National Institute of Standards and Technology – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR or Committee), will hold a meeting via teleconference on Friday, April 27, 2012 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary purpose of this meeting is to review the Committee's draft annual report to the NIST Director. Any draft meeting materials will be posted on the NEHRP Web site at https://nehrp.gov/. Interested members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting from remote locations by calling into a central phone number.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is forming a Work Group (WG) to examine alternative methods for testing the accuracy of commercial measuring devices including, but not limited to retail motor-fuel dispensers. The WG will investigate the current methodology and standards (e.g., neck-type volumetric field standards and associated test procedures) widely used by weights and measures officials and service companies to test commercial measuring devices as well as proposed alternatives to ensure that the methodologies and standards facilitate measurements that are traceable to the International System of Units (SI). WG membership is open to any interested party. This notice also summarizes key issues to be considered by this WG.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold a free public workshop titled ``Conformity AssessmentApproaches and Best Practices'' on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The purpose of the NIST public workshop is (1) to examine current approaches to conformity assessment among Federal agencies and the private sector and (2) to provide a forum for discussion with NIST on conformity assessment practices, challenges and the means by which these challenges are being addressed.

This notice announces the Secretary of Commerce's approval of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 180-4, Secure Hash Standard (SHS). FIPS 180-4 updates FIPS 180-3 by providing a general procedure for creating an initialization value, adding two additional secure hash algorithms to the Standard: SHA-512/224 and SHA- 512/256 and removing a restriction that padding must be done before hash computation begins, which was required in FIPS 180-3.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Law Enforcement Standards Office (OLES), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), will hold a public meeting on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 1 p.m. Mountain Time, via teleconference. The purpose of the meeting is to present the final criteria for assessing the suitability of P25 Compliance Assessment Program (CAP) conventional conformance tests, as well as the final, prioritized list of features and functionalities that will require conformance testing in the P25 CAP.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology announces the release of a paper entitled Recommendations for Establishing an Identity Ecosystem Governance Structure on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. This paper supports the implementation of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and responds to comments received in response to the related Notice of Inquiry published in the Federal Register on June 14, 2011.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Interim Meeting of the 97th National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) will be held January 22 to 25, 2012. This notice contains information about significant items on the NCWM Committee agendas, but does not include all agenda items. As a result, the items are not consecutively numbered.

The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States Department of Commerce, is issuing a final rule amending the regulations pertaining to the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). Regulations concerning the establishment of laboratory accreditation programs (LAPs) within NVLAP are being amended to clarify the original intent of this section and to improve the readability and understanding of the agency's regulations.

The National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee (Committee), will hold a meeting via teleconference on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary purpose of this meeting is to discuss the NCST Advisory Committee's draft annual report to Congress. A copy of the draft report will be posted on the NCST Advisory Committee's web site at https:// www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/ncst/index.cfm. Interested members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting from remote locations by calling into a central phone number.

The Technology Innovation Program (TIP) Advisory Board will hold a meeting via teleconference on Tuesday, December 6, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, Eastern time. The primary purpose of this meeting is to discuss the future of TIP. Interested members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting from remote locations by calling into a central phone number.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is publishing this notice on behalf of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to announce the NFPA's proposal to revise some of its fire safety codes and standards and requests proposals from the public to amend existing or begin the process of developing new NFPA fire safety codes and standards. The purpose of this request is to increase public participation in the system used by NFPA to develop its codes and standards.

The Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology announces that the closing deadline for submission of comments responsive to the September 21, 2011, request for information on the requirements of, and possible approaches to, creating a voluntary industry code of conduct to address the detection, notification and mitigation of botnets, has been extended until 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on November 14, 2011. Comments received between November 4, 2011, the due date for comments announced in the September 21, 2011 notice, and publication of this notice in the Federal Register, are deemed to be timely.

On September 12, 2011, NIST published a Request for Comment in the Federal Register, inviting interested parties to submit written comments on various possible features of a new nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network. The comments will be used by NIST to help determine research and development priorities in anticipation of the President's Wireless Innovation (WIN) Fund to help drive innovation of next-generation network technologies. NIST is publishing this notice to extend the deadline for the submission of comments pertaining to the September 12, 2011 notice until 5 p.m., Eastern Time, on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. No other changes are being made to the originally published Request for Comment.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites interested parties to attend a pre-consortium meeting on November 8, 2011 to be held at the NIST campus, with the option of participating via web-based meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to evaluate industry interest in creating a NIST/industry/Academia consortium focused on ``Concrete Rheology: Enabling Metrology (CREME)''. The goal of such a consortium could include determining key rheological parameters that best characterize the placement, finishability and consolidation of concrete. This goal would be achieved by developing test methods and models to measure and predict the performance parameters of fresh concrete in the lab and at the construction site. To move these ideas into practice and to engage industry, test bed facilities and quality control test methods for the field would be developed at NIST consortium members' participation. The consortium would be administered by NIST with consortium members' participation. Consortium planning, research and development would be conducted by NIST staff along with at least one technical representative from each participating member entities. Each member of the consortium will be required to sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (``CRADA'') with NIST. Membership fees for participation in the consortium will be Twenty-five Thousand ($25,000) per year. The initial term of the consortium is intended to be three years.

The Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR or Committee), will meet on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday, November 9, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The primary purposes of this meeting are to discuss the relationship of Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-8: National Preparedness to National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) activities, to review the conclusions of the National Research Council Report on National Earthquake Resilience, and to review NEHRP agency updates on their latest activities. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NEHRP Web site at https://nehrp.gov/.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app., notice is hereby given that the Panel of Judges of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will meet on Monday, November 14, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Thursday, November 17, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Friday, November 18, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Panel of Judges is composed of twelve members prominent in the fields of quality, innovation, and performance management and appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, assembled to advise the Secretary of Commerce on the conduct of the Baldrige Award. The purpose of this meeting is to conduct final judging of the 2011 applicants. The applications under review by Judges contain trade secrets and proprietary commercial information submitted to the Government in confidence.

On July 22, 2011, NIST published a Request for Information in the Federal Register inviting interested parties to submit written comments on how to best structure a potential new public-private partnership program, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) Program, which was proposed in the NIST fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget. NIST is publishing this notice to extend the deadline for the submission of comments pertaining to the proposed AMTech Program until 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on Thursday, October 20, 2011. No other changes are being made to the originally published Request for Information.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Homeland Security are requesting information on the requirements of, and possible approaches to creating, a voluntary industry code of conduct to address the detection, notification and mitigation of botnets.\1\ Over the past several years, botnets have increasingly put computer owners at risk. A botnet infection can lead to the monitoring of a consumer's personal information and communication, and exploitation of that consumer's computing power and Internet access. Networks of these compromised computers are often used to disseminate spam, to store and transfer illegal content, and to attack the servers of government and private entities with massive, distributed denial of service attacks. The Departments seek public comment from all Internet stakeholders, including the commercial, academic, and civil society sectors, on potential models for detection, notification, prevention, and mitigation of botnets' illicit use of computer equipment.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DoC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking input on various possible features of a new nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network. This input will be used by NIST to help determine research and development priorities in anticipation of the President's Wireless Innovation (WIN) Fund to help drive innovation of next-generation network technologies.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board, NIST will hold an open meeting on Wednesday, September 21, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Smart Grid Advisory Committee (SGAC or Committee) will hold a meeting via teleconference on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time (E.T.). The primary purpose of this meeting is to review sections of the Committee's draft report to the NIST Director. The sections of the draft report that the Committee will consider at the meeting will be posted on the SGAC Web site at https:// www.nist.gov/smartgrid. Interested members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting from remote locations by calling into a central phone number.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites interested parties to provide input on how to best structure a new public-private partnership program, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) program, proposed in the NIST fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget (see https://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/12CJ/2012_ NIST_&_NTIS_Cong_Budget.pdf pp. NIST-250 to NIST-254) for a copy of the AMTech budget justification). As envisioned, the AMTech program will provide Federal financial assistance to leverage existing or newly created industry-led consortia to develop precompetitive enabling manufacturing technologies. These consortia would develop roadmaps of critical long-term industrial manufacturing research needs, and issue subawards to fund research by universities, government laboratories, and U.S. businesses. This initiative will support research and development (R&D) in advanced manufacturing, with the goal of strengthening long-term U.S. leadership in the development of critical technologies that lead to sustainable economic growth and job creation.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.