Department of Commerce January 23, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Antarctic Marine Living Resources Program (Rennie Holt, Ph.D., Principal Investigator), 8604 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, has requested an amendment to scientific research Permit No. 774-1847.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) proposes to provide to the Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) data collected from several surveys that it conducts on U.S. direct investment abroad, foreign direct investment in the United States, and U.S. international services transactions for statistical purposes exclusively. In accordance with the requirement of Section 524(d) of the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA), we are providing the opportunity for public comment on this data-sharing action. The data provided to the Census Bureau will be used for two purposes: (1) Data from BEA surveys of U.S direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in the United States will be linked with data from the Survey of Industrial Research and Development conducted by the Census Bureau under a joint partnership agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The linked data will be used to produce aggregate tabulations for the NSF, which will provide an integrated data set on R&D performance and funding with domestic and foreign ownership detail. BEA will use the linked data to augment its existing R&D-related data, identify data quality issues arising from reporting differences in BEA and Census Bureau surveys, and improve its survey sample frames. The Census Bureau will identify unmatched companies on BEA files that conduct R&D activities and add them to the R&D survey to improve the survey's sample. The NSF will be provided non-confidential aggregate data (public use) and reports that have cleared BEA and Census Bureau disclosure review. Disclosure review is a process conducted to verify that the data to be released do not reveal any confidential information. (2) BEA will also provide data to the Census Bureau in order to link records from its surveys of U.S. international services transactions, U.S. direct investment abroad, and foreign direct investment in the United States with information from the Census Bureau's Business Register and with data from the 2002 Economic Census. This linked information will be used by the BEA to evaluate the feasibility of developing state-level estimates of service exports.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Council) Highly Migratory Species Management Team (HMSMT) and Highly Migratory Species Advisory Subpanel (HMSAS) will hold work sessions, which are open to the public.

A process to develop and standardize one or more new hash algorithms \\ to augment and revise FIPS 180-2, Secure Hash Standard, is being initiated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As a first step in this process, NIST is publishing draft minimum acceptability requirements, submission requirements, and evaluation criteria for candidate algorithms to solicit public comment. It is intended that the revised hash function standard will specify one or more additional unclassified, publicly disclosed hash algorithms that are available royalty-free worldwide, and are capable of protecting sensitive government information well into the foreseeable future.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is amending the rules of practice to support implementation of the Office's electronic filing system (EFS) for patent correspondence, and in particular, the Web-based electronic filing system (EFS-Web). EFS- Web permits most patent correspondence, that is, most patent applications and other patent related documents, to be submitted in a portable document file (``PDF'') format. The major changes that the Office is adopting are changes to provide patent users with a process for showing that correspondence submitted in an application which has entered national stage under 35 U.S.C. 371 submitted via EFS-Web was actually received by the Office by relying on the acknowledgment receipt, and to treat certain correspondence as received, for timeliness purposes, as of the date submitted by applicant rather than the date received by the Office if the correspondence is filed via EFS- Web.

On September 29, 2006, the Department of Commerce (the Department) published in the Federal Register a notice of initiation of the antidumping duty administrative review on floor-standing, metal-top ironing tables and certain parts thereof (ironing tables) from the People's Republic of China (PRC). The period of review (POR) is August 1, 2005, through July 31, 2006. This review is now being rescinded for Foshan Shunde Yongjian Housewares & Hardware Co., Ltd. (Foshan Shunde) because the only requesting party withdrew its request in a timely manner.

As a result of the determinations by the Department of Commerce (the Department) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) that revocation of the antidumping duty orders on stainless steel bar from Brazil, India, Japan, and Spain would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and of material injury to an industry in the United States within a reasonably foreseeable time, the Department is publishing notice of the continuation of these antidumping duty orders.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 630 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allowance of the 2007 total allowable catch (TAC) of pollock for Statistical Area 630 in the GOA.