Department of Defense September 12, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act), which further amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990. The 2015 Act updates the process by which agencies adjust applicable civil monetary penalties (CMP) for inflation to retain the deterrent effect of those penalties. The 2015 Act requires that not later than July 1, 2016, and not later than January 15 of every year thereafter, the head of each agency must, by regulation published in the Federal Register, adjust each CMP within its jurisdiction by the inflation adjustment described in the 2015 Act. Accordingly, the Department of Defense must adjust the level of all civil monetary penalties under its jurisdiction through a final rule and make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a previously approved information collection requirement concerning Department of Commerce patent regulations. A notice was published in the Federal Register at 81 FR 24103 on April 25, 2016. No comments were received.