Department of Commerce March 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Habitat Committee to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This meeting will be held in-person with a webinar option. Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) finds that revocation of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on certain hardwood plywood products (hardwood plywood) from the People's Republic of China (China) would be likely to lead to the continuation or recurrence of countervailable subsidies at the levels indicated in the ``Final Results of Sunset Review'' section of this notice.

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Bluepoint Wind, LLC (BPW) to incidentally harass marine mammals during marine site characterization surveys in coastal waters off of New York and New Jersey in the New York Bight, specifically within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (Lease) Area OCS-A 0537 and associated export cable route (ECR) area.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is making certain changes to its regulations relating to the public availability of the Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management (NTIA Manual). NTIA has the authority, delegated by the president, to assign frequencies to radio stations or classes of radio stations belonging to and operated by the United States. NTIA's manual reflects this authority and provides for the coordination of Executive branch agencies' spectrum management and coordination. Specifically, NTIA is releasing a new edition of the NTIA Manual, with which Federal agencies must comply when requesting use of radio frequency spectrum.

To provide updates to patent examination policy and procedures in a single source, which will improve access to essential guidance for all stakeholders and help to ensure issuance of robust and reliable patents that promote and protect innovation, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) issued a revision of the Ninth Edition of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), published in February 2023 (July 2022 revision). The MPEP provides patent examiners and the public with a reference work on the practices and procedures relative to the prosecution of patent applications and other proceedings before the USPTO. The MPEP contains instructions to examiners, as well as other material in the nature of information and interpretation, and outlines the current procedures that examiners are required or authorized to follow in the normal examination of patent applications and during other Office proceedings.

NMFS proposes to approve changes to the Pacific Halibut Catch Sharing Plan for the International Pacific Halibut Commission's regulatory Area 2A off of Washington, Oregon, and California. In addition, NMFS proposes to implement management measures governing the 2023 recreational fisheries that are not implemented through the International Pacific Halibut Commission. These measures include the recreational fishery seasons, subarea allocations, and management measures for Area 2A. These actions are intended to conserve Pacific halibut and provide angler opportunity where available.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) notifies interested parties that it intends to rescind a circumvention inquiry to determine whether certain lawn mowers assembled or completed in the United States by attaching Chinese cutting deck shells (attached to at least one significant non-engine component) to internal combustion engines are circumventing the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on certain walk-behind lawn mowers and parts thereof (lawn mowers) from the People's Republic of China (China). Interested parties are invited to comment on this intent to rescind.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that certain frozen warmwater shrimp (shrimp) from India is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than normal value (NV) during the period of review (POR) February 1, 2021, through January 31, 2022.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that utility scale wind towers (wind towers) from the Republic of Korea (Korea) were sold in the United States at less than normal value during the period of review (POR) February 14, 2020, through July 31, 2021.

NMFS announces final 2023 and 2024 harvest specifications, apportionments, and Pacific halibut prohibited species catch limits for the groundfish fishery of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to establish harvest limits for groundfish during the remainder of the 2023 and the start of the 2024 fishing years and to accomplish the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (FMP). The 2023 harvest specifications supersede those previously set in the final 2022 and 2023 harvest specifications, and the 2024 harvest specifications will be superseded in early 2024 when the final 2024 and 2025 harvest specifications are published. The intended effect of this action is to conserve and manage the groundfish resources in the GOA in accordance with the Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act).

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a webinar meeting of its Groundfish Management Team (GMT) to discuss items on the Pacific Council's April 2023 meeting agenda. This meeting is open to the public.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that sales of large residential washers (washers) from Mexico have been made below normal value (NV) during the period of review (POR), February 1, 2021, through January 31, 2022. We invite interested parties to comment on these preliminary results.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that HiSteel Co., Ltd. (HiSteel) made sales of subject merchandise at less than normal value during the period of review (POR), September 1, 2020, through August 31, 2021.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Skate Advisory Panel to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily finds that Impol d.o.o. and Impol TLM d.o.o. (collectively, Impol), made sales of subject merchandise at less than normal value during the period of review (POR) October 15, 2020, through March 31, 2022. Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 54 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) (Amendment 54) for review, approval, and implementation by NMFS. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, Amendment 54 would revise Gulf greater amberjack sector allocations and catch limits. The purposes of Amendment 54 are to end overfishing of Gulf greater amberjack and to update catch limits to be consistent with the best scientific information available.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, also known (and referred to subsequently herein) as IIJA or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, includes a historic investment of $65 billion to help close the digital divide and ensure that everyone in America has access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet service. The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is responsible for distributing more than $48 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding through several different programs. NTIA is requesting comments on the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act of 2021 Program, and on the design and implementation of two components of that grant program: the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program and the $1.25 billion Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. NTIA seeks broad input and feedback from all interested stakeholders across the nation, including Tribal entities, and has established multiple avenues for the public to offer input to bolster NTIA's work and to improve the number and quality of ideas under consideration as the agency develops Notices of Funding Opportunity for each of the Digital Equity Capacity Grant and Digital Equity Competitive Grant Programs to be implemented by NTIA pursuant to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This includes a series of public virtual listening sessions which will be announced at a later date.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, in support of efforts to develop standards for metal powders used in additive manufacturing (AM), is establishing the Metal Additive Manufacturing Powder Consortium (``Consortium''). The Consortium will bring together stakeholders to identify and address pre-competitive measurement science and standards needs related to metal powders used in various AM technologies. The Consortium efforts are intended to develop measurement solutions and standards to improve measurement confidence, establish measurement traceability, and enable comparability in the measurements to quantify the performance of metal powders in AM applications. Participants will be required to sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). At NIST's discretion, entities which are not permitted to enter into CRADAs pursuant to law or other governmental constraint may be allowed to participate in the Consortium pursuant to a separate non-CRADA agreement.

In accordance with the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is automatically initiating the five-year reviews (Sunset Reviews) of the antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) order(s) and suspended investigation(s) listed below. The U.S. International Trade Commission (the ITC) is publishing concurrently with this notice its notice of Institution of Five-Year Reviews which covers the same order(s) and suspended investigation(s).

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) and the NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center will convene an online pre- assessment workshop to review proposed data and modeling approaches to inform groundfish stock assessments for shortspine thornyhead, rex sole, and petrale sole, scheduled for assessment during 2023. The workshop is open to the public.