Executive Office of the President August 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board, is providing public notification of the decision to discontinue the rulemaking in the review of the CAS 403 thresholds at 48 CFR 9904.403-40(c)(2) that require use of the three factor formula described at 48 CFR 9904.403-50(c)(1) for allocating residual home office expenses.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) intends to submit the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget for review and approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is a system for classifying establishments (individual business locations) by type of economic activity. Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estad[iacute]stica y Geograf[iacute]a (INEGI), Statistics Canada, and the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB), through its Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC), collaborate on NAICS to make the industry statistics produced by the three countries comparable. Under 31 U.S.C. 1104(d) and 44 U.S.C. 3504(e), the Office of Management and Budget is announcing its final decisions for adoption of NAICS revisions for 2012 as recommended by the Economic Classification Policy Committee in OMB's notice for solicitation of comments published in Part IV of the May 12, 2010, Federal Register (75 FR 26856-26869). In the May 12, 2010, notice, OMB's ECPC recommended classification guidance for distribution centers, logistics service providers, sales offices of publishers, and units that outsource physical transformation activities. The ECPC also provided a list of recommended changes to the utilities, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, and food services and accommodations sectors of NAICS United States for 2012. In response to public comments received on the recommendations, the ECPC withdrew the proposal to split the semiconductor industry into two new industries and OMB is modifying two additional ECPC recommendations to better align with the public comments. More details on these decisions are presented in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act Implementation Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (the ``Subcommittee'') is requesting written public comments for the interim review of the eligibility of Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, and Niger to receive the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The Subcommittee will consider these comments in developing recommendations on AGOA country eligibility for the President. Comments received related to the child labor criteria may also be considered by the Secretary of Labor for the preparation of the Department of Labor's report on child labor as required under section 412(c) of the Trade and Development Act of 2000. This notice identifies the eligibility criteria that must be considered under the AGOA. Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, and Niger are currently ineligible for AGOA benefits.

Pursuant to section 181 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2241), the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is required to publish annually the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). With this notice, the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is requesting interested persons to submit comments to assist it in identifying significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods, services, and U.S. foreign direct investment for inclusion in the NTE. Once again, the TPSC is requesting that comments on standards- related measures and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that create barriers to U.S. exports be submitted separately from other NTE comments. This will assist USTR in updating two reports issued in 2011 in conjunction with the release of the NTE highlighting SPS and standards-related measures that may be inconsistent with international trade agreements to which the United States is a party or that otherwise act as significant barriers to U.S. exports. These reports were published as the 2011 Report on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (2011 SPS Report) and the 2011 Report on Technical Barriers to Trade (2011 TBT Report) respectively. The TPSC invites written comments from the public on issues that USTR should examine in preparing the NTE and the reports on SPS and standards-related measures.

The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy has appointed Patrick M. Ward, Robert Denniston, Michele Marx, and Jeffrey Teitz as members of the ONDCP SES Performance Review Board (PRB).

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board, is publishing a final rule to eliminate the exemption from regulations regarding Cost Accounting Standards for contracts executed and performed entirely outside the United States, its territories, and possessions.

The Federal Government is currently undertaking a significant effort to eliminate counterfeit products from the U.S. Government supply chain. In June 2010, Vice President Biden and White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel, announced the Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement, laying out a coordinated government-wide approach to strengthening intellectual property enforcement and directing the establishment of an inter-agency working group. Recent reports issued by the Department of Commerce and the Government Accountability Office have found that counterfeits have infiltrated many sectors of the U.S. Government supply chain and have the potential to cause serious disruptions in national defense, critical infrastructure and other vital applications. This working group will develop a framework for reducing vulnerability to counterfeits that is flexible enough to accommodate the wide variety of missions across Federal agencies. This cross-functional working group will identify any gaps in legal authority, regulation, policy and guidance that undermine the security of U.S. Government supply chain from counterfeit parts. The working group's examination will include reviewing current industry standards, the ability of prime contractors and their suppliers to authenticate or trace at-risk items to the original manufacturer, government evaluation and detection capabilities and limitations, and contractual enforcement of authenticity.