Agencies and Commissions June 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Audio Division, at the request of Cochise Media Licenses, LLC, allots FM Channel 229C3 as a first local transmission service at Dove Creek, Colorado. Channel 229C3 can be allotted at Dove Creek, consistent with the minimum distance separation requirements of the Commission's rules, at coordinates 37-48-05 NL and 108-59-33 WL. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION infra.

Federal Request for Information (RFI) on Big Data high-impact collaborations and areas for expanded collaboration between the public and private sectors.

This document makes amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in order to make editorial changes.

DoD, GSA, and NASA have adopted as final, without change, an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement. This Trade Promotion Agreement is a free trade agreement that provides for mutually non-discriminatory treatment of eligible products and services from Panama.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to remove the dollar limitation for set-asides to economically disadvantaged women-owned small business concerns and to women-owned small business concerns eligible under the Women-owned Small Business Program.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address concerns raised in an opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) involving the use of unrestricted, open-ended indemnification clauses in acquisitions for social media applications.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to reflect the joining of the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), Online Representations and Certification Application (ORCA), and Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) databases into the System for Award Management (SAM) database.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Governmentwide requirements in National Defense Authorization Acts that establish minimum processes and requirements for the selection, accountability, training, equipping, and conduct of personnel performing private security functions outside the United States.

The Farm Credit Administration adopted a final rule that amends its liquidity regulation to strengthen liquidity risk management at Farm Credit System (System) banks, improve the quality of assets in their liquidity reserves, and bolster the ability of System banks to fund their obligation and continue operations during times of economic, financial or market adversity. In accordance with the law, the effective date of the final rule is 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register during which either or both Houses of Congress are in session.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is increasing the small business size standards for 11 industries in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 11, Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, and retaining the current standards for five industries and two exceptions to NAICS 115310. As part of its ongoing comprehensive size standards review, SBA evaluated 16 industries and two exceptions in NAICS Sector 11 to determine whether the existing size standards should be retained or revised. SBA did not review size standards for 46 industries in NAICS Sector 11 that are currently set by statute at $750,000 in average annual receipts. SBA also did not review the 500-employee based size standard for NAICS 113310, Logging, but will review it in the near future with other employee based size standards.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is increasing the small business size standards for 17 industries in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 71, Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, and retaining the current size standards for the remaining eight industries in that Sector. As part of its ongoing comprehensive size standards review, SBA evaluated all size standards for industries in NAICS Sector 71 to determine whether they should be retained or revised.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 4.2, Supplement 1 (RG 4.2S1), ``Preparation of Environmental Reports for Nuclear Power Plant License Renewal Applications.'' This regulatory guide provides guidance to applicants in the preparation of environmental reports that are submitted with the application for the renewal of a nuclear power plant operating license. Applicants should use this regulatory guide when preparing an environmental report for license renewal to ensure that the information they submit to the NRC is complete and facilitates the NRC staff's review.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'' or ``SEC'') is proposing two alternatives for amending rules that govern money market mutual funds (or ``money market funds'') under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The two alternatives are designed to address money market funds' susceptibility to heavy redemptions, improve their ability to manage and mitigate potential contagion from such redemptions, and increase the transparency of their risks, while preserving, as much as possible, the benefits of money market funds. The first alternative proposal would require money market funds to sell and redeem shares based on the current market-based value of the securities in their underlying portfolios, rounded to the fourth decimal place (e.g., $1.0000), i.e., transact at a ``floating'' net asset value per share (``NAV''). The second alternative proposal would require money market funds to impose a liquidity fee (unless the fund's board determines that it is not in the best interest of the fund) if a fund's liquidity levels fell below a specified threshold and would permit the funds to suspend redemptions temporarily, i.e., to ``gate'' the fund under the same circumstances. Under this proposal, we could adopt either alternative by itself or a combination of the two alternatives. The SEC also is proposing additional amendments that are designed to make money market funds more resilient by increasing the diversification of their portfolios, enhancing their stress testing, and increasing transparency by requiring money market funds to provide additional information to the SEC and to investors. The proposal also includes amendments requiring investment advisers to certain unregistered liquidity funds, which can resemble money market funds, to provide additional information about those funds to the SEC.