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

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, June 8, 2006, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Friday, June 9, 2006, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 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/.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet Tuesday, June 13, from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday, June 14, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology is composed of fifteen members appointed by the Director of NIST who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, labor, education, management consulting, environment, and international relations. The purpose of this meeting is to review and make recommendations regarding general policy for the Institute, its organization, its budget, and its programs within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress. The agenda will include updates on NIST's activities, safety, strategic planning, and the NIST U.S. Measurement System project; a presentation on the vision for the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology; a presentation on the NIST reconnaissance of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita; a VCAT Panel on How to Maximize NIST Impact on U.S. Innovation; and selected laboratory tours. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NIST Web site at https://www.nist.gov/director/vcat/agenda.htm.

In accordance with the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) regulations, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is announcing that the NVLAP Chemical Calibration, Providers of Proficiency Testing Program (PPT) will be terminated, effective at the close of business on September 30, 2006. For further information, interested parties may contact Mr. C. Douglas Faison at the address below.

The Department of Commerce (DOC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on the continuing and proposed information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Advanced Technology Program Advisory Committee, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will meet Tuesday, May 9, 2006 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Advanced Technology Program Advisory Committee is composed of ten members appointed by the Director of NIST; who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, education, and management consulting. The purpose of this meeting is to review and make recommendations regarding general policy for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), its organization, its budget, and its programs within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress.

This notice announces the Secretary of Commerce's approval of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 201-1, Standard for Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors. The changes to Section 2.2, PIV Identify Proofing and Registration Requirements, Section 4.3, Cryptographic Specifications, Section 5.2, PIV Identity Proofing and Registration Requirements, and to Section 5.3.1, PIV Card Issuance, clarify the identity proofing and registration process that departments and agencies should follow when issuing identity credentials. These changes are needed to make FIPS 201-1 consistent with the Memorandum for All Departments and Agencies (M-05-24), issued by the Office of Management and Budget on August 5, 2005, Implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors.

This notice announces Draft Federal Information Processing Standard 186-3, Digital Signature Standard, for public review and comment. The draft standard, designated ``Draft FIPS 186-3,'' is proposed to revise and supersede FIPS 186-2. FIPS 186, first published in 1994, specifies a digital signature algorithm (DSA) to generate and verify digital signatures. Later revisions (FIPS 186-1 and FIPS 186-2, adopted in 1998 and 1999, respectively) adopt two additional algorithms specified in American National Standards (ANS) X9.31 (Digital Signatures Using Reversible Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services Industry (rDSA)), and X9.62 (The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA)). The original DSA algorithm, as specified in FIPS 186, 186-1 and 186-2, allows key sizes of 512 to 1024 bits. With advances in technology, it is prudent to consider larger key sizes. Draft FIPS 186- 3 allows the use of 1024, 2048 and 3072-bit keys. Other requirements have also been added concerning the use of ANS X9.31 and ANS X9.62. In addition, the use of the RSA algorithm as specified in Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) 1 (RSA Cryptography Standard) is allowed. Prior to the submission of this proposed standard to the Secretary of Commerce for review and approval, it is essential that consideration is 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 American Petroleum Institute (API), with the assistance of other interested parties, continues to develop standards, both national and international, in several areas. This notice lists the standardization efforts currently being conducted by API committees. The publication of this notice by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on behalf of API is being undertaken as a public service. NIST does not necessarily endorse, approve, or recommend the standards referenced.

The Department of Commerce (DOC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on the continuing and proposed information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is collecting nucleic acid sequences, which have been dedicated to the public domain, in order to form a library of sequences suitable for the preparation of RNA reference materials. These reference materials are intended to act as external RNA controls in gene expression assays. It is expected that there will be commercial products based upon this sequence library. Development of these reference materials is being done in conjunction with the External RNA Control Consortium (ERCC), an ad hoc international consortium of approximately 70 organizations from the public, private, and academic sectors.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet Tuesday, March 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. and Wednesday, March 8, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology is composed of fifteen members appointed by the Director of NIST who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, labor, education, management consulting, environment, and international relations. The purpose of this meeting is to review and make recommendations regarding general policy for the Institute, its organization, its budget, and its programs within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress. The agenda will include an update on NIST's activities; an overview of the strategic planning process in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL), the Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL), and the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory (CSTL); an overview of NIST's health information technology activities; ethics training for VCAT members; a summary of the National Research Council's FY 04-05 assessment of NIST laboratories; and selected laboratory tours. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NIST Web site.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites interested parties to attend a pre-consortium meeting to be held on May 16 and 17, 2006 at the NIST main campus in Gaithersburg, MD. The objective of this two-day meeting is to evaluate industry interest in the fourth phase of the Coatings Service Life Prediction Consortium. The goals of this consortium include the development of measurement methods and mathematical models for ascertaining the service life response of filled coatings containing pigments having a range of photoreactivities exposed in both the laboratory and the field. For this particular phase of research, the filler of interest will be titanium dioxide nanoparticles and pigments dispersed in both a thermoplastic and a thermoset matrix. NIST staff members along with at least one technical representative from each participating member company will conduct consortium research and development. Membership in the Consortium is open to the coatings community, particularly coating manufacturers, raw material suppliers, and equipment manufacturers. The term of the consortium is intended to be four years.

The Interim Meeting of the 91st National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) will be held January 22 through 25, 2006, at the Omni Jacksonville Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. This meeting is open to the public. Detailed meeting agendas and information on registration requirements, fees and hotel information can be found at https:// www.ncwm.net. 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. This meeting brings together government officials and representatives of business, industry, trade associations, and consumer organizations to consider 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 several means it uses to solicit comments and recommendations on revising or updating a variety of publications related to legal metrology and to promote uniformity among the States in laws, regulations, methods, and testing equipment that comprises regulatory control of commercial weighing and measuring devices and practices. Publication of this Notice by the NIST on the NCWM's behalf is being undertaken as a public service; NIST does not necessarily endorse, approve, or recommend any of the proposals contained in the notice.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publishes this notice to announce that it is establishing an accreditation program for laboratories that perform testing of radiation detection instruments. This program will provide for the accreditation of laboratories that test radiation detection instruments using standards developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Homeland Security Instrumentation (HSI) and Radiation Protection Instrumentation (RPI) groups.

The Department of Commerce (DOC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on the continuing and proposed information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet Tuesday, December 13, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:50 p.m. and Wednesday, December 14, 2005 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology is composed of fifteen members appointed by the Director of NIST who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, labor, education, management consulting, environment, and international relations. The purpose of this meeting is to review and make recommendations regarding general policy for the Institute, its organization, its budget, and its programs within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress. The agenda will include an update on NIST's activities, a presentation on NIST's Strategic Planning and Priority-Setting Process, an Overview of the Strategic Planning Process in selected laboratories, a report on a Vision for the NIST U.S. Measurement System Project, a VCAT Panel on Best Practices for Strategic Planning, and three laboratory tours. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NIST Web site.

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 Tuesday, December 6, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Wednesday, December 7, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 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 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) proposes to revise some of its safety codes and standards and requests proposals from the public to amend existing or begin the process of developing new NFPA 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 publication of this notice of request for proposals by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on behalf of NFPA is being undertaken as a public service; NIST does not necessarily endorse, approve, or recommend any of the standards referenced in the notice. 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 that takes 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; Calling for Comments on the Committee's disposition of the proposals and these Comments are published in the Report on Comments; having a Technical Report Session at the NFPA Annual Meeting; and finally, the Standards Council Consideration and Issuance of documents.

The inventions listed below are owned in whole by the U.S. Government, as represented by the Department of Commerce. The inventions are available for licensing in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 and 37 CFR part 404 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results of federally funded research and development.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Advanced Technology Program Advisory Committee, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet Tuesday, November 1, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Advanced Technology Program Advisory Committee is composed of ten members appointed by the Director of NIST; who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, education, and management consulting. The purpose of this meeting is to review and make recommendations regarding general policy for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), its organization, its budget, and its programs within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress. The agenda will include presentations on American Competitiveness and the U.S. Electronics Sector, Nanotechnology, the Current State of Aquaculture and International Economic Challenges. A discussion scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and to end at 4 p.m. on November 1, 2005, on ATP budget issues will be closed. Agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. All visitors to the National Institute of Standards and Technology site will have to pre-register to be admitted. Please submit your name, time of arrival, e-mail address and phone number to Donna Paul no later than Friday, October 28, and she will provide you with instructions for admittance. Ms. Paul's e-mail address is donna.paul@nist.gov and her phone number is 301/975-2162.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces proposed changes to Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 201, Standard for Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors. The changes to Section 2.2, PIV Identify Proofing and Registration Requirements, and to Section 5.3.1, PIV Card Issuance, will clarify the identity proofing and registration process that departments and agencies should follow when issuing identity credentials. These changes are required to make FIPS 201 consistent with the Memorandum for All Departments and Agencies (M-05- 24), issued by the Office of Management and Budget on August 5, 2005, Implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12 Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors. Before recommending these proposed changes to FIPS 201 to the Secretary of Commerce for review and approval, NIST invites comments from the public, users, the information technology industry, and Federal, State and local government organizations concerning the proposed changes.

The National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee (Committee), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet Monday, September 12, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday, September 13, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The primary purpose of this meeting is to review the changes made to the World Trade Center (WTC) Investigation Final Reports in response to comments received from the public. The NCST Advisory Committee will also discuss its annual report to the Congress. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NIST Web site at www.nist.gov/ncst.

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.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet Tuesday, September 13, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology is composed of fifteen members appointed by the Director of NIST; who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, labor, education, management consulting, environment, and international relations. The purpose of this meeting is to review and make recommendations regarding general policy for the Institute, its organization, its budget, and its programs within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress. The agenda will include updates on NIST's activities and the U.S. Measurement System Initiative; presentations on Implementation of NIST Strategic Plan in Homeland Security, including an overview of the Department of Homeland Security's Agenda for Homeland Security and the NIST role; Response to VCAT Recommendations in the FY 2004 Annual Report; and two laboratory tours. Discussions on NIST budget and planning information scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. and to end at 9:45 a.m. on September 13 will be closed. Agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the NIST Web site. All visitors to the National Institute of Standards and Technology site will have to pre-register to be admitted. Please submit your name, time of arrival, e-mail address and phone number to Carolyn Peters no later than Thursday, September 8, and she will provide you with instructions for admittance. Mrs. Peter's e-mail address is carolyn.peters@nist.gov and her phone number is (301) 975- 5607.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the first in a series of planned workshops being held in support of NIST's Software Assurance Metrics and Tool Evaluation (SAMATE) project. NIST is working with industry, academia, and users: To identify deficiencies in software assurance (SA) methods and tools To develop metrics for the effectiveness of SA tools. NIST invites parties interested in these issues to contribute to the specification of such metrics and to the development of reference data sets capable of testing the effectiveness of SA tools. These reference data sets, when used during an SA tool's development, can aid in building a correct implementation with regard to these metrics. The first workshop ``Defining the State of the Art in Software Security Tools'' is being held at NIST Gaithersburg August 10 and 11. Future Workshops will be announced on the Project's Web site https:// samate.nist.gov/ and on other SA forums.