Department of Commerce 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS has received a request from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to marine geophysical surveys in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible 1 year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorizations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.

NMFS issues this temporary rule to withhold a portion of the red grouper commercial allocation for the 2022 fishing year in anticipation of an upcoming rulemaking that would, among other measures, reduce the commercial annual catch limit (ACL) and annual catch target (ACT) through Amendment 53 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP). This action would withhold the distribution of red grouper and gag multi-use individual fishing quota (IFQ) allocation on January 1, 2022, in the amount equal to the anticipated reduction in the allocation for shareholders in the groupers and tilefishes IFQ (GT-IFQ) program.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is soliciting comments from the public regarding a proposed revision of the management plan for the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR or Reserve). A management plan provides a framework for the direction and timing of a reserve's programs, allows reserve managers to assess a reserve's success in meeting its goals and to identify any necessary changes in direction, and is used to guide programmatic evaluations of the reserve. Plan revisions are required of each reserve in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System at least every five years. This revised plan is intended to replace the plan approved in 2013.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center has requested a change to a previously issued exempted fishing permit which would result in new regulatory exemptions for participating vessels. The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has determined that this request is outside the scope of the initially approved exempted fishing permit. As a result, regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act require publication of this notification to provide interested parties the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes to the exempted fishing permit previously issued to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

NMFS announces that the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA) has applied for an experimental fishing permit (EFP) to test tori lines (bird scaring devices) in the Hawaii shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish. The intent of the EFP is to test new ways to discourage seabird interactions that also increase operational flexibility.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing to issue a permit to authorize the incidental, but not intentional, take of specific Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed marine mammal species or stocks under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), in the Alaska (AK) Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Pacific cod pot fishery.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) invites interested U.S. companies to submit letters of interest in collaborating with NIST/ITL on an ongoing basis in the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) through partnerships called ``National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnerships'' (NCEPs). NIST previously published a notice for this partnership on October 19, 2012. This notice repeats the same information contained in the previous notice but contains updated contact and mailing information.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR or Committee) will hold a virtual meeting via web conference on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time and Thursday, March 3, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary purpose of this meeting is for the Committee to review the activities of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and receive responses to the Committee's 2021 biennial report on the effectiveness of NEHRP. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda and any meeting materials will be posted on the NEHRP website at https://nehrp.gov/.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the Eastern Aleutian district (EAI) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2021 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific ocean perch in the EAI allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is proposing to implement electronic patent issuance. Under the proposed change, the USPTO would issue patents electronically through its patent document viewing systems (i.e., Patent Center and Patent Application Image Retrieval (PAIR)). Patents would no longer be issued on paper, and as a result, they would no longer be mailed to the correspondence address of record as part of the patent issuance process. The elimination of these steps would allow issued patents to be available weeks sooner in electronic form, and the patentee would be able to view and print the complete issued patent via the USPTO's patent document viewing systems immediately upon issue. Patentees would continue to have the option of ordering an unlimited number of paper presentation copies and certified copies of patents.

NMFS announces a closure for the 2022 fishing season for the red snapper private angling component in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off Texas in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) through this temporary rule. The red snapper recreational private angling component in the Gulf EEZ off Texas will close on January 1, 2022, until 12:01 a.m., local time, on June 1, 2022. This closure is necessary to prevent the private angling component from exceeding the Texas regional management area annual catch limit (ACL) and to prevent overfishing of the Gulf red snapper resource.

On December 8, 2021, the Department of Commerce, published a 30-day public comment period notice in the Federal Register with FR Document Number 2021-26557 (Page 69618) seeking public comments for an information collection entitled, ``Certification of Identity (Form BC- 300).'' This document referenced incorrect information in the ``Needs and Uses'' section, and Commerce hereby issues a correction notice as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that imports of certain uncoated paper rolls from Brazil, the People's Republic of China (China), and Indonesia are circumventing the antidumping duty (AD) orders on certain uncoated paper (uncoated paper) from Brazil, China, and Indonesia, and that imports of certain uncoated paper rolls from China and Indonesia are circumventing the countervailing duty (CVD) orders on uncoated paper from China and Indonesia.

This action corrects an error in the calculation of the post- transfer quota for the State of North Carolina that published in the Federal Register on November 26, 2021.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, invites comments on the extension and revision of an existing information collection: 0651- 0079 (International Work Sharing Program). The purpose of this notice is to allow 60 days for public comment preceding submission of the information collection to OMB.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is reopening the requesting proposals from highly-qualified contractors to organize and expand a vessel position monitoring system for the federally permitted Gulf of Mexico Shrimp industry.

On November 18, 2021, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued its final judgment in Trans Texas Tire, LLC and Zhejiang Jingu Company Limited v. United States, Consol. Court No. 19-00189, Slip Op. 21-157 (CIT November 18, 2021) sustaining the Department of Commerce (Commerce)'s remand redetermination pertaining to the countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of certain steel wheels 12 to 16.5 inches in diameter (certain steel wheels) from the People's Republic of China (China). Commerce is notifying the public that the CIT's final judgment is not in harmony with Commerce's final determination in that investigation, and that Commerce is amending the final determination and the resulting CVD order with respect to the CVD margin assigned to entries of certain steel trailer wheels 12 to 16.5 inches in diameter coated in chrome through a Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) process produced and/or exported from the China by Zhejiang Jingu Company Limited (Jingu), or produced by Xingmin Intelligent Transportation Systems (Group) (Xingmin Intelligent) and imported by Trans Texas Tire LLC (Trans Texas).

Notice is hereby given that permits and permit amendments have been issued to the following entities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as applicable.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that AG der Dillinger H[uuml]ttenwerke (Dillinger) did not make sales of certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from Germany at less than normal value during the period of review (POR), May 1, 2019, through April 30, 2020.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) finds countervailable subsidies are being provided to Goodluck India Limited (Goodluck) and Tube Investments of India Ltd. (TII), producers/exporters of certain cold-drawn mechanical tubing of carbon and alloy steel (cold-drawn mechanical tubing) from India during the period of review, January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019.

NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Navy (Navy) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to Ice Exercise 2022 (ICEX22) north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-time, one-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorization and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision. The Navy's activities are considered military readiness activities pursuant to the MMPA, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (2004 NDAA).

This emergency rule temporarily reopens the 2021 sablefish primary fishery for vessels using pot/trap gear effective December 10, 2021, to December 31, 2021. This action is necessary to provide operational flexibility so that vessels in the sablefish primary fishery are able to fully harvest their tier limits despite high economic uncertainty in 2021.