Agencies and Commissions October 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. 552b(e)(3)), that the November 10, 2005 regular meeting of the Farm Credit Administration Board (Board) has been rescheduled. The regular meeting of the Board will be held Tuesday, November 8, 2004 starting at 9 a.m. An agenda for this meeting will be published at a later date.

This notice sets forth the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the National Museum and Library Services Board. This notice also describes the function of the Board. Notice of the meeting is required under the Sunshine in Government Act.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is required to publish notice of permits issued under the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978. This is the required notice.

This action withdraws the proposed rule published Friday, October 31, 2003 (68 FR 62031-62033). NASA will issue internal guidance to automate the collection and transfer of Research and Development (R&D) abstracts to an appropriate central repository where they will be available for use by government agencies and other users.

The Commission hereby gives notice of the scheduling of an expedited review pursuant to section 751(c)(3) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1675(c)(3)) (the Act) to determine whether revocation of the antidumping duty order on cased pencils from China would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time. For further information concerning the conduct of this review and rules of general application, consult the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure, part 201, subparts A through E (19 CFR part 201), and part 207, subparts A, D, E, and F (19 CFR part 207).

The Delaware River Basin Commission (``Commission'' or ``DRBC'') will hold a public hearing to receive comments on proposed amendments to the Commission's Basin RegulationsWater Supply Charges and Comprehensive Plan concerning certificates of entitlement. No changes in the substance or administration of the rule are proposed. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to clarify the language of the rule to conform to the Commission's past decisions and current practices in order to provide better notice to users as to how the Commission is implementing its entitlements program and to avoid future controversy. Background. The Delaware River Basin Compact (``Compact''), the 1961 statute that created the DRBC and defined its powers, authorizes the Commission to charge for the use of facilities that it may own or operate and for products and services rendered thereby. Compact, Sec. 3.7. Congress limited this authority by providing that the Commission cannot charge for water withdrawals or diversions that could lawfully have been made without charge as of the effective date of the Compact. Id., Sec. 15.1(b). By Resolution No. 64-16A in 1964 the Commission authorized a water charging program. It provided for the revenues generated by the program to be used for repayment of the nonfederal share of the investment cost of water supply storage facilities associated with federal projects within the Basin. In anticipation of Commission investment in storage at the Beltzville Lake and Blue Marsh Reservoir projects in Pennsylvania, the Commission by Resolution No. 1971-4 defined, among other things, the means by which it would establish water charging rates. Consistent with Section 15.1(b) of the Compact, Resolution No. 1971-4 provided that charges would be applicable only to the amount of water withdrawn in excess of the amount taken or legally entitled to be taken by an entity during the preceding year. By Resolution No. 74-6, the Commission instituted a system of water supply charges for surface water withdrawals within the Basin. That resolution provided for the issuance of certificates of entitlement to then-current water users, establishing the amount of water each could lawfully take from the surface waters of the Basin without charge, consistent with Section 15.1(b) of the Compact. The resolution provided that a certificate of entitlement was not transferable, except under limited circumstances set forth in enumerated exceptions. Because entitlements treat users that commenced water withdrawals before the enactment of the Compact more favorably than users who commenced water withdrawals later, even though all users benefit equally from the facilities financed by water supply charges, courts and the Commission have emphasized the need to eliminate entitlements over time. Both the Commission and the courts have construed narrowly the exceptions to the rule that entitlements are not transferable, and the Commission has in its decisions consistently held that changes in ownership or control would extinguish a certificate. However, the language of the regulations has never explicitly defined ``changes in ownership or control.'' As a consequence, in the decisions that the Commission has been asked to make in its adjudicatory capacity and that the courts have subsequently been asked to decide, the matter of what constitutes a change of ownership or control has been controversial. In 1994, in response to a ruling by the Third Circuit in Texaco Refining and Marketing, Inc. v. DRBC, 824 F. Supp. 500 (D.Del. 1993), aff'd., No. 93-7475 (3d Cir. June 24, 1994) (per curiam), the Commission adopted Resolution No. 94-20. That resolution incorporated an explicit ``ownership and/or control'' test and eliminated the merger exception included in the Commission's regulations at the time. In addition, the exception for corporate reorganizations embodied in Section 5.2.1.F.2 of the Water Charging Regulations was amended to apply only when the reorganization ``does not affect ownership and/or control.'' In spite of the 1994 amendment, some members of the Basin community have continued to interpret the language of the rule in a manner contrary to the Commission's consistent interpretation. To avoid further controversy, the Commission proposes a more thorough revision of the language, intended to remove any ambiguity. Key Provisions. In addition to defining ``change in ownership and/ or control'' with much greater specificity, the proposed revisions also make clear that a merger at any tier in a corporate organization will extinguish a certificate held by a subsidiary in the same way as if the merger had occurred at the subsidiary level. Although the Commission has interpreted its rule this way in the past, the rules have never been explicit on this point. The proposed amendments preserve and clarify the corporate reorganization exception contained in the current regulation. The Commission traditionally has not extinguished an entitlement in the case of an internal reorganization, and it does not propose a change in this practice. The proposed amendments also preserve the existing exception for agricultural uses. Historically, agriculture has been treated differently than other uses. For purposes other than agriculture, an entitlement is issued to a user and would not be transferable to a different user, even if the use remained the same. In the case of agriculture, however, an entitlement effectively runs with the land, as long as the land remains in agriculture. The proposed amendments provide that an entitlement can be reissued to the successor of a holder of a certificate issued for agricultural water use, provided that the successor demonstrates that the water will continue to be used for agricultural irrigation purposes.

The FDIC is proposing to revise its Statement of Policy on the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA). The revised Statement of Policy reflects the FDIC's experience and practices in applying the current NHPA Statement of Policy and statutory changes to the NHPA and its implementing regulations. The revised Statement of Policy is relevant to applications for deposit insurance for de novo institutions, applications for the establishment of domestic branches, and applications for the relocation of domestic branches or main offices.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the General Services Administration has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a renewal of a currently approved information collection requirement regarding preparation, submission, and negotiation of subcontracting plans. A request for public comments was published at 70 FR 24042, May 6, 2005. No comments were received. This information collection will ensure that small and small disadvantaged business concerns are afforded the maximum practicable opportunity to participate as subcontractors in construction, repair, and alteration or lease contracts. Preparation, submission, and negotiation of subcontracting plans requires for all negotiated solicitations having an anticipated award value over $500,000 ($1,000,000 for construction), submission of a subcontracting plan with other than small business concerns when a negotiated acquisition meets all four of the following conditions. 1. When the contracting officer anticipates receiving individual subcontracting plans (not commercial plans). 2. When the award is based on trade-offs among cost or price and technical and/or management factors under FAR 15.101-1. 3. The acquisition is not a commercial item acquisition. 4. The acquisition offers more than minimal subcontracting opportunities. Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary and whether it will have practical utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and methodology; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.

This is a notice of an Administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of Florida dated October 4, 2005. Incident: Severe Storms and Flooding. Incident Period: July 29, 2005 through August 14, 2005. Effective Date: October 4, 2005. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: December 5, 2005. EIDL Loan Application Deadline Date: July 5, 2006.

This is a notice of an Administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of Florida dated October 4, 2005. Incident: Hurricane Rita. Incident Period: September 20, 2005. Effective Date: October 4, 2005. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: December 5, 2005. EIDL Loan Application Deadline Date: July 5, 2006.

The Board of Governors is amending appendix A of Regulation CC to delete the reference to the Oklahoma City branch office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and reassign the Federal Reserve routing symbols currently listed under that office to the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and delete the reference to the Columbus office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and reassign the routing symbols listed under that office to the Cincinnati branch office and the head office of that Reserve Bank. These amendments will ensure that the information in appendix A accurately describes the actual structure of check processing operations within the Federal Reserve System. The amendments to the routing symbol lists in appendix A under the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland differ from the Board's September 28, 2004, general advance notice. (See 69 FR 57837.)

This document corrects a notice appearing in the Federal Register on October 4, 2005 (70 FR 57899), that incorrectly referred to Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc. This action is necessary to correct the erroneous information.