National Aeronautics and Space Administration July 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice is issued in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 2458c(b)(2)(B). Per statute, NASA is required to publish the amount of insurance required when a party to an agreement between the Administration and the party, made for the purpose of developing new technology for an experimental aerospace vehicle, has requested indemnification. For the demonstration launch of ATK's new suborbital ALV-X1 launch vehicle at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, carrying experimental aerospace vehicle payloads, as defined in 42 U.S.C. 2458c(d)(3), scheduled for the 1st quarter of Fiscal Year 2008, the Administrator has determined the maximum probable loss to be $15.4 million for Government property, $180,000 for 3rd party property, and $9 million for 3rd party personnel. As a condition for indemnification, analogous to that required by the Commercial Space Launch Act, ATK is required to carry insurance to cover the MPL. Per statute, conditional indemnification may only be provided upon ATK's successful passage of a NASA safety review, and certification of adequate insurance coverage.

This final rule amends NASA regulations by removing from NASA grant officers responsibility for submitting Individual Procurement Action Reports (NF 507) for all grant and cooperative agreement actions. This rule also removes the ``Individual Procurement Action Report (NASA Form 507)''.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Secretariat has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a currently approved information collection requirement concerning Subcontractor Payments. A request for public comments was published in the Federal Register at 72 FR 19187, April 17, 2007. No comments were received. Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of functions of the FAR, and whether it will have practical utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and methodology; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways in which we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the Small Business Administration's (SBA) final rule published on November 15, 2006 (71 FR 66434), entitled ``Small Business Size Regulations; Size for Purposes of Government-wide Acquisition Contracts, Multiple Award Schedule Contracts and Other Long-Term Contracts; 8(a) Business Development/Small Disadvantaged Business; Business Status Determinations.'' The purpose of the SBA rule is to improve the accuracy of small business size status reporting over the life of certain contracts.

This document summarizes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule agreed to by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council in this Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-18. A companion document, the Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), follows this FAC. The FAC, including the SECG, is available via the Internet at https://www.regulations.gov/.