Department of Transportation December 14, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FRA, on behalf of the Authority, is issuing this notice to announce actions taken by the Authority that are final. By this notice, the FRA is advising the public of the time limit to file a claim seeking judicial review of the actions. The actions relate to a proposed railroad project, the California High-Speed Rail Project Merced to Fresno Project Section: Central Valley Wye in Merced, Madera, Fresno, and Stanislaus Counties, California. The Merced to Fresno Project Section: Central Valley Wye provides an approximately 51-mile portion of the larger 800-mile California High-Speed Rail (HSR) system planned throughout California. These actions grant approvals for project implementation pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other laws, regulations, and executive orders.

This action amends the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Coffey County Airport, Burlington, KS. This action is the result of an airspace review caused by the decommissioning of the Boyd non-directional beacon (NDB) which provided navigation information to the instrument procedures at this airport.

The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a new information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We published a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information collection on September 28, 2020. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

This notice announces a meeting of the Women in Aviation Advisory Board (WIAAB).

This action amends Class D airspace, and removes Class E airspace designated as an extension to a Class D surface area for Homestead Air Reserve Base (ARB), Homestead, FL. This action also updates the geographic coordinates of the airport. Controlled airspace is necessary for the safety and management of instrument flight rules (IFR) operations in the area.

This action amends VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal airways V-141, and V-542, and revokes airways V-151 and V-496, due to the planned decommissioning of the Lebanon, NH, VOR/DME navigation aid which provides navigation guidance for segments of the routes. The Lebanon VOR/DME is planned for decommissioning as part of the FAA's VOR Minimum Operational Network (VOR MON) program.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Technify Motors GmbH TAE 125-02-99 and TAE 125-02-114 model reciprocating engines. This AD was prompted by a report of a defective turbocharger hose discovered on an airplane during a pre-flight inspection. This AD requires the removal and replacement of the affected turbocharger hose. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 97- 06-10, which applies to certain Raytheon Aircraft Company (type certificate now held by Textron Aviation Inc. (Textron)) Model 76 airplanes. AD 97-06-10 requires repetitively inspecting the main landing gear (MLG) ``A'' frame assemblies for cracks and replacing any cracked assembly. Since the FAA issued AD 97-06-10, the replacement parts have also experienced failure due to cracking. This proposed AD would require magnetic particle inspections of the MLG ``A'' frame assemblies for cracks and replacement of the affected parts if necessary. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

FMCSA proposes to eliminate the requirement that drivers operating commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce prepare and submit a list of their convictions for traffic violations to their employers annually. This requirement is largely duplicative of a separate provision that requires each motor carrier to make an annual inquiry to obtain the motor vehicle record (MVR) for each driver it employs from every State in which the driver holds or has held a CMV operator's license or permit in the past year. To ensure motor carriers are aware of traffic violations for a driver who is licensed by a foreign authority rather than by a State, that provision would be amended to provide that motor carriers must make an annual inquiry to each driver's licensing authority where a driver holds or has held a CMV operator's license or permit. This change would require motor carriers to request the MVR equivalent from Canadian and Mexican driver's licensing authorities. FMCSA expects that removing the requirement for drivers to provide a list of their convictions for traffic violations to their employers annually would reduce the paperwork burden on drivers and motor carriers without adversely affecting CMV safety.

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) is amending the small business size limit under its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, also known as the gross receipts cap, to ensure that small businesses may continue to participate in the Department's DBE program after taking inflation into account. This final rule provides an inflation adjustment to the size limit on small businesses participating in the DBE program and implements a statutory change to the size standard pursuant to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Authorization Act of 2018.