Department of the Interior March 11, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service or we) is issuing this final rule, in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Inflation Adjustment Act) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance, to adjust for inflation the statutory civil monetary penalties that may be assessed for violations of Service-administered statutes and their implementing regulations. We are required to adjust civil monetary penalties annually for inflation according to a formula specified in the Inflation Adjustment Act. This rule replaces the previously issued amounts with the updated amounts after using the 2022 inflation adjustment multiplier provided in the OMB guidance.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is extending the public comment periods for three notices, due to temporary website outages that affected the public's access to the documents that the notices are making available for comment. The notices pertained to a combined candidate conservation agreement (CCA)\ candidate conservation agreements with assurances (CCAA) amendment, an oil and gas habitat conservation plan (HCP), and a new CCAA. The affected species include the lesser prairie- chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), the dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus), and the Texas kangaroo rat (Dipodomys elator).

The Nevada State Museum, Carson City has completed an inventory of human remains, in consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes, and has determined that there is no cultural affiliation between the human remains and any present-day Indian Tribes. Representatives of any Indian Tribe not identified in this notice that wish to request transfer of control of these human remains should submit a written request to the Nevada State Museum, Carson City. If no additional requestors come forward, transfer of control of the human remains to the Indian Tribes stated in this notice may proceed.