Agencies and Commissions May 16, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that a complaint was filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission on April 11, 2006, under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. 1337, on behalf of Lexar Media, Inc. of Fremont, California. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 in the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, and the sale within the United States after importation of certain flash memory chips, flash memory systems, and products containing same by reason of infringement of claims 1 and 2 of U.S. Patent No. 6,801,979; claims 1-7 of U.S. Patent No. 6,397,314; and claims 1-13, 15, and 16 of U.S. Patent No. 6,978,342. The complaint further alleges that an industry in the United States exists or is in the process of being established as required by subsection (a)(2) of section 337. The complainant requests that the Commission institute an investigation and, after the investigation, issue a permanent exclusion order and permanent cease and desist orders.

We are amending our regulations to implement section 203 of the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994. Section 203 of this law amended section 1633 of the Social Security Act to require us to establish by regulations criteria for time limits and other criteria related to plans to achieve self-support (PASS). The law requires that we establish criteria for a PASS and that when we set time limits for your PASS, we take into account the length of time that you need to achieve your employment goal, within a reasonable period. A PASS allows some persons who receive or are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits to set aside part of their income and/or resources to meet an employment goal. The income and/or resources you set aside under a PASS will not be counted in determining the amount of your SSI payment or eligibility.

On May 19, 2004, the Agencies issued and requested comment on a proposed Interagency Statement on Sound Practices Concerning Complex Structured Finance Activities (``Initial Statement'') of national banks, state banks, bank holding companies, Federal and state savings associations, savings and loan holding companies, U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks, and SEC registered broker-dealers and investment advisers (collectively, ``financial institutions'' or ``institutions''). The Initial Statement described some of the internal controls and risk management procedures that may help financial institutions identify, manage, and address the heightened reputational and legal risks that may arise from certain complex structured finance transactions (``CSFTs''). After reviewing the comments received on the Initial Statement, the Agencies are requesting comment on a revised proposed interagency statement (``Revised Statement''). The Revised Statement has been modified in numerous respects to address issues and concerns raised by commenters, clarify the purpose, scope and effect of the statement, and make the statement more principles-based. These changes include reorganizing and streamlining the document to reduce redundancies and to focus the statement on those CSFTs that may pose heightened levels of legal or reputational risk to the relevant institution (referred to as ``elevated risk CSFTs''). In addition, the Agencies have modified the examples of transactions that may present elevated risk to make these examples more risk-focused, and have recognized more explicitly that an institution's review and approval process for elevated risk CSFTs should be commensurate with, and focus on, the potential risks presented by the transaction to the institution. As discussed below, the Revised Statement will not affect or apply to the vast majority of small financial institutions, nor does it create any private rights of action.