Department of Commerce 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes this notice to announce the availability for public comments for the draft report titled, U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3: ``Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate. Regions of Focus: North America, Hawaii, Caribbean, and U.S. Pacific islands.'' This draft document is being released solely for the purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information quality guidelines. This document has not been formally disseminated by NOAA. It does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. After consideration of comments received on the draft Prospectus, the final Prospectus along with the comments received will be published on the CCSP web site.

NMFS, Southeast Region, in collaboration with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) intends to prepare a DEIS to describe and analyze management alternatives to be included in an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico. These alternatives will consider measures to rationalize effort and reduce overcapacity in the commercial grouper fishery to achieve and maintain optimum yield in the multi-species grouper fishery. The purpose of this notice of intent is to solicit public comments on the scope of issues to be addressed in the DEIS.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes this notice to announce the availability for public comments for the draft document titled, U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.4: ``Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources.'' This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP) analyzes information on the state of knowledge of adaptation options for key, representative ecosystems and resources that may be sensitive to climate variability and change. This draft document is being released solely for the purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information quality guidelines. This document has not been formally disseminated by NOAA. It does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. Any public comments submitted in accordance with this notice will be considered when revising the document.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases relating to continuing applications and requests for continued examination practices, and for the examination of claims in patent applications. The Office is revising the rules of practice to require that any third or subsequent continuing application that is a continuation application or a continuation-in-part application, and any second or subsequent request for continued examination in an application family, be filed to obtain consideration of an amendment, argument, or evidence, and be supported by a showing as to why the amendment, argument, or evidence sought to be entered could not have been previously submitted. The Office is also revising the rules of practice to provide that an applicant must provide an examination support document that covers all of the claims in an application if the application contains more than five independent claims or more than twenty-five total claims. The Office is also revising the rules of practice with respect to multiple applications that have the same claimed filing or priority date, substantial overlapping disclosure, a common inventor, and common ownership. These changes will allow the Office to conduct a better and more thorough and reliable examination of patent applications.

NMFS announces that the 2007 summer flounder commercial quota allocated to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been harvested. Vessels issued a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer flounder fishery may not land summer flounder in Massachusetts for the remainder of calendar year 2007, unless additional quota becomes available through a transfer from another state. Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery require publication of this notification to advise Massachusetts that the quota has been harvested and to advise vessel permit holders and dealer permit holders that no commercial quota is available for landing summer flounder in Massachusetts.

In response to requests from Hylsa S.A. de C.V (``Hylsa''), a Mexican manufacturer of oil country tubular goods (``OCTG''), and United States Steel Corporation (``petitioner''), the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') initiated an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on OCTG from Mexico. See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews, 71 FR 57465 (September 29, 2006). This administrative review covered the period August 1, 2005, through July 31, 2006. We are now rescinding this review due to requests by parties to withdraw from the review.

The New England Fishery Management Council's (Council) Multispecies (Groundfish) Committee will meet to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Council) Crab Committee will meet in Seattle, WA..

The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS or Sanctuary) is seeking applicants for the Recreational Diving, Oil and Gas Production, Education and Commercial Fishing (alternate), seat on its Sanctuary Advisory Council (Council). Applicants are chosen based upon their particular expertise and experience in relation to the seat for which they are applying; community and professional affiliations; philosophy regarding the protection and management of marine resources; and possibly the length of residence in the area affected by the Sanctuary. The Applicant chosen as a member should expect to serve a 2- year term, pursuant to the Council's Charter.

Notice is hereby given that Mystic Aquarium, 55 Coogan Boulevard, Mystic, CT 06355 (Dr. Lisa Mazzaro, Principal Investigator), has applied in due form for a permit to obtain stranded, releasable pinnipeds (up to eight otariids and 20 phocids) from the National Marine Mammal Stranding Response Program for the purposes of public display.

Based on the timely withdrawal of the request for an administrative review, the Department of Commerce (the Department) is rescinding the administrative review of low enriched uranium from France for the period February 1, 2006 through January 31, 2007.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service publishes this notice to amend the Final Guidelines for the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP). For those grants issued in fiscal years 2002 and 2004 only, and that have one or more project proposals submitted to NOAA, but not approved, as of August 17, 2007, the CELCP may extend the financial assistance award period. For grants issued in fiscal year 2002, they may be extended for up to 3 additional months, providing for a potential maximum award duration of five years and three months. For grants issued in fiscal year 2004, they may be extended for up to one additional year, providing for a potential maximum award duration of four years. This extension is intended solely to give the CELCP sufficient time to review and make a determination on the documentation supporting the project proposals that it has received but does not have time to complete before the awards' currently scheduled end date of September 30, 2007.

NMFS is notifying the owners and operators of registered vessels of their assignments for the 2007 B season Atka mackerel fishery in harvest limit area (HLA) 542 and/or 543 of the Aleutian Islands subarea of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to allow the harvest of the 2007 B season HLA limits established for area 542 and area 543 pursuant to the 2007 and 2008 harvest specifications for groundfish in the BSAI.

The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) conducts the Survey of Industrial Research and Development (R&D) under a joint partnership agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The U.S. Census Bureau proposes to provide data collected from the 2004-2009 R&D surveys to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) 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. Through the use of these shared data, the BEA will augment its existing R&D-related data, identify data quality issues arising from reporting differences in the BEA and Census Bureau surveys, and improve its survey sample frames. The NSF will be provided non-confidential aggregate data (public use) and reports that have cleared Census Bureau disclosure review. Disclosure review is a process conducted to verify that the data to be released do not reveal any confidential information.

The Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) would like to raise awareness about the importance of identity management to innovation, economic growth, and international trade. Toward that end, ITA will host a roundtable discussion on identity management and international business competitiveness on Tuesday, September 18, 2007. The roundtable is intended to facilitate a candid discussion of individual views by a representative group of experts on this important issue.

In accordance with regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to take small numbers of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to conducting a barging operation within the U.S. Beaufort Sea has been issued to FEX L.P. (FEX) for a period of 1 year.

The Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is currently conducting a new shipper review (``NSR'') of the antidumping duty order on certain preserved mushrooms from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') covering the period February 1, 2006, through September 12, 2006. We preliminarily determine that sales have not been made below normal value (``NV'') with respect to Guangxi Jisheng Foods, Inc. (``Jisheng''), which participated fully and is entitled to a separate rate in this review. If these preliminary results are adopted in our final results of this review, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') to assess antidumping duties on entries of subject merchandise during the period of review (``POR'') for which the importer-specific assessment rates are above de minimis.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for species that comprise the shallow-water species fishery by vessels using trawl gear in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the third seasonal apportionment of the 2007 Pacific halibut bycatch allowance specified for the shallow-water species fishery in the GOA.

In accordance with 5 U.S.C., 4314(c)(4), Department of Commerce (DOC) announces the appointment of persons to serve as members of the Departmental Performance Review Board (DPRB). The DPRB provides an objective peer review of the initial performance ratings, performance-based pay adjustment and bonus recommendations, higher-level review requests and other performance-related actions submitted by appointing authorities for Senior Executive Service (SES) members whom they directly supervise, and makes recommendations based on its review. The term of the new members of the DPRB will expire December 31, 2009. Effective Date: The effective date of service of appointees to the Departmental Performance Review Board is upon publication of this notice.