Department of Transportation April 15, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces May 2, 2016, as the deadline for each airport sponsor to notify the FAA whether or not it will use its fiscal year 2016 entitlement funds available under Section 47114 of Title 49, United States Code, to accomplish Airport Improvement Program (AIP) eligible projects that the airport sponsor previously identified through the Airports Capital Improvement Plan (ACIP) process during the preceding year. The airport sponsor's notification must address all entitlement funds available to date for fiscal year 2016, as well as any entitlement funds not obligated from prior years. After Friday, July 1, 2016, the FAA will carry-over the remainder of currently available entitlement funds, and these funds will not be available again until at least the beginning of fiscal year 2017. Currently, the AIP has 79 percent of the entitlements available through July 15, 2016. If congressional action is taken on future extensions which provide for additional current year and protected entitlements (the remaining 21 percent), the FAA will then work with airport sponsors to adjust accordingly. This notification requirement does not apply to non- primary airports covered by the block-grant program.

NHTSA is announcing a second public meeting to seek input on planned guidelines for the safe deployment and operation of automated vehicles. NHTSA held its first public meeting on this topic on April 8, 2016, in Washington, DC. The intent of the operational guidelines is to encourage innovative and safe deployment of automated vehicle technologies. At this meeting, NHTSA is seeking public input on those aspects of automated vehicle (AV) systems that would benefit from operational guidelines. For example, of high importance to the Agency is information on the roadway scenarios and operational environments highly automated vehicles will need to address and the associated design and evaluation processes and methods needed to ensure that AV systems can detect and appropriately react to these scenarios such that a high level of safety is assured when these systems are deployed on US roadways. Also of interest to the Agency is input on aspects of automated vehicle technology that may not be suitable or ready for guidelines. For these areas, information would be useful on alternative approaches to assure safety.