2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FRA is establishing minimum safety requirements for the size of train crews depending on the type of operation. This final rule requires railroad operations to have a minimum of two crewmembers except for certain identified one-person train crew operations that do not pose significant safety risks to railroad employees, the public, or the environment. This final rule includes requirements for railroads seeking to continue certain existing one-person train crew operations and a special approval process for railroads seeking to initiate certain new one-person train crew operations. This final rule also requires each railroad receiving special approval for a one-person train crew operation to submit to FRA an annual report summarizing the safety of the operation.

This is notification that the Drug Enforcement Administration will hold a hearing with respect to the proposed placement of two phenethylamine hallucinogens, as identified in the proposed rule, in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for navigable waters of the Cape Fear River. This action is necessary for the safety of life on these navigable waters, in Wilmington, NC, during a fireworks display to be executed by Zambelli Fireworks. This rulemaking will prohibit persons and vessel from being in the safety zone (which is near downtown Wilmington, adjacent to the USS North Carolina) unless authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector North Carolina, or a designated representative.

The Coast Guard is modifying the operating schedule that governs the CSX Railroad Bridge, mile 1.07, the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad Bridge, mile 1.80, the Craig Memorial Bridge, mile 3.30, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge, mile 4.30, and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge, mile 5.76, all over the Maumee River at Toledo, Ohio. The original regulation was published in 1986 and was amended over the years. The new operating schedule simplifies and clarifies operations and will reduce confusion for recreational vessels and drawtenders.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for navigable waters within a 2000-yard radius of the center span of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, in Baltimore, MD. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards associated with salvage work on the bridge, which partially collapsed when it was hit by the M/V DALI, and on the M/V DALI itself. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Maryland-National Capital Region.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a state implementation plan (SIP) revision submitted by the District of Columbia. This SIP revision removes requirements for gasoline vapor recovery systems (VRS) installed on gasoline dispensers, the purpose of which are to capture emissions from vehicle refueling operations, otherwise known as vacuum-assist Stage II vapor recovery. Specifically, this action would remove from the approved SIP the prior-approved Stage II requirements applicable to new and existing gasoline dispensing facilities (GDFs). The District of Columbia SIP revision includes a demonstration that removal of Stage II requirements is consistent with the Clean Air Act (CAA) and meets all relevant EPA guidance.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is extending the public comment period for its notice of proposed rulemaking published February 6, 2024. The proposed rule would revise the Standard Flood Insurance Policy by adding a new Homeowner Flood Form and five accompanying endorsements. The new Homeowner Flood Form would replace the Dwelling Form as a source of coverage for homeowners of one-to-four family residences. Together, the new Homeowner Flood Form and endorsements would more closely align with property and casualty homeowners insurance and provide increased options and coverage in a more user-friendly and comprehensible format.

This rule amends, suspends, or removes Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) and associated Takeoff Minimums and Obstacle Departure Procedures 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 for the safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and to promote safe flight operations under instrument flight rules at the affected airports.

This proposed rule would update the Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) regulations regarding the sea turtle safe handling and release requirements and equipment in the HMS pelagic and bottom longline fisheries. These proposed updates are based on two technical memoranda published by NMFS' Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) in order to replace some of the more technical terms with those that are more commonly used, add more detail to make the regulations more understandable, and add additional tools or options for fishermen to use to safely handle and release sea turtles. In addition, this proposed rule would simplify the regulations by removing redundancies, making minor changes in formatting, and revising wording to clarify responsibility of implementation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") is adopting technical amendments to various rules and forms under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") and the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("Investment Company Act") to reflect a Federal court's vacatur of rule amendments that the Commission adopted on May 3, 2023, to modernize and improve disclosure about repurchases of an issuer's equity securities that are registered under the Exchange Act ("Repurchase Rule"). The court's vacatur of the Repurchase Rule was effective as of December 19, 2023, and had the legal effect of reverting to the rules and forms that existed prior to the effective date of the Repurchase Rule. These technical amendments revise the Code of Federal Regulations ("CFR") to reflect the court's vacatur of the Repurchase Rule.

This final rule implements a recommendation from the Raisin Administrative Committee (Committee) to increase the assessment rate established for the 2023-2024 and subsequent crop years. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This document corrects a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG- 101552-24) published in the Federal Register on March 11, 2024, containing proposed regulations that would modify existing regulations to allow certain unincorporated organizations that are organized exclusively to produce electricity from certain property to be excluded from the application of partnership tax rules.

This action amends Class D airspace, Class E airspace designated as an extension to a Class D surface area, and Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface area for Greenbrier Valley Airport, Lewisburg, WV, as the BUSHI non-directional beacon (NDB) is removed from the airspace descriptions. This action amends verbiage in the descriptions, as well as adding additional extensions to the northeast and southwest of the airport.

The Coast Guard is establishing a safety zone to be enforced in the event of hurricanes, tropical storms, and other disasters in the San Juan Captain of the Port (COTP) Zone. This action is necessary to ensure the safety of the waters of the San Juan COTP zone. This regulation establishes actions to be completed by parties operating on and around the navigable waterways of the San Juan COTP zone. This may include the owners and operators, and those in management and control positions of regulated facilities, waterfront facilities, and vessels, prior to landfall of hurricanes, tropical storms, and other disasters threatening the San Juan COTP Zone.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 610 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allowance of the 2024 total allowable catch (TAC) of pollock for Statistical Area 610 in the GOA.

This document announces the acceptance of a means of compliance with FAA regulations for small unmanned aircraft (sUA) Category 2 and Category 3 operations over human beings. The Administrator finds that AVSS's means of compliance for small unmanned aircraft, revision 5.0, dated January 10, 2024, provides an acceptable means, but not the only means, of showing compliance with FAA regulations.

This final rule allocates Northeast multispecies annual catch entitlements to approved groundfish sectors and permit banks for fishing year 2024 based on 2024 annual catch limits set in Framework Adjustment 65 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan or default specifications. This action is intended to allow limited access permit holders to continue to operate sectors, as authorized under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.

The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2019-21-01, which applies to all Airbus SAS Model A300 B4-600, B4-600R, and F4-600R series airplanes, and Model A300 C4-605R Variant F airplanes (collectively called Model A300-600 series airplanes). AD 2019-21-01 requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations. Since the FAA issued AD 2019-21-01, the FAA has determined that new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations are necessary. This proposed AD would require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations, 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.

FWS and NMFS (collectively referred to as the "Services" or "we") finalize revisions to portions of our regulations that implement section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended ("Act"). The revisions to the regulations clarify, interpret, and implement portions of the Act concerning the interagency cooperation procedures.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS; collectively, the "Services"), finalize revisions to portions of our regulations that implement section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. The revisions to the regulations clarify, interpret, and implement portions of the Act concerning the procedures and criteria used for listing, reclassifying, and delisting species on the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants (Lists) and designating critical habitat.

This action finalizes the residual risk and technology review (RTR) conducted for the Commercial Sterilization Facilities source category regulated under national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) under the Clean Air Act. The EPA is finalizing decisions concerning the RTR, including definitions for affected sources, emission standards for previously unregulated sources, amendments pursuant to the risk review to address ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from certain sterilization chamber vents (SCVs), aeration room vents (ARVs), chamber exhaust vents (CEVs), and room air emissions, and amendments pursuant to the technology review for certain SCVs and ARVs. In addition, we are taking final action to correct and clarify regulatory provisions related to emissions during periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM), including removing exemptions for periods of SSM. We are also taking final action to require owners and operators to demonstrate compliance through the use of EtO continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS), with exceptions for very small users of EtO; add provisions for electronic reporting of performance test results and other reports; and include other technical revisions to improve consistency and clarity. We estimate that these final amendments will reduce EtO emissions from this source category by approximately 21 tons per year (tpy).

This final rule amends the affected regulation by correcting a cross-reference error and updating the mailing address interested persons should use when submitting a petition for rulemaking to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This action does not create or change any substantive requirement or right.

On October 25, 2023, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published in the Federal Register the interim final rules (IFR), "Export Controls on Semiconductor Manufacturing Items" (SME IFR) and "Implementation of Additional Export Controls: Certain Advanced Computing Items; Supercomputer and Semiconductor End Use; Updates and Corrections" (AC/S IFR). This rule corrects inadvertent errors in those rules and makes additional clarifications for the two rules.

This proposed rule would update the hospice wage index, payment rates, and aggregate cap amount for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. This rule proposes changes to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program. This rule also proposes to adopt the most recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations, which would change the hospice wage index. This rule proposes to clarify current policy related to the "election statement" and the "notice of election", as well as to add clarifying language regarding hospice certification. Finally, this rulemaking solicits comments regarding potential implementation of a separate payment mechanism to account for high intensity palliative care services.

These special conditions are issued for The Boeing Company (Boeing) Model 737-8 series airplane. This airplane, as modified by Jet Aviation AG (Jet Aviation), will have a novel or unusual design feature when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for transport-category airplanes. This design feature is oblique (side-facing) single-occupant seats equipped with airbag devices or 3-point restraints. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.