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

The Postal Service gives notice of filing a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission to add a domestic shipping services contract to the list of Negotiated Service Agreements in the Mail Classification Schedule's Competitive Products List.

The U.S. Copyright Office is undertaking an inquiry at the request of Congress to review how current copyright law affects and supports visual artists; and how a federal resale royalty right for visual artists would affect current and future practices of groups or individuals involved in the creation, licensing, sale, exhibition, dissemination, and preservation of works of visual art. The Office thus seeks comments from the public on the means by which visual artists exploit their works under existing law as well as the issues and obstacles that may be encountered when considering a federal resale royalty right in the United States.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) publishes notice at least once monthly of certain Federal agency requests for records disposition authority (records schedules). Once approved by NARA, records schedules provide mandatory instructions on what happens to records when no longer needed for current Government business. They authorize the preservation of records of continuing value in the National Archives of the United States and the destruction, after a specified period, of records lacking administrative, legal, research, or other value. Notice is published for records schedules in which agencies propose to destroy records not previously authorized for disposal or reduce the retention period of records already authorized for disposal. NARA invites public comments on such records schedules, as required by 44 U.S.C. 3303a(a).

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is forwarding three Information Collection Requests (ICR) to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 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 collections of information to determine (1) the practical utility of the collections; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden of the collections; (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 the RRB or OIRA must contain the OMB control number of the ICR. For proper consideration of your comments, it is best if the RRB and OIRA receive them within 30 days of the publication date. 1. Title and purpose of information collection: Employee Representative's Status and Compensation Reports; OMB 3220-0014. Under Section 1(b)(1) of the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), the term ``employee'' includes an individual who is an employee representative. As defined in Section 1(c) of the RRA, an employee representative is an officer or official representative of a railway labor organization other than a labor organization included in the term ``employer,'' as defined in the RRA, who before or after August 29, 1935, was in the service of an employer under the RRA and who is duly authorized and designated to represent employees in accordance with the Railway Labor Act, or, any individual who is regularly assigned to or regularly employed by such officer or official representative in connection with the duties of his or her office. The requirements relating to the application for employee representative status and the periodic reporting of the compensation resulting from such status is contained in 20 CFR part 209.10. The RRB utilizes Forms DC-2a, Employee Representative's Status Report, and DC-2, Employee Representative's Report of Compensation, to obtain the information needed to determine employee representative status and to maintain a record of creditable service and compensation resulting from such status. Completion is required to obtain or retain a benefit. One response is requested of each respondent. Previous Requests for Comments: The RRB has already published the initial 60-day notice (77 FR 40657 on July 10, 2012) required by 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2). That request elicited no comments. Information Collection Request (ICR)

In this Report and Order, the Commission suspends, on an interim basis, the Commission's rules allowing for automatic pricing flexibility grants for special access services, pending adoption of new rules. The Commission suspends its pricing flexibility rules in light of evidence that the proxies for measuring actual and potential special access market competition, which are based on collocation by competitive carriers within a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), do not accurately predict whether competition is sufficient to constrain special access prices and deter anticompetitive practices by price cap local exchange carriers. In the Report and Order, the Commission also initiates a process to obtain data needed to conduct a special access market analysis. Based on this forthcoming data collection, the Commission will undertake a robust special access market analysis to determine the extent to which the special access market is competitive and develop special access pricing flexibility rules to replace the collocation-based competitive showings.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined to review in part the presiding administrative law judge's (``ALJ'') final initial determination (``ID'') issued on July 12, 2012, finding no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. 1337 in the above-captioned investigation. On review, the Commission affirms the ID's finding of no violation, and terminates the investigation.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to conform references throughout the FAR to the new Positive Law Codification of Title 41, United States Code, ``Public Contracts.''

In this document, the Wireless Telecommunications and Wireline Competition Bureaus announce updated data files of census blocks eligible for the Mobility Fund Phase I support to be offered in Auction 901, which is to be held on September 27, 2012, and the change of the mock auction date from September 25, 2012 to September 21, 2012.

Summary of the Application: The requested order would permit certain registered open-end management investment companies that operate as ``funds of funds'' to acquire shares of certain registered open-end management investment companies and unit investment trusts (``UITs'') that are within and outside the same group of investment companies as the acquiring investment companies.