Department of Commerce November 1, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, is establishing the Localization and Tracking System (LTS) Testing Consortium and invites organizations to participate in this Consortium. Participants in this Consortium will have the opportunity to test their LTS leveraging a unique capability on the NIST Gaithersburg campus. The goals of the LTS Testing Consortium are to demonstrate and further develop standardized localization and tracking system testing procedures, and to assess current state of the art. The LTS Testing Consortium will not evaluate whether any individual system is commercially feasible. Participants in the Consortium will be required to sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that we have issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to take small numbers of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to U.S. 101/ Chehalis River BridgeScour Repair in Washington State.

This final rule makes clarifications to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to provide guidance based on existing agency understanding and practice on the use of two license exceptions. Specifically, this final rule makes three clarifications to License Exception Governments, International Organizations, International Inspections under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the International Space Station (GOV) and adds five notes, along with making other minor clarifications, to License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA). These revisions respond to questions BIS has received about the use of these two EAR license exceptions and provide the general public answers to frequently asked questions based on existing agency interpretive practice. Therefore, the clarifications in this final rule do not change the EAR requirements for the use of the license exceptions but are intended to assist exporters new to the EAR.