Agencies and Commissions February 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing for the Commission's consideration concerning a negotiated service agreement. This notice informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will hold four additional meetings, by video conference, of the Humanities Panel, a federal advisory committee, in February 2024, and thirty-nine meetings during March 2024. The purpose of the meetings is for panel review, discussion, evaluation, and recommendation of applications for financial assistance under the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is adjusting the maximum civil monetary penalties (CMPs) that may be imposed for violations of the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act (PFCRA) and the NEA's Restrictions on Lobbying to reflect the requirements of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act). The 2015 Act further amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (the Inflation Adjustment Act) to improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. This final rule provides the 2024 annual inflation adjustments to the initial ``catch-up'' adjustments made on June 15, 2017, and reflects all other inflation adjustments made in the interim.

Publication of the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions represents a key component of the regulatory planning mechanism prescribed in Executive Order (``E.O.'') 12866, ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' (58 FR 51735, as amended) and reaffirmed in E.O. 13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' (76 FR 3821) and E.O. 14094, ``Modernizing Regulatory Review,'' (88 FR 21879). The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires that agencies publish semiannual regulatory agendas in the Federal Register describing regulatory actions they are developing that may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities (5 U.S.C. 602). The Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda), published in the fall and spring, helps agencies fulfill all of these requirements. All Federal regulatory agencies have chosen to publish their regulatory agendas as part of this publication. The complete publication of the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda contains the Regulatory Plans of 29 Federal agencies and 69 Federal agency regulatory agendas available to the public at www.reginfo.gov. The Fall 2023 Unified Agenda publication appearing in the Federal Register includes the Regulatory Plan and agency Regulatory Flexibility Agendas, in accordance with the publication requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Agency Regulatory Flexibility Agendas contain only those Agenda entries for rules that are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities and entries that have been selected for periodic review under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

We are publishing our semiannual regulatory agenda (the Agenda) in accordance with Public Law 96-354, ``The Regulatory Flexibility Act,'' and Executive Order 12866, ``Regulatory Planning and Review.'' The NRC's Agenda is a compilation of all rulemaking activities on which we have recently completed action or have proposed or are considering action. We have completed 7 rulemaking activities and classified 2 rulemaking activities as inactive since our last Agenda was issued online at the Office of Management and Budget's website at https://www.reginfo.gov on June 13, 2023. This issuance of our Agenda contains 29 active and 22 long-term rulemaking activities: 3 are Economically Significant in accordance with Section 3(f)(1) of E.O. 12866; 18 represent Other Significant agency priorities; 31 are Substantive, Nonsignificant rulemaking activities; 2 are Routine and Frequent rulemaking activities; and 4 are Administrative rulemaking activities. In addition, 7 rulemaking activities impact small entities.

In the Spring and Fall of each year, the Federal Communications Commission publishes in the Federal Register a list in the Unified Agenda of those major items and other significant regulatory proceedings under development or review that pertain to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 602). The Unified Agenda also provides the Code of Federal Regulations citations and legal authorities that govern these proceedings. The complete Unified Agenda will be published on the internet in a searchable format at www.reginfo.gov.

This agenda provides summary descriptions of regulations being developed by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council in compliance with Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' as reaffirmed and amended in Executive Order 13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' and Executive Order 14094, ``Modernizing Regulatory Review.'' This agenda is being published to allow interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process. Additionally, members of the public can track the progress of any open and pending FAR rule via the ``Open FAR Cases'' report, which is publicly available at https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/far_case_status.html. The Regulatory Secretariat Division has attempted to list all regulations pending at the time of publication, except for minor and routine or repetitive actions; however, unanticipated requirements may result in the issuance of regulations that are not included in this agenda. There is no legal significance to the omission of an item from this listing. Also, the dates shown for the steps of each action are estimated and are not commitments to act on or by the dates shown. Published proposed rules may be reviewed in their entirety at the Government's rulemaking website at https://www.regulations.gov.

This agenda announces the proposed regulatory actions that GSA plans for the next 12 months and those that were completed since the spring 2023 edition. This agenda was developed under the guidelines of Executive Orders 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' and 13563 ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' respectively. GSA's purpose in publishing this agenda is to allow interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process. GSA also invites interested persons to recommend existing significant regulations for review to determine whether they should be modified or eliminated. The public may provide comments on rules via https://www.regulations.gov. The Unified Agenda, including previous versions, are available at www.reginfo.gov. Because publication in the Federal Register is mandated for the regulatory flexibility agendas required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 602), GSA's printed agenda entries include only: (1) Rules that are in the Agency's regulatory flexibility agenda, in accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, because they are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities; and (2) Any rules that the Agency has identified for periodic review under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Printing of these entries is limited to fields that contain information required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act's Agenda requirements. Additional information on these entries is available in the Unified Agenda. In addition, for fall editions of the Agenda, the entire Regulatory Plan will continue to be printed in the Federal Register, as in past years, including GSA's regulatory plan.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received an application from Purdue University (Purdue or the applicant), to renew Special Nuclear Material (SNM) License Number 142 (SNM-142). The renewed license would authorize the applicant to continue to use SNM in various research operations, calibration, and testing at its campus in West Lafayette, Indiana. If the license renewal application is approved, the license would authorize Purdue to continue to possess and use SNM under NRC regulations for 10 years beyond its current license. Because the license application contains sensitive unclassified non- safeguards information (SUNSI) and safeguards information (SGI), an order imposes procedures to obtain access to SUNSI and SGI for contention preparation.

The Federal Communications Commission published a document in the Federal Register on January 29, 2024, announcing the dates for filing oppositions and replies to a Petition for Reconsideration of Action in a Rulemaking Proceeding in WC Docket No. 17-84, adopted by the Commission on December 13, 2023. There is an error in the Dates section of this document, incorrectly setting the deadline for replies to oppositions as February 8, 2024 rather than February 23, 2024.

In August 2023, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Commission or CPSC) determined under the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act of 2020 (PFCSA) that ASTM F3429/F3429M-23 is a consumer product safety standard that impedes the propagation of flames into pre-filled portable fuel containers, and therefore incorporated the voluntary standard by reference as a mandatory rule. ASTM has since notified the Commission that it has revised this voluntary standard. CPSC seeks comment on whether the revision meets the PFCSA's requirements for adoption in the mandatory rule.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, notice is hereby given that 1 meeting of the Arts Advisory Panel to the National Council on the Arts will be held by teleconference or videoconference.

In accordance with the emergency review procedures of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), USAID is requesting emergency approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a new data collection survey on employees of the Implementing Partners of USAID contracts in Afghanistan for the purpose of facilitating the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Chief Of Mission (COM) approval process overseen by the Department of State.

The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing for the Commission's consideration concerning a negotiated service agreement. This notice informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) hereby announces that the charter of the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (hereinafter Committee) has been renewed on January 31, 2024 for a two year period pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), following consultation with the Committee Management Secretariat, General Services Administration.