Agencies and Commissions January 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, the Federal Election Commission is adjusting for inflation the civil monetary penalties established under the Federal Election Campaign Act, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act, and the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account Act. The civil monetary penalties being adjusted are those negotiated by the Commission or imposed by a court for certain statutory violations, and those imposed by the Commission for late filing of, or failure to file, certain reports required by the Federal Election Campaign Act. The adjusted civil monetary penalties are calculated according to a statutory formula and the adjusted amounts will apply to penalties assessed after the effective date of these rules.

The NCUA Board (Board) proposes to amend its chartering and field of membership (``FOM'') rules to modernize requirements related to service facilities for multiple common bond (``MCB'') federal credit unions (``FCUs''). The Board is proposing to include any shared branch, shared ATM, or shared electronic facility in the definition of ``service facility'' for an FCU that participates in a shared branching network. The FCU need not be an owner of the shared branch network for the shared branch or shared ATM to be a service facility. These changes would apply to the definition of service facility both for additions of select groups to MCB FCUs and for expansions into underserved areas.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is adopting final rules amending its part 38 regulations to address the potential risk of a designated contract market's (``DCM'') trading platform experiencing a market disruption or system anomaly due to electronic trading. The final rules set forth three principles applicable to DCMs concerning: The implementation of exchange rules applicable to market participants to prevent, detect, and mitigate market disruptions and system anomalies associated with electronic trading; the implementation of exchange-based pre-trade risk controls for all electronic orders; and the prompt notification of Commission staff by DCMs of any significant market disruptions on their electronic trading platforms. In addition, the final rules include acceptable practices (``Acceptable Practices''), which provide that a DCM can comply with these principles by adopting and implementing rules and risk controls reasonably designed to prevent, detect, and mitigate market disruptions and system anomalies associated with electronic trading.

Roundtable discussion: 2020 Elections lessons learned.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) announce receipt from SoundExchange, Inc., (SoundExchange) of a notice of intent to audit Music Choice to verify royalties paid by Commercial Webcasters, Preexisting Subscription Services, and Business Establishment Services in 2017, 2018, and 2019 pursuant to two statutory licenses.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce receipt from SoundExchange, Inc., (SoundExchange) of notices of intent to audit the 2017, 2018, and 2019 statements of account submitted by commercial webcasters Cumulus Media, Emmis Communications, IMVU, Inc., Pandora Media, LLC, and Urban One, Inc. concerning the royalty payments they made pursuant to two statutory licenses.

This is an amendment to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) declarations issued for each State and Territory of the U.S. Incident: Coronavirus (COVID-19). Incident Period: 01/31/2020 and continuing.

This is an amendment of the Administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of California dated 06/17/2020. Incident: Civil Unrest. Incident Period: 05/26/2020 to 12/28/2020.

This is a Notice of the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the State of Mississippi (FEMA4576DR), dated 12/31/ 2020. Incident: Hurricane Zeta. Incident Period: 10/28/2020 through 10/29/2020.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuance of an amendment to Facility Operating License No. NPF-96, issued to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), for operation of the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (Watts Bar or WBN), Unit 2. The proposed amendment would revise the Watts Bar Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (UFSAR) to apply alternate eddy current probabilities of detection (POD) to indications of axial outer diameter stress corrosion cracking (ODSCC) at tube support plates (TSPs) in the Watts Bar, Unit 2, steam generators for the beginning-of-cycle (BOC) voltage distribution in support of the Watts Bar, Unit 2, operational assessment. The proposed POD values will only be used until the Watts Bar, Unit 2, steam generators are replaced. For this amendment request, the NRC proposes to determine that it involves no significant hazards consideration. Because this amendment request contains sensitive unclassified non- safeguards information (SUNSI), an order imposes procedures to obtain access to SUNSI for contention preparation.

On January 4, 2021, the Department of Commerce published notice in the Federal Register of a negative final determination of sales at less than fair value in connection with the subject investigation concerning Brazil (86 FR 70). Accordingly, the antidumping duty investigation concerning wood mouldings and millwork products from Brazil (Investigation No. 731-TA-1469 (Final)) is terminated.

The following remote public hearing on proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure has been canceled: Bankruptcy Rules Hearing on January 29, 2021.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined to review-in-part an initial determination (``ID'') (Order No. 20) issued by the presiding administrative law judge (``ALJ'') granting a motion for summary determination of violation of section 337. The Commission requests written submissions from the parties, interested government agencies, and interested persons on the issues of remedy, the public interest, and bonding, under the schedule set forth below.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) invites public comment on the renewal of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for an existing collection of information. The information collection is entitled, ``Voluntary Reporting of Performance Indicators.''

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is required to publish notice of permits issued under the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978. This is the required notice.

The NCUA is seeking comments and information from interested parties on the NCUA's communication methods and related initiatives to promote efficiency and increase transparency.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (``Board'') proposes to amend its Regulation D (Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions) to eliminate references to an ``interest on required reserves'' rate and to an ``interest on excess reserves'' rate and replace them with a reference to a single ``interest on reserve balances'' rate. The Board also proposes to simplify the formula used to calculate the amount of interest paid on balances maintained by or on behalf of eligible institutions in master accounts at Federal Reserve Banks, and to make other conforming changes.

In this document, the Commission eliminates unbundling requirements, subject to reasonable transition periods, for enterprise- grade DS1 and DS3 loops here there is evidence of actual and potential competition, for broadband-capable DS0 loops and subloops in the most densely populated areas, for operations support systems nationwide except for the purposes of managing remaining UNEs, number portability, and interconnection, and for voice-grade narrowband loops, multiunit premises subloops, and network interface devices nationwide. The Commission preserves unbundling requirements for DS0 loops in less densely populated areas and DS1 and DS3 loops in areas without sufficient evidence of competition. The Commission further eliminates unbundled dark fiber transport provisioned from wire centers within a half-mile of competitive fiber networks, but provides an eight-year transition period for existing circuits so as to avoid stranding investment and last-mile deployment by competitive LECs that may harm consumers. The Report and Order also forbears from remaining Avoided- Cost Resale obligations. In all, the Commission ends unbundling and resale requirements where they stifle technology transitions and broadband deployment, but preserves unbundling requirements where they are still necessary to realize the 1996 Act's goal of robust intermodal competition benefiting all Americans.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, notice is hereby given that the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities will hold a meeting of the Arts and Artifacts Domestic Indemnity Panel.