Agencies and Commissions February 5, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On December 23, 2014, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau published a document seeking updated input to better understand the current consumer experience with hearing aid compatible wireless handsets, to explore technical or other barriers to the provision of hearing aid compatible devices on new wireless technologies, and to consider changes to its rules that may be necessary to ensure that wireless handsets used with advanced communications services are accessible in light of directives contained in the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). The comment date was erroneously published as an effective date and neither the comment nor the comment-reply date was provided. We also failed to provide an address for submission of comments. This document corrects those errors and extends the time within which to file comments and reply comments.

On December 1, 2014, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested public comment on the proposed ``NRC Tribal Policy Statement.'' The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on March 31, 2015. The NRC has decided to extend the public comment period to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend its spent fuel storage regulations by revising the Holtec International HI-STORM 100 Cask System listing within the ``List of approved spent fuel storage casks'' to add Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, to the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1014. Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, changes burnup/cooling time limits for thimble plug devices; changes Metamic-HT material testing requirements; changes Metamic-HT material minimum guaranteed values; and updates fuel definitions to allow boiling water reactor fuel affected by certain corrosion mechanisms with specific guidelines to be classified as undamaged fuel.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or Agency) is proposing to amend its regulations to implement provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. Based on authorities provided in these two statutes, the proposed rule would establish a Government-wide mentor- prot[eacute]g[eacute] program for all small business concerns, consistent with SBA's mentor-prot[eacute]g[eacute] program for Participants in SBA's 8(a) Business Development (BD) program. The proposed rule would also make minor changes to the mentor- prot[eacute]g[eacute] provisions for the 8(a) Business Development program in order to make the mentor-prot[eacute]g[eacute] rules for each of the programs as consistent as possible. The proposed rule would amend the current joint venture provisions to clarify the conditions for creating and operating joint venture partnerships, including the effect of such partnerships on any mentor-prot[eacute]g[eacute] relationships. Finally, the proposed rule would make several additional changes to current size, 8(a) Office of Hearings and Appeals or HUBZone regulations, concerning among other things, ownership and control, changes in primary industry, standards of review and interested party status for some appeals.