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

In accordance with Section 103(b)(6) of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (ACRA; Pub. L. 111-358), this Request for Information (RFI) offers the opportunity for interested individuals and organizations to provide recommendations on approaches for ensuring long-term stewardship and broad public access to the peer-reviewed scholarly publications that result from federally funded scientific research. The public input provided through this Notice will inform deliberations of the National Science and Technology Council's Task Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications. Release Date: November 3, 2011. Response Date: January 2, 2012.

The Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has issued instructions to Federal agencies for integrating sustainable facility location decision-making principles into agency policies and practices, as required under Executive Order 13514 (``E.O. 13514''), ``Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance,'' signed by President Obama on October 5, 2009. 74 FR 52117, Oct. 8, 2009. The purpose of the Executive Order is to establish an integrated strategy toward sustainability in the Federal Government including, efforts to operate high performance sustainable buildings in sustainable locations, and strengthen the vitality and livability of the communities for Federal agencies. Section 2(f) of the E.O. 13514 directs agencies to ``advance regional and local integrated planning by * * * participating in regional transportation planning and recognizing existing community transportation infrastructure; * * * ensuring that planning for new Federal facilities or new leases includes consideration of sites that are pedestrian friendly, near existing employment centers, and accessible to public transit, and emphasizes existing central cities and, in rural communities, existing or planned town centers.'' Section 5(b) of E.O. 13514 directs the Chair of CEQ to issue instructions to implement the Executive Order. The Instructions for Implementing Sustainable Locations for Federal Facilities are now available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/ sustainability/sustainable-locations.

In September 2010, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) accepted petitions in connection with the 2010 GSP Annual Review to modify the GSP status of certain GSP beneficiary developing countries because of country practices. In November 2010, USTR accepted petitions requesting waivers of GSP competitive need limitations (CNLs). On January 1, 2011, authorization of the GSP program lapsed. Following the recent reauthorization of the GSP program, the GSP Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) announces that it has accepted for review a country practices petition submitted for the 2010 GSP Annual Review regarding the Republic of Georgia. This notice sets forth the schedule for submitting comments and conducting the public hearing on the newly accepted petition, requesting to participate in the hearing, and submitting pre- hearing and post-hearing briefs. The deadline for submitting pre- hearing comments and requesting participation in the hearing is 5 p.m., January 10, 2012. The petition can be found in docket USTR-2010-0017 at https://www.regulations.gov. This notice also announces that in view of the lapse in authorization of the GSP program through much of 2011, there will be no actions taken in 2011 with respect to CNLs, including no CNL-related removals of products from GSP eligibility and no redesignations of products currently subject to CNLs. Petitions previously accepted that requested waivers of CNL-related exclusions based on 2010 trade data are hereby dismissed.