Agencies and Commissions November 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the requirements for a contractor code of business ethics and conduct and the display of Federal agency Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Fraud Hotline Posters.

This document summarizes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules agreed to by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council in this Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-22. A companion document, the Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), follows this FAC. The FAC, including the SECG, is available via the Internet at https://www.regulations.gov.

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (the ``Commission'') previously published, on October 17, 2007, proposed revisions to its rules implementing the Freedom of Information Act (``FOIA''). The period for comments to the proposed rules ended on November 16, 2007. A request was made that the comment period be reopened and the Commission has agreed to do so.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking public comment on a draft revision of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) ``Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material'' (TS-R-1), which is scheduled for publication in 2009. The NRC and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) jointly will be submitting comments on the draft document to the IAEA. We are requesting input from the public to assist in developing the U.S. comments.

Notice is hereby given that the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared a model safety evaluation (SE) and model license amendment request (LAR) relating to changes to the end-state requirements for required actions in B&W reactor plants' technical specifications (TS). Current technical specification action requirements frequently require that the unit be brought to cold shutdown when the technical specification limiting condition for operation for a system has not been met. Depending on the system, and the affected safety function, the requirement to go to cold shutdown may not represent the most risk effective course of action. In accordance with a qualitative risk analysis that provides a basis for changes to the action requirement to shutdown, where appropriate the shutdown end-state is changed from cold shutdown to hot shutdown. The affected TS are:

NASA is amending its regulations by removing NASA's Foreign Patent Licensing Regulations. NASA no longer follows these regulations, but issues licenses based on Government-wide licensing regulations promulgated by the Department of Commerce that take precedence over individual agency licensing regulations.

In its notice announcing institution of this investigation, the Commission indicated that its report would include case studies on industry sectors in China in which government policies and interventions are prevalent, and the notice identified seven industry sectors that would be the subject of such case studies. After receiving and considering public comment and input from other government agencies regarding possible additional case studies, the Commission has decided to include case studies on two additional industry sectors in China, the semi-fabricated copper and brass products sector, and the paper sector.

The proposed information collection described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended). The Tennessee Valley Authority is soliciting public comments on this proposed collection as provided by 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1). Requests for information, including copies of the information collection proposed and supporting documentation, should be directed to the Agency Clearance Officer: Alice D. Witt, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1101 Market Street (EB 5B), Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402- 2801; (423) 751-6832. (SC: 000YRFB). Comments should be sent to the Agency Clearance Officer no later than January 22, 2008.

This notice is hereby given of the appointment of members of the updated USAID OIG SES Performance Review Board.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is forwarding an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to request a revision to a currently approved collection of information: 3220-0151, Representative Payee Monitoring consisting of Form(s) G-99a, Representative Payee Report and G-99c, Representative Payee Evaluation Report. Our ICR describes the information we seek to collect from the public. Review and approval by OIRA ensures that we impose appropriate paperwork burdens. The RRB invites comments on the proposed collection of information to determine (1) The practical utility of the collection; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden of the collection; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information that is the subject of collection; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of collections on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Comments to RRB or OIRA must contain the OMB control number of the ICR. For proper consideration of your comments, it is best if RRB and OIRA receive them within 30 days of publication date. Under Section 12 of the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), the RRB may pay annuity benefits to a representative payee when an employee, spouse or survivor annuitant is incompetent or a minor. The RRB is responsible for determining if direct payment to an annuitant or a representative payee would best serve the annuitant's best interest. The accountability requirements authorizing the RRB to conduct periodic monitoring of representative payees, including a written accounting of benefit payments received, are prescribed in 20 CFR 266.7. The RRB utilizes the following forms to conduct its representative payee monitoring program. Form G-99a, Representative Payee Report, is used to obtain information needed to determine whether the benefit payments certified to the representative payee have been used for the annuitant's current maintenance and personal needs and whether the representative payee continues to be concerned with the annuitant's welfare. RRB Form G-99c, Representative Payee Evaluation Report, is used to obtain more detailed information from a representative payee who fails to complete and return Form G-99a, or in situations when the returned Form G-99a indicates the possible misuse of funds by the representative payee. Form G-99c contains specific questions concerning the representative payee's performance and is used by the RRB to determine whether or not the representative payee should continue in that capacity. Completion of the forms in this collection is required to retain benefits. Previous Requests for Comments: The RRB has already published the initial 60-day notice (72 FR 48696 on August 24, 2007) required by 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2). That request elicited no comments.