoD civilian employees, but to U.S. veterans, families of veterans and current service members, and contractor personnel, particularly those serving overseas, based on changes in the consumption of news and information in a digital age. It additionally proposes to remove internal operational procedures of the Stars and Stripes Media Organization that do not require rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act.

This proposed rule would implement a set of management measures recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to ensure fishery impacts on California Coastal (CC) Chinook salmon, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, remain within the conservation objective in the Council's Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan (Salmon FMP). Under the proposed rule, management tools (e.g., trip limits (also known as landing and possession limits) and inseason management) consistent with the provisions of the Salmon FMP would be used to provide greater certainty in avoiding exceedances of the conservation objectives for CC Chinook salmon.

This regulation establishes a tolerance for residues of cyclaniliprole in or on Vegetable, cucurbit, group 9. Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4) requested this tolerance under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

This final rule revises HUD's regulations governing floodplain management and the protection of wetlands to implement the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) in accordance with the Executive Order titled "Establishing a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard and a Process for Further Soliciting and Considering Stakeholder Input." These revisions to HUD's regulations will improve the resilience of HUD-assisted or financed projects to the effects of climate change and natural disasters and provide for greater flexibility in the use of HUD assistance in floodways under certain circumstances. Among other revisions, this rule provides a process for determining the extent of the FFRMS floodplain, with a preference for a climate-informed science approach (CISA) to making this determination. The rule also revises HUD's floodplain and wetland regulations to streamline, improve overall clarity, and modernize standards. Also, this rule revises HUD's Minimum Property Standards for one-to-four-unit housing under HUD's mortgage insurance and low-rent public housing programs to require that the lowest floor in newly constructed structures located within the 1-percent-annual-chance (100-year) floodplain be built at least 2 feet above the base flood elevation (BFE) as determined by best available information. The rule also revises a categorical exclusion when HUD performs environmental reviews and updates various HUD environmental regulations to permit online posting of public notices.

The FAA is superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2022-21-15 for certain Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH (DAI) Model DA 42, DA 42 NG, and DA 42 M-NG airplanes. AD 2022-21-15 required replacing the rudder T-yoke axle with an improved rudder T-yoke axle. Since the FAA issued AD 2022-21-15, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) superseded its mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) to correct an unsafe condition on these products. This AD requires, for certain airplanes, inspecting the rudder steering bracket edge distance and depending on the inspection results, inspecting the T-yoke bolt hole for wear and play, and corrective action if necessary. For certain airplanes this AD requires replacing the rudder T-yoke bolt (axle) with a serviceable part, installing a new self-locking nut, and applying torque seal marks on the rudder T-yoke bolt head and self-locking nut. For all airplanes this AD requires repetitively inspecting the torque seal marks on the rudder T-yoke bolt head for proper alignment and the self-locking nut for proper installation and corrective action if necessary. This AD also prohibits the installation of affected parts. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.