Agencies and Commissions June 7, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is providing notice of adjusted present value factors applicable to retirees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) who elect to provide survivor annuity benefits to a spouse based on post-retirement marriage and to retiring employees who elect the alternative form of annuity, owe certain redeposits based on refunds of contributions for service before October 1, 1990, or elect to credit certain service with nonappropriated fund instrumentalities. This notice is necessary to conform the present value factors to changes in economic assumptions and demographic factors adopted by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is providing notice of adjusted present value factors applicable to retirees who elect to provide survivor annuity benefits to a spouse based on post-retirement marriage, and to retiring employees who elect the alternative form of annuity or elect to credit certain service with nonappropriated fund instrumentalities. This notice is necessary to conform the present value factors to changes in economic assumptions and demographic factors adopted by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The FDIC is contemplating initiating a two-year pilot program relating to small- dollar lending by insured depository institutions. Institutions meeting threshold eligibility requirements may volunteer to participate in the pilot, and the collection at this first stage would provide certain basic information as to the institution and its current or proposed small-dollar lending program. Participating institutions would thereafter provide certain information to the FDIC about their ongoing experience with their small-dollar lending program. The collection at this second stage would provide information on the most effective and replicable business practices to incorporate affordable small-dollar loans into effective business models to reach out to underserved communities and to develop new customers for mainstream banking services, whether consumers who take advantage of such loans migrate into other banking products, and whether a savings component provides a steady increase in savings.

The Federal Election Commission (the ``Commission'') is issuing a Policy Statement to clarify its enforcement policy with respect to the circumstances under which it intends to consider a political committee and its treasurer to be in compliance with the recordkeeping and reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended (``FECA''). Section 432(i) of FECA provides that when the treasurer of a political committee demonstrates that best efforts were used to obtain, maintain, and submit the information required by FECA, any report or records of such committee shall be considered in compliance with FECA or the statutes governing the public financing of Presidential candidates. In the past, the Commission has interpreted this section to apply only to a treasurer's efforts to obtain required information from contributors to a political committee, and not to maintaining information or to submitting reports. However, the district court in Lovely v. FEC, 307 F. Supp. 2d 294 (D. Mass. 2004), held that the Commission should consider whether a treasurer used best efforts under FECA with regard to efforts made to submit a report in a timely manner. This Policy Statement makes clear that the Commission intends to apply FECA's best efforts provision to treasurers' and committees' efforts to obtain, maintain, and submit information and records to the Commission consistent with the holding of the Federal court in Lovely. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.

This is a Notice of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance only for the Commonwealth of Kentucky (FEMA-1703-DR), dated 05/25/2007. Incident: Severe Storms, Flooding, Mudslides, and Rockslides Incident Period: 04/14/2007 through 04/15/2007. Effective Date: 05/25/2007. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 07/24/2007.

On May 25, 2007, the Department of Commerce published notice in the Federal Register of an amended final negative determination pursuant to final court decision, rescission of administrative review, and revocation of the countervailing duty order in connection with the subject investigation (72 FR 29301). Accordingly, pursuant to section 207.40(a) of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure (19 CFR 207.40(a)), the five-year review concerning the countervailing duty order on imports of low enriched uranium from France (investigation No. 701-TA-409 (Review)) is terminated.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined not to review an initial determination (``ID'') of the presiding administrative law judge (``ALJ'') granting complainants'' motion to amend the complaint and notice of investigation in the above-captioned investigation.

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. 552b(e)(3)), of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit Administration Board (Board).

The Agency announces its Unsolicited Grant Initiative, which offers support for research, education and training, and the dissemination of information on international peace and conflict resolution. The Unsolicited initiative is open to any project that falls within the Institute's broad mandate of international conflict resolution. Deadline: October 1, 2007; Application material available on request and at https://www.usip.org/grants.

The staff approves the withdrawal of a petition for reconsideration in this FM allotment rulemaking proceeding and finds no reason for further consideration of the matters raised therein. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.