Agencies and Commissions November 16, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting public comment on the draft test plan entitled, ``Response of Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation Cables When Exposed to Fire Conditions Test Plan,'' in order to receive feedback from the widest range of interested parties and to ensure that all information relevant to developing this document is available to the NRC staff. The purpose of this draft test plan is to better understand the fire-induced failure modes of instrumentation cables and evaluate the potential effect those failure modes could have on plant instrumentation circuits (i.e., circuit, component, and/or system response).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is amending its regulations regarding the timing for furnishing to the Commission the chief compliance officer (``CCO'') annual reports of futures commission merchants (``FCMs''), swap dealers (``SDs''), and major swap participants (``MSPs'') (collectively, ``Registrants''). The Commission is also amending its regulations by delegating to the Director of the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (``DSIO'') authority to grant extensions to the CCO annual report filing deadline.

Effective with the publication of this Notice in the Federal Register, agencies will be able to utilize the updated standardized Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) format for both interim and final progress reporting.

The Commission has prepared and published annual reports in this series under investigation No. 332-345, Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, since 1996. The 2017 report, which the Commission plans to publish in May 2017, will provide aggregate data on cross-border trade in services for the period ending in 2015, and transactions by affiliates based outside the country of their parent firm for the period ending in 2014. The report's analysis will focus on professional services (including accounting and auditing, architecture and engineering, legal services, and business management and consulting).The Commission is inviting interested members of the public to furnish information and views in connection with the 2017 report.

In this document, the Commission modifies its rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to implement a provision of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 that excepts from the TCPA's prior- express-consent requirement autodialed and prerecorded calls ``made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States.'' While certain debt servicing calls are permitted under the exception, the Commission caps the number of permitted calls to wireless numbers at no more than three within a thirty-day period; ensures that consumers have the right to stop such calls at any time; and adopts other consumer protections. These measures implement Congress's mandate to ensure the TCPA does not thwart important calls that can help consumers avoid debt troubles while preserving consumers' ultimate right to determine what calls they wish to receive.