Agencies and Commissions June 6, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

A new law gives the Postal Service considerable pricing flexibility for competitive products. Pursuant to this authority, the Postal Service has filed two notices with the Commission concerning prices for Global Expedited Package Services (GEPS) contracts, which is in the competitive category. The Commission has established a consolidated docket for consideration of these pricing decisions. This will allow interested persons an opportunity to comment.

This document announces a formal docket to consider transferring the classification of Premium Forwarding Service from the market dominant products list to the competitive products list. It solicits comments to assist in this task.

This is an amendment of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the State of Iowa (FEMA-1763-DR), dated 05/27/2008. Incident: Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding. Incident Period: 05/25/2008 and continuing.

This is a Notice of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Nebraska (FEMA- 1765-DR), dated 05/30/2008. Incident: Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding. Incident Period: 04/23/2008 through 04/26/2008.

This action adds to the Procurement List products and services to be furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities, and deletes from the Procurement List products and services previously furnished by such agencies.

In a Federal Register notice issued and announced on May 1, 2008,\1\ and published in the Federal Register on May 7, 2008 (``Notice''),\2\ the Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'') requested comment on its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (``ANPR'') in connection with its rulemaking pursuant to Section 811 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (``EISA''). The ANPR stated that comments must be submitted on or before June 6, 2008. In response to a request to extend the comment period received on May 19, 2008, the Commission has determined to extend the comment period for an additional 15 days.

On November 21, 2007, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) published a proposed rulemaking to increase the Federal speculative position limits for certain agricultural commodity contracts set out in Commission regulation 150.2 (proposed rulemaking).\1\ The proposed rulemaking would have increased the single-month and all-months-combined position limits for all contracts except contracts based on oats in accordance with the formula set out in Commission regulation 150.5(c). The proposed rulemaking would have also required the aggregation of traders' positions in contracts that share substantially identical terms with regulation 150.2-enumerated contracts, regardless of whether such contracts were specifically delineated in that regulation, for the purposes of ascertaining compliance with the Federal speculative position limits. For the reasons provided below, the Commission has determined to withdraw the proposed rulemaking.

The NRC is providing notice that the NRC staff will conduct a meeting to discuss and accept public comments on the Zion Nuclear Power Station, Units 1 and 2 (Zion) proposed license transfer and Zion Solutions (ZS) draft Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 7 p.m. in a meeting room at the Illinois Beach Resort and Conference Center, 1 Lake Front Drive, Zion, Illinois (https://www.ilresorts.com/). Zion began commercial operation in December 1973 for Unit 1, and September 1974 for Unit 2. Unit 1 permanently shut down on February 21, 1997, and Unit 2 permanently shut down on September 19, 1996. All fuel was removed from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pool on April 27, 1997, for Unit 1 and February 25, 1998, for Unit 2. In accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(1)(i), the licensee certified in a letter dated February 13, 1998, that operations have ceased at Zion. In accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(1)(ii), the licensee certified in a letter dated March 9, 1998, that all fuel had been removed from the Zion reactor vessels and committed to maintain them permanently defueled. The NRC acknowledged the certification of permanent cessation of power operation and permanent removal of fuel from the reactor vessels in a letter dated May 4, 1998. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2), the 10 CFR 50 facility operating licenses for Zion no longer authorize operation of the reactors or emplacement or retention of fuel in the reactor vessels. Also, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.51(b), ``Continuation of license,'' the facility licenses remain in effect until the NRC notifies the licensee that the licenses have been terminated. On January 25, 2008, Exelon, the Zion licensee, submitted a request for a license transfer. The proposal is to transfer the licensed ownership, management authorities, and decommissioning trust fund of the facility to ZS a subsidiary of Energy Solutions. ZS was formed for the purpose of decommissioning the Zion site. The title to the site real estate and the spent nuclear fuel will remain with Exelon. ZS will construct and transfer the spent fuel to an ISFSI as part of the decommissioning. Following the decommissioning, currently scheduled for 10 years, the license for the spent fuel will be transferred back to Exelon. On March 18, 2008, ZS submitted an amended PSDAR for Zion. The PSDAR represents the ZS plan of activities to become effective if the application for license transfer is approved. The PSDAR describes the planned decommissioning activities, provides a schedule for the planned decommissioning activities, includes a cost estimate for the decommissioning, and assesses the environmental impacts.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is proposing to amend the General Services Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to revise GSAR language that provides requirements for transportation. This rule is a result of the General Services Administration Acquisition Manual (GSAM) Rewrite initiative undertaken by GSA to revise the GSAM to maintain consistency with the FAR, and to implement streamlined and innovative acquisition procedures that contractors, offerors and GSA contracting personnel can use when entering into and administering contractual relationships. The GSAM incorporates the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) as well as internal agency acquisition policy. GSA will rewrite each part of the GSAR and GSAM, and as each GSAR part is rewritten, will publish it in the Federal Register. This is one of the series of revisions to 48 CFR Chapter 5. It covers the rewrite of GSAR Part 547, Transportation.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is proposing to amend the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to revise sections that provide requirements for special contracting methods.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the General Services Administration will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a renewal of a currently approved information collection requirement regarding final payment under building services contract. The clearance currently expires on September 30, 2008. 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; and ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending the licensing, inspection, and annual fees charged to its applicants and licensees. The amendments are necessary to implement the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA-90), as amended, which requires that the NRC recover approximately 90 percent of its budget authority in fiscal year (FY) 2008, less the amounts appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF), amounts appropriated for Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) activities, and amounts appropriated for generic homeland security activities. The required fee recovery amount for the FY 2008 budget is approximately $779.1 million. After accounting for carryover and billing adjustments, the total amount to be billed as fees is approximately $760.7 million.