Department of Commerce June 13, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces a public workshop to be held on July 1, 2008, in the Green Auditorium of the NIST Administration Building in Gaithersburg, MD, regarding the establishment of an accreditation program and technical requirements for laboratories that perform biometric testing including interoperability, performance, and conformance using internationally recognized standards developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), NIST, and by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS). Additional standards may be identified throughout the development of the accreditation program technical requirements.

Notice is hereby provided that the deadline for issuing a decision has been extended 15 days, in the federal consistency appeal filed with the Department of Commerce by AES Sparrows Point LNG, LLC and Mid-Atlantic Express, LLC (collectively, AES).

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) publishes its proposed List of Fisheries (LOF) for 2009, as required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The proposed LOF for 2009 reflects new information on interactions between commercial fisheries and marine mammals. NMFS must categorize each commercial fishery on the LOF into one of three categories under the MMPA based upon the level of serious injury and mortality of marine mammals that occurs incidental to each fishery. The categorization of a fishery in the LOF determines whether participants in that fishery are subject to certain provisions of the MMPA, such as registration, observer coverage, and take reduction plan requirements.