Department of Commerce May 28, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On February 5, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (``CAFC'') affirmed the judgment of the United States Court of International Trade (``CIT'') sustaining the Department of Commerce's (``the Department'') final results of redetermination pursuant to remand of the 2008-2009 antidumping duty administrative review of pure magnesium from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') (``Remand Redetermination'').\1\ Consistent with the decision of the CAFC in Timken Co. v. United States, 893 F.2d 337 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (``Timken''), as clarified by Diamond Sawblades Mfrs. Coalition v. United States, 626 F.3d 1374 (CAFC 2010) (``Diamond Sawblades''), the Department is notifying the public that the final judgment in this case is not in harmony with the Department's Final Results and is amending the Final Results of the administrative review of pure magnesium from the PRC with respect to the margin assigned to Tianjin Magnesium International Co., Ltd. (``TMI'') covering the period of review (``POR'') May 1, 2008, through April 30, 2009.\2\

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a public competition in November 2007 to develop a new cryptographic hash algorithm for standardization to augment the Government standard hash algorithms specified in Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180, Secure Hash Standard. NIST announced the selection of Keccak as the winning algorithm in a press release issued on October 2, 2012, which is available at https://www.nist.gov/ itl/csd/sha-100212.cfm. Draft FIPS 202 specifies the new ``Secure Hash Algorithm-3'' (SHA-3) family of permutation-based functions based on Keccak. Four fixed-length cryptographic hash algorithms (SHA3-224, SHA3- 256, SHA3-384, and SHA3-512) and two closely related, ``extendable- output'' functions (SHAKE128 and SHAKE256) are specified in Draft FIPS 202; all six algorithms are permutation-based ``sponge'' functions. The four SHA-3 hash functions provide alternatives to the SHA-2 family of hash functions. The extendable-output functions (XOFs) can be specialized to hash functions, subject to additional security considerations, or used in a variety of other applications. Hash algorithms are used in many information security applications, including (1) the generation and verification of digital signatures, (2) key-derivation functions, and (3) random bit generation. Both FIPS 180-4 and Draft FIPS 202 specify cryptographic hash algorithms. FIPS 180-4 specifies SHA-1 and the SHA-2 family of hash functions, and mandates the use of one of these functions for Federal applications that require a cryptographic hash function. Draft FIPS 202 specifies the new SHA-3 family of hash and extendable-output functions. To allow the use of the functions specified in either FIPS 180-4 or Draft FIPS 202 for Federal applications that require a cryptographic hash function, NIST proposes revising the Applicability Clause (6) of the Announcement Section of FIPS 180-4; the other sections of FIPS 180-4 remain unchanged. The NIST Policy on Hash Functions, available at https://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/hash/ policy.html, provides guidance on the choice of hash functions for specific applications. NIST invites public comments on Draft FIPS 202, which is available at https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsDrafts.html, and on the proposed revision of the Applicability Clause of the Announcement Section of FIPS 180-4, available at https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/ PubsFIPS.html. After the comment period closes, NIST will analyze the comments, make changes to the respective documents, as appropriate, and then propose Draft FIPS 202 and the revised FIPS 180-4 to the Secretary of Commerce for approval.

The Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Board of Overseers) and the Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Judges Panel) will meet together in open session on Thursday, June 12, 2014, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Board of Overseers, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, reports the results of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Award) activities to the Director of The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) each year, along with its recommendations for the improvement of the Award process. The Judges Panel, also appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, ensures the integrity of the Award selection process and recommends Award recipients to the Secretary of Commerce. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss and review information received from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and from the Chair of the Judges Panel. The agenda will include: Baldrige Program Update, Baldrige Fundraising Update, Baldrige Judges Panel Update, Ethics Review, Applicants and Eligibility, and New Business/Public Comment.

The New England Fishery Management Council's (Council) Joint VMS/Enforcement Committee and Advisory Panel will meet to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Salmon Advisory Subpanel (SAS) and Salmon Technical Team (STT) will hold a webinar, which is open to the public.

This proposed rule would amend regulations of the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to reinstate the reporting requirements for the BE-13, Survey of New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, which was discontinued in 2009. BEA is proposing to reinstate this survey to better measure Commerce Department efforts through the ``Build It Here, Sell It Everywhere'' initiative to expand foreign business investment in the United States and to ensure complete coverage of BEA's other foreign direct investment statistics. This survey will collect information on the acquisition or establishment of U.S. business enterprises by foreign investors, which was collected on the previous BE-13 survey, and information on expansions by existing U.S. affiliates of foreign companies, which was not previously collected. This mandatory survey would be conducted under the authority of the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (the Act). Unlike other BEA surveys conducted pursuant to the Act, a response would be required from persons subject to the reporting requirements of the BE-13, Survey of New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, whether or not they are contacted by BEA, in order to insure that respondents subject to the requirements for foreign direct investments in the U.S. are identified.