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

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 International Code Council (ICC), under whose auspices the International Codes (``I-Codes'') are developed, maintains a process for updating these model codes based on receipt of proposals from interested individuals and organizations. Each of the I-Codes are comprehensively updated and re-published every three years with a supplement released between each edition. The most current versions of the I-Codes are the 2006 editions and the 2007 supplements to the 2006 editions. The 2009 editions of the I-Codes, the subject of this notice, will be released in the first quarter of 2009. The purpose of this notice is to invite public participation in the Code Development Hearings. At this session, all proposed changes submitted for the family of the 2009 I-Codes will be considered by the respective Code Development Committees, with the assembled body of the International Code Council members also afforded the opportunity to vote via an assembly action. Proposals for consideration at these hearings were received by the August 20, 2007, deadline and were made publically available as an electronic document on November 7, 2007, and as a printed Monograph on December 18, 2007. The publication of this notice by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on behalf of ICC is being undertaken as a public service. NIST does not necessarily endorse, approve, or recommend any of the codes or standards referenced in the notice. Session Dates: The Code Development Hearings of the 2007/2008 Code Development Cycle will occur between February 18 and March 1, 2008, at the Palm Springs Convention Center in Palm Springs, California. The agenda for the hearing as well as updates to the schedule are also posted on the ICC Web site at: https://www.iccsafe.org.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces that the following programs are soliciting applications for financial assistance for FY 2008: (1) The Gaithersburg Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, and (2) the Boulder Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program. Each program will only consider applications that are within the scientific scope of the program as described in this notice and in the detailed program descriptions found in the Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) announcement for these programs.

The Interim Meetings of the 93rd National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) will be held January 27 to 30, 2008, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The majority of the meetings are open to the public, but registration is required. The NCWM is an organization of weights and measures officials of the states, counties, and cities of the United States, federal agencies, and private sector representatives. These meetings bring together government officials and representatives of business, industry, trade associations, and consumer organizations on subjects related to the field of weights and measures technology, administration and enforcement. Pursuant to (15 U.S.C. 272(b)(6)), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) supports the NCWM as one of the means it uses to solicit comments and recommendations on revising or updating a variety of publications related to legal metrology. NIST participates to promote uniformity among the states in laws, regulations, methods, and testing equipment that comprise the regulatory control of commercial weighing and measuring devices and other practices used in trade and commerce. Publication of this notice on the NCWM's behalf is undertaken as a public service; NIST does not endorse, approve, or recommend any of the proposals contained in this notice or in the publications of the NCWM mentioned below. Please see NCWM Publication 15, which contains detailed meeting agendas and schedules, registration and hotel reservation information at https://www.ncwm.net.

The National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee (Committee), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet via teleconference Tuesday, December 18, 2007, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The meeting will be audio webcast so that the public may listen to the meeting as it takes place. The primary purpose of this meeting is for the NCST Advisory Committee to discuss its annual report to the Congress and for NIST to update the Committee on the status of the investigation of World Trade Center 7. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NIST Web site at https://www.nist.gov/ncst.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. App., notice is hereby given that the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) will meet Thursday, December 6, 2007, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Friday, December 7, 2007, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. All sessions will be open to the public. The Advisory Board was established by the Computer Security Act of 1987 (Pub. L. 100-235) and amended by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-347) to advise the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of NIST on security and privacy issues pertaining to federal computer systems. Details regarding the Board's activities are available at https://csrc.nist.gov/ispab/.

In accordance with the provisions of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted initial benchmark research (Phase I) on voting equipment used in the 2004 elections. (See: https://vote.nist.gov/meeting-08172007/ Usability-Benchmarks-080907.doc). NIST is soliciting interest in Phase II of the benchmark research for voting equipment certified or submitted for certification to the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. The NIST research is designed to: (1) Determine the realistic usability benchmarks for current and future voting system technology to support usability performance standards in next generation voluntary voting systems standards, and (2) develop usability test protocols for conformance testing of such standards. NIST may also examine relevant instructions, documentation and error messages, without doing any direct usability studies thereon. Manufacturers interested in participating in Phase II of this research will be asked to execute a Letter of Understanding. Interested parties are invited to contact NIST for information regarding participation, Letters of Understanding and shipping.

This notice solicits nominations from any interested party for candidate algorithms to be considered for SHA-3, and specifies how to submit a nomination package. It presents the nomination requirements and the minimum acceptability requirements of a ``complete and proper'' candidate algorithm submission. The evaluation criteria that will be used to appraise the candidate algorithms are also described.

Since 1896, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has accomplished its mission by advocating scientifically based consensus codes and standards, research, and education for safety related issues. NFPA's National Fire Codes[supreg], which holds over 270 documents, are administered by more than 225 Technical Committees comprised of approximately 7,000 volunteers and are adopted and used throughout the world. NFPA is a nonprofit membership organization with approximately 80,000 members from over 70 nations, all working together to fulfill the Association's mission. The NFPA process provides ample opportunity for public participation in the development of its codes and standards. All NFPA codes and standards are revised and updated every three to five years in Revision Cycles that begin twice each year and take approximately two years to complete. Each Revision Cycle proceeds according to a published schedule that includes final dates for all major events in the process. The process contains five basic steps that are followed both for developing new documents as well as revising existing documents. These steps are: Calling for Proposals; Publishing the Proposals in the Report on Proposals (ROP); Calling for Comments on the Committee's disposition of the Proposals and these Comments are published in the Report on Comments (ROC); having a Technical Report Session at the NFPA Annual Meeting; and finally, the Standards Council Consideration and Issuance of documents.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will meet Monday, November 12, 2007, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Tuesday, November 13, 2007, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, November 15, 2007, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday, November 16, 2007, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Judges Panel is composed of twelve members prominent in the fields of quality, innovation, and performance excellence and appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The purpose of this meeting is to review the site visit process, review the final judging process and meeting procedures, and final judging of the 2007 applicants. The review process involves examination of records and discussions of applicant data, and will be closed to the public in accordance with Section 552b(c)(4) of Title 5, United States Code.

The Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR or Committee) will meet Tuesday, October 23, 2007, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday, October 24, 2007, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The primary purpose of this meeting is to discuss implementation of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) statutory activities and the Committee's annual report to the NIST Director. 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 Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) will meet Thursday, September 6, 2007, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:15 p.m., and Friday, September 7, 2007, from 8 a.m. until 4:15 p.m. All sessions will be open to the public. The Advisory Board was established by the Computer Security Act of 1987 (Pub. L. 100-235) and amended by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-347) to advise the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of NIST on security and privacy issues pertaining to federal computer systems. Details regarding the Board's activities are available at https://csrc.nist.gov/ispab/.

The Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES), in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Interoperability and Compatibility (DHS/OIC) and representatives of the public safety community, will hold a public roundtable on September 11- 12, 2007, at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder, CO. The purpose of the roundtable is to discuss the development of an implementation profile for VoIP between radio system bridging solutions. The results of this and subsequent roundtable discussions will be used in the development of specific implementation profiles for VoIP usage in public-safety owned systems. There is no charge for the roundtable; however, because of meeting room restrictions, advance registration is mandatory and limited to three representatives from any one organization. There will be no on- site, same-day registration. The registration deadline is September 4, 2007. Please note registration and admittance instructions and other additional information under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites and requests nomination of individuals for appointment to its eight existing Federal Advisory Committees: Advanced Technology Program Advisory Committee, Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board, Manufacturing Extension Partnership National Advisory Board, National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction, and Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology. NIST will consider nominations received in response to this notice for appointment to the Committees, in addition to nominations already received.

The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States Department of Commerce, is amending the regulations found at 15 CFR Part 285 pertaining to the operation of the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) to reflect changes in the information for obtaining and inspecting applicable ISO/IEC documents. This action is editorial in nature and is intended to improve the accuracy of the agency's regulations and communication with its stakeholders.

This notice announces the Draft Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-3, Secure Hash Standard (SHS), for public review and comment. The draft standard, designated ``Draft FIPS 180-3,'' is proposed to supersede FIPS 180-2. FIPS 180-2, Secure Hash Standard (SHS), August 2002, specifies secure hash algorithms (SHA) called SHA- 1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512. These algorithms produce 160, 256, 384, and 512-bit outputs, respectively, which are called message digests. An additional secure hash algorithm, called SHA-224, that produces a 224-bit output, is specified in Change Notice 1 to FIPS 180- 2, which was issued in 2004. Draft FIPS 180-3 specifies five secure hash algorithms: SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512. The proposed standard is available at https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/ drafts.html. Prior to the submission of this proposed standard to the Secretary of Commerce for review and approval, it is essential that consideration be given to the needs and views of the public, users, the information technology industry, and Federal, State, and local government organizations. The purpose of this notice is to solicit such views.

The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States Department of Commerce, and the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), United States Department of Commerce, are amending the rules that implement the Fastener Quality Act of 1999 to provide that all documents submitted in connection with the recordal of fastener insignia must be mailed to a particular postal box maintained by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4) and (11), the Department of Commerce is issuing notice of intent to amend the system of records under COMMERCE/NIST-5, Nuclear Reactor Operator Licensees File to include the name change of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); update internal organizational unit names, contacts, locations; and reflect more current system descriptions.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4) and (11), the Department of Commerce is issuing notice of intent to amend the system of records under COMMERCE/NIST-7, NIST Emergency Locator System to include the name change of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); update internal organizational unit names, contacts, locations; and reflect more current system descriptions.

Due to technical difficulties, NIST is extending the deadline for proposal submission for its Advanced Technology Program competition to 3 p.m. Eastern Time, Friday, May 25, 2007. NIST will accept only paper submissions during the extended time period.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites interested parties to submit recommendations for workshops covering specific sectors and targeted countries or regions of the world where training in the U.S. system of standards development, conformity assessment, and metrology may facilitate trade. Prospective workshops will be scheduled for a one week period. This notice is not an invitation for proposals to fund grants, contracts or cooperative agreements of any kind. NIST will offer a limited number of workshops, based upon the availability of resources. Recommenders are encouraged to consider Administration priorities outlined in the 2006 National Export Strategy. NIST will consider recommendations based upon which workshops would be most useful to intended audiences.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that there will be a meeting of the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on June 6, 2007. The Board of Overseers is composed of eleven members prominent in the fields of quality, innovation, and performance excellence 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 discuss and review information received from the National Institute of Standards and Technology with the members of the Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The agenda will include: Discuss the Award Eligibility Rules; Baldrige Improvement Panel's Recommendations to the Program and the Baldrige Foundation; Oral Feedback for Award Recipients; and Formation of Business School Deans' Council.

The Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES), in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Interoperability and Compatibility (DHS/OIC) and representatives of the public safety community, will hold a public roundtable on May 31, 2007, at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder, CO. The purpose of the roundtable is to discuss the development of an implementation profile for VoIP between radio system bridging solutions. The results of this and subsequent roundtable discussions will be used in the development of specific implementation profiles for VoIP usage in public-safety owned systems. There is no charge for the roundtable; however, because of meeting room restrictions, advance registration is mandatory and limited to three representatives from any one organization. There will be no on- site, same-day registration. The registration deadline is May 25, 2007. Please note registration and admittance instructions and other additional information under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.

The International Code Council (ICC), under whose auspices the International Codes (``I-Codes'') are developed, maintains a process for updating these model codes based on receipt of proposals from interested individuals and organizations. The ICC's 14 separately published codes are each comprehensively updated and re-published every three years with a supplement released between each edition. The most current versions of the I-Codes are the 2006 editions. The 2007 supplement to the 2006 editions, the subject of this notice, will be released in July of 2007. The purpose of this notice is to invite public participation in the Final Action Hearings of the present code development cycle that concludes in the publication of the 2007 supplement to the 2006 edition. Consistent with the procedures of the Governmental Consensus Process, following committee action taken at the Code Development Hearings held in September 2006, the ICC published the result of the hearings and invited and received public comment. At the Final Action Hearings contested proposals will again be publicly debated followed by membership action to approve or reject each scheduled item. The publication of this notice by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on behalf of ICC is being undertaken as a public service. NIST does not necessarily endorse, approve, or recommend any of the codes or standards referenced in the notice. Session Dates: The Final Action Hearings of the 2006/2007 Code Development Cycle will occur between May 21 and May 26, 2007, at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, Rochester, New York. The agenda for the hearing as well as updates to the schedule are also posted on the ICC Web site at: https://www.iccsafe.org.