Executive Office of the President January 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given of the determination, under Section 127(f) of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (the Act), to waive the requirements of Section 127(a) and (d) of the Act. Notice is also given that the Associated Decision Memorandum and an interagency technical analysis report are available on the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Web site at https://www.ostp.gov/KI. Section 127(a) of the Act directed the President to establish a Potassium Iodide (KI) distribution program, under which State and local governments could receive KI tablets for distribution to the population in the 20 mile radius surrounding nuclear power plants (NPPs). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) already has such a program for the 10 mile emergency planning zones surrounding NPPs, so Section 127(a) effectively extended that program to the 10-20 mile range. Through Section 127(f), Congress authorized the President to waive this distribution requirement if there exists ``an alternative and more effective prophylaxis or preventive measures for adverse thyroid conditions that may result from the release of radionuclides from nuclear power plants.'' On July 3, 2007, the President delegated the Section 127(f) waiver authority to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. On July 30, 2007, to help inform his decision, the OSTP Director requested the Federal Radiological Policy Coordinating Committee (FRPCC) to provide a technical evaluation of the issues surrounding Section 127. The FRPCC is an interagency organization, with membership from 17 Federal agencies, established to coordinate Federal responsibilities for assisting State and local governments in emergency planning and preparedness for peacetime nuclear emergencies. The FRPCC transmitted its final technical evaluation paper to the OSTP Director on October 23, 2007. On January 22, 2008, the OSTP Director executed his final decision pursuant to the Section 127(f) delegation. The complete Decision Memorandum, as well as the FRPCC technical information paper, is available on the OSTP Web site at https://www.ostp.gov/KI. The OSTP Director's determination waived Section 127(f) because a more effective preventive measure does exist for the extended zone covered by the Act, namely avoidance of exposure altogether through evacuation of the potentially affected population and interdiction of contaminated food. Analysis of radiological release events that could lead to adverse thyroid conditions beyond the current 10 mile zone shows that limiting or avoiding exposure to radiation through these mechanisms is practical and much more effective than the administration of KI in the proposed extended zone.

The Office of Management and Budget revised Circular A-94 in 1992. The revised Circular specified certain discount rates to be updated annually when the interest rate and inflation assumptions used to prepare the budget of the United States government were changed. These discount rates are found in Appendix C of the revised Circular. The updated discount rates are shown below. The discount rates in Appendix C are to be used for cost-effectiveness analysis, including lease-purchase analysis, as specified in the revised Circular. They do not apply to regulatory analysis.

Effective with publication of this Notice in the Federal Register, research agencies will be able to utilize a new standard core set of administrative terms and conditions on research and research- related awards that are subject to OMB Circular A-110, ``Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations'' (2 CFR part 215). This resulted from an initiative of the Research Business Models (RBM) Subcommittee of the Committee on Science (CoS), a committee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). One of the RBM Subcommittee's priority areas is to create greater consistency in the administration of Federal research awards. Given the increasing complexity of interdisciplinary and interagency research, it has become increasingly important for Federal agencies to manage awards in a similar fashion. In 2000, the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP), a cooperative initiative among 10 Federal agencies and 98 institutional recipients of research funds, developed Standard Terms and Conditions as a model implementation of OMB Circular A-110. It was demonstrated that these terms were an effective set of requirements for many agency research awards. In 2005, following public and agency comment on the original FDP terms, final standard terms and conditions were developed by RBM. With this final notice, research agencies and awarding offices that participate in the FDP, must use the core set of administrative requirements, to the maximum practicable extent, in research and research-related grant awards to organizations that are subject to 2 CFR part 215. Likewise, agencies that have not participated in the FDP may elect to use these terms on selective awards to their research recipients. The Government-wide core set of administrative requirements are posted on the NSF Web site at: https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/rtc/ index.jsp. As changes are made in the future, NSF will maintain both the current version and an archive of earlier versions. Research agencies will post their plans for implementing the administrative requirements either on the RBM subcommittee Web site, https:// rbm.nih.gov, or on their own Web site, in which case the RBM subcommittee will provide a link from its site to the agency's location.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted a request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency clearance and review for emergency clearance collection for the Defined Benefits Technology Solution (DBTS) in support of the Retirement Systems Modernization (RSM) project at OPM. Approval of the DBTS is necessary to ensure timely administration of retirement benefits to both active and retired federal employees and their dependents. This also serves as the 60 Day Notice for full clearance review. Approximately 23,000 active federal employees will gain access to the DBTS starting in February 2008 and will have access to the tool; The subset of annuitants and other members of the public from this initial user group that will be using the tool starting in February can not be determined at the time of this submission however the audience will likely be significantly smaller than the active population. We estimate it will take approximately 20 minutes to complete most of the information collections associated with the DBTS. The majority of information collections for the DBTS are done via the internet using the Your Benefits Resources (YBR) Web site. The annual estimated burden is 2,733 hours. Comments are particularly invited on: Whether this information is necessary for the proper performance of functions on the Office of Personnel Management, and whether it will have practical utility; Whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and methodology; and Ways in which we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey, OPM PRA and Forms Officer, at (202) 606-8358, Fax (202) 418-3251 or via e- mail to MaryBeth.Smith-Toomey@opm.gov. Please include your complete mailing address with your request.

This action proposes the collection of drug control information from State Educational Agencies regarding State and local support for the Student Drug Testing Programs.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) received one petition in September 2007 to review certain practices in a beneficiary developing country to determine whether such country is in compliance with the ATPA eligibility criteria. This notice specifies the results of the review of that petition as well as the status of the petitions filed in prior years that have remained under review.