Department of Commerce August 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) maintains, as part of its Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the Commerce Control List (CCL), which identifies certain of the items subject to Department of Commerce jurisdiction. This final rule revises the CCL to implement changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement's List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar List) maintained and agreed to by governments participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar Arrangement, or WA) at the December 2013 WA Plenary Meeting (the Plenary). The Wassenaar Arrangement advocates implementation of effective export controls on strategic items with the objective of improving regional and international security and stability. This rule harmonizes the CCL with the changes made to the WA List at the Plenary by revising Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) controlled for national security reasons in each category of the CCL, as well as amending the General Technology Note, WA reporting requirements, and definitions section in the EAR. However, BIS intends to publish a separate rule in September setting forth changes to the CCL resulting from the WA agreements for cybersecurity. These changes agreed to at the Plenary include raising the Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) for digital computers in ECCN 4A003. The President's report for High Performance Computers was sent to Congress on July 1, 2014 to set forth the new APP in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY1998. This rule also makes corresponding revisions to the de minimis rule, and post shipment verification reporting requirements in the Export Administration Regulations. This rule also extends the controls on specified fly-by-wire source code software and technology until June 20, 2015, as BIS continues to negotiate for multilateral controls for this software and technology. This rule also revises the license requirements for Mexico on the Commerce Country Chart, because of its recent membership in multiple multilateral export control regimes. In addition, this rule makes changes to the EAR resulting from previous rules issued as part of BIS's export control reform initiative and makes minor editorial corrections to the CCL.

NIST invites applications from eligible applicants in connection with NIST's funding of up to ten (10) separate MEP cooperative agreements for the operation of an MEP Center in the designated States' service areas and in the funding amounts identified in Section II.2. of the corresponding Announcement of Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO). NIST anticipates awarding one (1) cooperative agreement for each of the identified States. The objective of the MEP Center Program is to provide manufacturing extension services to primarily small and medium-sized manufacturers within the State designated in the applications. The selected MEP Centers will become part of the MEP national system of extension service providers, currently comprised of more than 400 Centers and field offices located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Judges Panel) will meet in closed session on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, from 9:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The purpose of this meeting is to review the results of examiners' scoring of written applications. Panel members will vote on which applicants merit site visits by examiners to verify the accuracy of quality improvements claimed by applicants. The meeting is closed to the public in order to protect the proprietary data to be examined and discussed at the meeting.

NMFS received a petition to ``designate the Sakhalin Bay-Amur River stock of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) as a depleted stock under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).'' NMFS finds that the petition presents substantial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted and will initiate a status review promptly. NMFS solicits information from the public that may contribute to the status review.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Council) Electronic Monitoring (EM) workgroup will meet by teleconference.

Notice is hereby given that a major amendment to Permit No. 14097-03 has been issued to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) (Responsible Party: Lisa Ballance, Ph.D.), Protected Resources Division, 8901 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037 and a major amendment to Permit No. 16479-01 has been issued to The Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) (Responsible Party: Gregory Kaufman), 300 Maalaea Road, Suite 211, Wailuku, HI 96793.

NMFS proposes to implement management measures described in Regulatory Amendment 21 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper- Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (FMP) (Regulatory Amendment 21), as prepared and submitted by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). If implemented, Regulatory Amendment 21 would modify the definition of the overfished threshold for red snapper, blueline tilefish, gag, black grouper, yellowtail snapper, vermilion snapper, red porgy, and greater amberjack. The purpose of Regulatory Amendment 21 is to prevent snapper-grouper stocks with low natural mortality rates from frequently alternating between overfished and rebuilt conditions due to natural variation in recruitment and other environmental factors.

This rule amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding sixteen persons under nineteen entries to the Entity List. The persons who are added to the Entity List have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These persons will be listed on the Entity List under the destinations of Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). There are nineteen entries for sixteen persons because three persons are listed under multiple destinations, resulting in three additional entries: one person in the U.A.E. has an address in Iran and two persons in China each have one address in Hong Kong.