Department of Commerce March 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Census Bureau is publishing this notice to announce the renewal of the Census Scientific Advisory Committee (Committee or CSAC). The purpose of the Committee is to provide advice to the Director of the Census Bureau on the full range of Census Bureau programs and activities including communications; decennial, demographic, and economic statistics; field operations; geography; and information technology. Additional information concerning the Committee can be found by visiting the Committee's website at: https:// www.census.gov/about/cac/sac.html.

NMFS announces that the length of the recreational fishing season for black sea bass in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the South Atlantic will extend throughout the species' 2022-2023 fishing year. Announcing the length of recreational season for black sea bass is one of the accountability measures (AMs) for the recreational sector. This announcement allows recreational fishers to maximize their opportunity to harvest the recreational annual catch limit (ACL) for black sea bass during the fishing season while managing harvest to protect the black sea bass resource.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST or Institute) is extending the call for nominations to serve on the inaugural Internet of Things Advisory Board. An earlier notice had requested nominations by February 28, 2022. Registered Federal lobbyists may not serve on NIST Federal Advisory Committees in an individual capacity.

NMFS approves and implements the measures included in Framework Adjustment 34 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan as adopted and submitted by the New England Fishery Management Council. Framework 34 establishes scallop specifications and other measures for fishing years 2022 and 2023. This action incorporates the new specifications-setting methodology and other changes developed in Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan into the fishing year 2022 specifications. In addition, Framework 34 implements measures to protect small scallops, promote scallop recruitment in the mid-Atlantic, and reduce bycatch of flatfish. This final rule addresses regulatory text that is unnecessary, outdated, or unclear. This action is necessary to prevent overfishing and improve both yield-per-recruit and the overall management of the Atlantic sea scallop resource.

NMFS announces that the State of Maryland is transferring a portion of its 2021 commercial bluefish quota to the State of North Carolina. This quota adjustment is necessary to comply with the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised commercial bluefish quotas for Maryland and North Carolina.

NMFS is reallocating the projected unused amount of Pacific cod from vessels using jig gear to catcher vessels less than 60 feet (18.3 meters) length overall using hook-and-line or pot gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. This action is necessary to allow the A season apportionment of the 2022 total allowable catch of Pacific cod to be harvested.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of certain walk-behind snow throwers and parts thereof (snow throwers) from the People's Republic of China (China). The period of investigation is January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold its Social Science Planning Committee (SSPC), Archipelagic Plan Team (APT), and Fishery Data Collection and Research Committee Technical Committee for the Data Collection Subpanel (FDCRC-TC-DCSP) meetings to discuss and make recommendations on fishery management issues in the Western Pacific Region.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in partnership with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), have collaborated on a new petition option for participation in the Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot (CSP) program. The new petition option, which has several enhancements compared to the current petition form and process, permits an applicant to file a combined petition in one of the partner intellectual property (IP) offices rather than separate petitions in both partner IP offices. Enhancements include a more user-friendly layout, addition of multilingual text, and a foundation for data collection that both satisfies the petition requirements and streamlines the process for partaking in the Expanded CSP program.

The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment preceding submission of the collection to OMB.

NMFS proposes regulations under the Tuna Conventions Act (TCA) of 1950, as amended, to implement Resolution C-21-04 (Conservation Measures for Tropical Tunas in the Eastern Pacific Ocean During 2022- 2024) and Resolution C-21-06 (Conservation Measures for Shark Species, with Special Emphasis on the Silky Shark (Carcharhinus Falciformis), for the Years 2022 and 2023), which were adopted at the Resumed 98th Meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) in October 2021. This proposed rule implements the C-21-04 fishing management measures for tropical tuna (i.e., bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), and skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis)) in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). The fishing restrictions would apply to purse seine vessels of class sizes 4-6 (carrying capacity of 182 metric tons (mt) or greater) and longline vessels greater than 24 meters (m) in overall length that fish for tropical tuna in the EPO. To implement Resolution C-21-06, which extended the previous IATTC resolution on silky shark for 2 years, NMFS is proposing for existing regulations on silky shark to continue in effect with no proposed amendments. This proposed rule is necessary for the conservation of tropical tuna stocks and silky shark in the EPO and for the United States to satisfy its obligations as a member of the IATTC.

This notice is to remind the public that U.S. firms are required to report annually to the Department of Commerce (Commerce) information on contracts for the sale of defense articles or defense services to foreign countries or foreign firms that are subject to offsets agreements exceeding $5,000,000 in value. U.S. firms are also required to report annually to Commerce information on offsets transactions completed in performance of existing offsets commitments for which offsets credit of $250,000 or more has been claimed from the foreign representative. This year, such reports must include relevant information from calendar year 2021 and must be submitted to Commerce no later than June 15, 2022.

As a result of these expedited sunset reviews, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) finds that revocation of the antidumping duty (AD) orders on certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate (CTL plate) from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the People's Republic of China (China), France, the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany), Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea (Korea), South Africa, Taiwan, and the Republic of Turkey (Turkey) would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping as indicated in the ``Final Results of Sunset Reviews'' section of this notice. The sunset period of review is 2017- 2021.

NMFS announces the availability of long-term direct loans for Western Alaskan Community Development Quota (CDQ) groups through the Community Development Loan program as a component of the Fisheries Finance Program (FFP). The Community Development loans will provide financing for the purchase of all or part of ownership interests in fishing or processing vessels, shoreside fish processing facilities, permits, quota, and cooperative rights in any of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island fisheries. FFP loans are not issued for purposes that could contribute to over-fishing.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) finds that revocation of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate (CTL plate) from the People's Republic of China (China) would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of countervailing subsidies at the levels indicated in the ``Final Results of Sunset Review'' section of this notice.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) is extending the modified COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program, which provides prioritized examination of certain patent applications. Requests that are compliant with the pilot program's requirements and are filed on or before June 30, 2022, will be accepted. The USPTO will evaluate whether to terminate or further extend the program during this extension period.

On November 19, 2021, NMFS published a notice inviting qualified commercial shark permit holders to submit applications to participate in the 2022 Shark Research Fishery. The Shark Research Fishery allows for the collection of fishery-dependent data for future stock assessments and cooperative research with commercial fishermen to meet the shark research objectives of the Agency. Every year, the permit terms and permitted activities (e.g., number of hooks and retention limits) specifically authorized for selected participants in the Shark Research Fishery are designated depending on the scientific and research needs of the Agency, as well as the number of NMFS- approved observers available. In order to inform selected participants of this year's specific permit requirements and ensure all terms and conditions of the permit are met, NMFS is holding a meeting via conference call and webinar for selected participants. The date and time of that meeting is announced in this notice.

NOAA proposes to amend procedures governing its civil administrative enforcement proceedings. The principal changes would include updates to statutory references, clarifications regarding the Administrator's discretionary review, revised directions for appealing a written warning, revised requirements for denying a request for admission, and revised directions for electronic service related to certain appeals and petitions. Other changes would remove the requirement for NOAA to challenge late hearing requests, simplify the use of electronic signatures, rename discovery filings, allow depositions by videoconference, require discovery filings to state when a witness is expected to speak in a language other than the English language in order to arrange interpretation, clarify when failing to pay can be a basis for permit sanctions, incorporate Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act deadlines into administrative forfeiture proceedings, and allow NOAA to publish a Notice of Proposed Forfeiture on an official government website. In addition, minor changes would update titles and addresses and correct clerical errors.

As a result of this sunset review, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) finds that revocation of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on certain coated paper suitable for high-quality print graphics using sheet-fed presses (certain coated paper) from Indonesia would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of countervailable subsidies at the levels indicated in the ``Final Results of Review'' section of this notice.

In accordance with Rules 78 and 80 of the NAFTA Rules of Procedure for Article 1904 Binational Panel Reviews, the Large Residential Washers from Mexico (Secretariat File Number: USA-MEX-2019- 1904-04) Panel Review was completed and the panelists were discharged from their duties effective March 21, 2022.

The Caribbean Fishery Management Council's (Council) Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will hold a two-day public hybrid meeting to address the items contained in the tentative agenda included in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

This notice provides the Census Bureau's final criteria for defining urban areas based on the results of the 2020 Decennial Census. This notice also provides a summary of comments received in response to the proposed criteria published in the Federal Register on February 19, 2021, as well as the Census Bureau's responses to those comments. The Census Bureau delineates urban areas after each decennial census by applying specified criteria to decennial census and other data. Since the 1950 Census, the Census Bureau has reviewed and revised these criteria, as necessary, for each decennial census in order to improve the classification of urban areas by taking advantage of newly available data and advancements in geographic information processing technology.