Surface Transportation Board June 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On July 11, 2013, the Board issued a notice of proposed size standards for purposes of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, along with a request for public comment. This decision discusses the comment received in response to the proposed size standards and adopts the proposed standard as the final statement of agency policy concerning the definition of ``small business.''

Pursuant to section 11 of the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015, the Surface Transportation Board (Board or STB) is instituting a proceeding through this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to assess procedures that are available to parties in litigation before courts to expedite such litigation, and the potential application of any such procedures to rate cases before the Board. The Board also intends to assess additional ways to move stand-alone cost (SAC) rate cases in particular more expeditiously.

The Spring 2016 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Publication of the Spring 2016 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions represents a key component of the regulatory planning mechanism prescribed in Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review'' (58 FR 51735) and incorporated by reference in the President's Executive Order 13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' issued on January 18, 2011 (76 FR 3821). The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires that agencies publish semiannual regulatory agendas in the Federal Register describing regulatory actions they are developing that may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities (5 U.S.C. 602). In the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda) agencies report regulatory actions upcoming in the next year. Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' signed September 30, 1993 (58 FR 51735), and Office of Management and Budget memoranda implementing section 4 of that Order establish minimum standards for agencies' agendas, including specific types of information for each entry. The Unified Agenda helps agencies fulfill these requirements. All Federal regulatory agencies have chosen to publish their regulatory agendas as part of the Unified Agenda. The complete Unified Agenda for spring 2016, which contains the regulatory agendas for 57 Federal agencies, is available to the public at https://reginfo.gov. The spring 2016 Unified Agenda publication appearing in the Federal Register consists of agency regulatory flexibility agendas, in accordance with the publication requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Agency regulatory flexibility agendas contain only those Agenda entries for rules that are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities and entries that have been selected for periodic review under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.