Agencies and Commissions June 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the General Services Administration will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a previously approved information collection requirement regarding Environmental Conservation, Occupational Safety, and Drug- Free Workplace. 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 Federal Communications Commission published in the Federal Register of May 29, 2012, a document that reconsiders and modifies certain provisions of the Commission's rules that were adopted in the USF/ICC Transformation Order. This final rule correction states that the amendments made to 47 CFR part 51 shall be effective on July 13, 2012, and, the amendments made to 47 CFR part 54 shall be effective on June 28, 2012.

In this document, the Commission finds it in the public interest to allow the viewability rule to sunset as scheduled. The Commission reinterprets the statutory viewability requirement to permit cable operators to require the use of set-top equipment to view must- carry signals, provided that such equipment is both available and affordable (or provided at no cost). The Commission establishes a transitional period of six months after expiration of the current rule during which hybrid systems will be required to continue to carry the signals of must-carry stations in analog format to all analog cable subscribers. The Commission also concludes that the small-system HD carriage exemption continues to serve the public interest and extends the existing exemption for three more years.

The FTC announces revised monetary thresholds for three exemptions from the Franchise Rule. FTC is required to adjust the size of the monetary thresholds every fourth year based upon the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers published by the Department of Labor.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined not to review the presiding administrative law judge's (``ALJ'') initial determination (``ID'') (Order No. 10) granting the Complainant's motion to amend the complaint and the Notice of Investigation.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (``FDIC'') is amending the definition of ``financial activities'' set forth in section 380.8 of the FDIC's notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on March 23, 2011 titled ``Orderly Liquidation Authority'' (``March 2011 NPR'').\1\ The March 2011 NPR proposed standards for determining if a company is predominantly engaged in financial activities for purposes of Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act'' or ``Act'').\2\ A company that is predominantly engaged in such activities is a ``financial company'' for purposes of Title II of the Act (unless it is one of the few entities specifically excepted). Provisions of the March 2011 NPR other than section 380.8 already have been finalized. Based on a number of factors described within this notice of proposed rulemaking (``NPR''), the FDIC believes that it is necessary to clarify the scope of the activities that would be considered to be financial activities. Accordingly, this NPR amends section 380.8 of the March 2011 NPR to clarify the activities that would be considered to be financial activities for purposes of determining if a company is predominantly engaged in such activities under Title II of the Act.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collections associated with the Commission's Migratory Bird Order on Remand (Order). This document is consistent with the Order, which stated that the rules will become effective upon Commission publication of a document in the Federal Register announcing their approval by OMB.

This final rule amends the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulations on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single- Employer Plans and Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans to prescribe interest assumptions under the benefit payments regulation for valuation dates in July 2012 and interest assumptions under the asset allocation regulation for valuation dates in the third quarter of 2012. The interest assumptions are used for valuing and paying benefits under terminating single-employer plans covered by the pension insurance system administered by PBGC.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) is withdrawing Regulatory Guide (RG) 7.3, ``Procedures for Picking Up and Receiving Packages of Radioactive Material.'' The guide is being withdrawn because it is obsolete and new guidance has been included in Revision 1 of RG 7.7, ``Administrative Guide for Verifying Compliance with Packaging Requirements for Shipment and Receipt of Radioactive Material'' which was issued in March 2012 and announced in the Federal Register (77 FR 18871; March 28, 2012).

Notice is hereby given that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (Corporation) has been appointed the sole receiver for the following financial institutions effective as of the Date Closed as indicated in the listing. This list (as updated from time to time in the Federal Register) may be relied upon as ``of record'' notice that the Corporation has been appointed receiver for purposes of the statement of policy published in the July 2, 1992 issue of the Federal Register (57 FR 29491). For further information concerning the identification of any institutions which have been placed in liquidation, please visit the Corporation Web site at www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html or contact the Manager of Receivership Oversight in the appropriate service center.

On June 12, 2012, the National Science Foundation (NSF) signed a Record of Decision (ROD) regarding the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS/OEIS) (hereafter Final PEIS) for Marine Seismic Research Funded by NSF or Conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The Final PEIS assesses the potential impacts on the human and natural environment as a result of marine seismic surveys conducted during marine geophysical research funded by NSF or conducted by the USGS. The Proposed Action is for academic and U.S. government scientists in the U.S., and possible international collaborators, to conduct marine seismic research using a variety of acoustic sources from research vessels operated by U.S. academic institutions and government agencies. The purpose of the Proposed Action is to fund the investigation of the geology and geophysics of the seafloor by collecting seismic reflection and refraction data that reveal the structure and stratigraphy of the crust and/or overlying sediment below the world's oceans. NSF has a continuing need to fund seismic surveys that enable scientists to collect data essential to understanding complex Earth processes beneath the ocean floor. Prior to issuance of the ROD, NSF prepared the Final PEIS as the lead federal agency with support from the cooperating agencies, USGS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Final PEIS was prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and made available to the public in June 2011. Two action alternatives (Alternative A and Alternative B) and the No-Action Alternative were assessed. Alternative B, the preferred alternative, was selected in the ROD. The USGS will prepare and publish a separate ROD for the Final PEIS. The NSF ROD is available on the Internet at: https://www.nsf.gov/ geo/oce/envcomp/ in Adobe[supreg] portable document format (pdf).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is proposing regulations that would make clear that each swap dealer (SD), major swap participant (MSP), and other Commission registrant with whom an associated person (AP) is associated is required to supervise the AP and is jointly and severally responsible for the activities of the AP with respect to customers common to it and any other SD, MSP or other Commission registrant (Proposal).