Management and Budget Office – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information collected and disseminated by the Federal Government, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requests comments on the recommendations that it has received from the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) Subcommittee on Standards for Statistical Surveys to update and revise OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 1, Standards for Statistical Surveys, and OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 2, Publication of Statistics. The guidance, which applies to all Federal agencies subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, is intended to ensure that the results of statistical surveys sponsored by the Federal Government are as reliable and useful as possible. The FCSM Subcommittee's recommendations, which are available in their entirety on the OMB Web site at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/statpolicy.html, are the result of a two-year comprehensive review of the current standards.

This document contains technical corrections to the Illustrations in CAS 9904.404, ``Capitalization of Tangible Assets.'' An amendment to this Standard was published on February 13, 1996 (61 FR 5520). However, while the contractor's minimum cost criteria for capitalization was increased from $1,500 to $5,000 in the body of the Standard, this change was not reflected in the Illustrations part of the Standard. This technical correction brings the figures in the relevant Illustrations into line with the $5,000 minimum cost criteria for capitalization currently incorporated in the body of the Standard.

The Office of Management and Budget announces a meeting of the Acquisition Advisory Panel (AAP or ``Panel'') established in accordance with the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is hereby publishing the attached memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies concerning the determination of the maximum ``benchmark'' compensation amount that will be allowable under government contracts during contractors' FY 2005$473,318. This determination is required under Section 39 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Act (41 U.S.C. 435), as amended. The benchmark compensation amount applies equally to both defense and civilian procurement agencies.

The Office of Management and Budget announces two meetings of the Acquisition Advisory Panel (AAP or ``Panel'') established in accordance with the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003.

The Office of Management and Budget requests comments on the draft department and agency implementation guidance on Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12(HSPD-12). The guidance is posted at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/infopoltech.html.

OMB requests comments on 2005 Draft Report to Congress on the Costs and Benefits of Federal Regulation. The full Draft Report is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/regpolreports congress.html, and is divided into three chapters. Chapter I presents estimates of the costs and benefits of Federal regulation and paperwork, with an emphasis on the major regulations issued between October 1, 2003 and September 31, 2004. Chapter II reports the latest results of our ongoing historical examination of the trends in Federal regulatory activity and explores what we know about the validation of ex ante estimates of costs and benefits of Federal regulation by ex post studies. Chapter III includes a discussion of the implementation of the Information Quality Act.

In accordance with the FAIR Act, agency inventories of activities that are not inherently governmental are now available to the public from the agencies listed below. The FAIR Act requires that OMB publish an announcement of public availability of agency inventories of activities that are not inherently governmental upon completion of OMB's review and consultation process concerning the content of the agencies' inventory submissions. After review and consultation with OMB, agencies make their inventories available to the public, and these inventories also include activities that are inherently governmental. This is the third release of the FAIR Act inventories for FY 2004. Interested parties who disagree with the agency's initial judgment can challenge the inclusion or the omission of an activity on the list of activities that are not inherently governmental within 30 working days and, if not satisfied with this review, may demand a higher agency review/appeal. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy has made available a FAIR Act User's Guide through its Internet site: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ omb/procurement/fair-index.html. This User's Guide will help interested parties review FY 2004 FAIR Act inventories, and gain access to agency inventories through agency Web site addresses.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, as amended), notice is hereby given that the Acquisition Advisory Panel established in accordance with the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 will meet on March 30, 2005 and again on April 19, 2005 at 9 a.m., eastern time. Location for the March 30, 2005 meeting will be the General Services Administration (GSA) Auditorium at 1800 F. Street, NW., Washington, DC 20405. While the meeting is open to the public, building security requires you to provide your name to the Designated Federal Officer (DFO) (contact information listed below) by March 28, 2005. You will need photo identification to enter the building. Location for the April 19, 2005 meeting is expected to be the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) basement auditorium, 801 17th Street NW., Washington DC 20434. While this meeting is open to the public, building security requires that you provide your name to the DFO by April 14, 2005. Confirm the location of the April 19th meeting by visiting the Panel's Web site at https://www.acqnet.gov/ aap. Confirmation is expected to be posted by March 21, 2005. The Panel's statutory charter is to review Federal contracting laws, regulations, and governmentwide policies, including the use of commercial practices, performance-based contracting, performance of acquisition functions across agency lines of responsibility, and governmentwide contracts. The Panel established the following five working groups during its February 28, 2005 meeting: Commercial Practices/Commercial Items; Performance-based Contracting; Governmentwide Contracts and Interagency Contract Vehicles; Cross- cutting IssuesSmall Business, and; Cross-cutting IssuesFederal Workforce. The working groups will report on their initial progress during the March 30th, 2005 meeting, which may also include any follow- up recommendations for additional working groups or other issues to be examined. The April 19th meeting will cover any significant updates as well as discussions related to the topics of each of the working groups. The public may obtain copies of Initial Working Group Issues for the Commercial Practices, Governmentwide Contracts and Interagency Contract Vehicles, Performance-based Contracting, and Cross-cutting IssuesFederal Workforce working groups at the Panel's Web site under Working Groups at https://www.acqnet.gov/aap. In addition to discussions related to these working groups, the Panel has also invited presentations from specific individuals in the private sector on commercial practices during the March 30th meeting and individuals from both the public and private sectors during the April 19th meeting. These presentations will focus on a number of issues including, but not limited to commercial practices/techniques for the use of time and materials or labor hour contracts, share-in- savings contracts, best value procurements, use of firm-fixed price contracts or task orders for services, competition for services contracts and task orders, including information technology and business process services, and the development of requirements for services procurements. A draft agenda will be posted at the Panel's Web site at https://www.acqnet.gov/aap prior to each meeting. While these two meetings will include presentations by invitation only, the general public will be given the opportunity to provide oral statements to the Panel at a subsequent meeting to be announced in the Federal Register. The Panel also seeks written public statements of any length specifically related to the working group topics. Although the Panel accepts written comments until the date of the meeting (unless otherwise stated), written comments should be received by the DFO at least five business days prior to the meeting date so that the written comments may be made available to the Panel for their consideration. Written comments should be supplied, electronically if possible, to the DFO at the e-mail address (or for hardcopies, mailing address) noted below. Acceptable electronic formats include Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, Rich Text files in IBM-PC/Windows 98/2000/XP format. Those providing written comments and who attend the meeting are also asked to bring 35 copies of their comments for public distribution.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, as amended), notice is hereby given that the Acquisition Advisory Panel established in accordance with the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 will meet on February 28, 2005 at 9 a.m., eastern time. Location for the meeting will be the Rachel Carson Room in the basement of the Department of Interior, 1849 C Street, NW., Washington, DC 20240. While the meeting is open to the public, building security and limited seating require you to provide your name to the Designated Federal Officer (DFO) (contact information listed below) by Thursday, February 24, 2005. You will need a photo identification to enter the building. The public entrance to the building is the C Street entrance. However, the E Street entrance is reserved for individuals with disabilities requiring an accessible entrance to the building. Please let the DFO know in advance if you will require the accessible entrance. The panel's statutory charter is to review Federal contracting laws, regulations, and government-wide policies, including the use of commercial practices, performance-based contracting, performance of acquisition functions across agency lines of responsibility, and government-wide contracts. Since this meeting will be the first time the panel members discuss substantive procurement- related issues, it is anticipated that a broad range of topics falling under their statutory charter will be discussed. Subgroups or working groups, as referenced in the Panel's Bylaws and operating procedures, may be established to research specific procurement-related areas in order to eventually make a recommendation to the panel. A draft agenda will be available from the DFO, upon request, in advance of the meeting.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, as amended (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that an information collection extension request was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for processing under 5 CFR 1320.10. The first notice of this information collection extension was published in the Federal Register as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, on October 29, 2004 [69 FR 63186] and invitee the general public and Federal agencies to comment on the extension without change of standard form, SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance. This form is currently required by OMB Circular A-102, ``Grants and Cooperative Agreements with State and Local Governments,'' and Title 2 Code of Federal Regulations Part 215 (OMB Circular A-110, ``Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations.'' The form will continue to be used while the E-GOV Grants.gov interagency team completes their analysis of public comments received in response to an April 8, 2003, Federal Register notice [68 FR 17090] and finalizes the government-wide data standard.

The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP), a streamlining initiative of ten Federal awarding offices and 92 academic and nonprofit research institutions, developed a core set of FDP terms and conditions that it has been using for several years for the implementation of 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). The OSTP and OFFM request comment on making the FDP terms and conditions a government-wide standard, and broadening their use to all academic and nonprofit grantees, under Federal research and research- related programs. The proposed policy directive also instructs Federal agencies to minimize the degree to which they supplement the core set with agency- specific, program-specific, or award-specific terms and conditions. The directive should therefore result in the near term in the use of more uniform terms and conditions for Federal research and research-related grants. In parallel with the establishment of this standard for research and research-related grants, an interagency group helping to implement the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-107) will continue working toward the longer- term objective of standard award format and content for all Federal grants and cooperative agreements, including government-wide standard terms and conditions.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, as amended), notice is hereby given that the Acquisition Advisory Panel established in accordance with the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 will meet on February 9, 2005 at 9 a.m., eastern time. Location for the meeting will be the Truman Room of the White House Conference Center, 726 Jackson Place, NW., Washington, DC 20503. The meeting is open to the public and written statements may be filed with the panel. Due to limited availability of seating, members of the public will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. This is the first meeting of the panel, and will be organizational in nature. Discussion of substantive procurement-related topics is not anticipated.

On December 16, 2004, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), issued its Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review to the heads of departments and agencies (available at https:// www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy2005/m05-03.html). This new guidance is designed to realize the benefits of meaningful peer review of the most important science disseminated by the Federal Government. It is part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information disseminated by the Federal Government to the public. This final bulletin has benefited from an extensive stakeholder process. OMB originally requested comment on its ``Proposed Bulletin on Peer Review and Information Quality,'' published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2003. OMB received 187 public comments during the comment period (available at https:// www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/2003iq/iqlist.html). In addition, to improve the draft Bulletin, OMB encouraged federal agencies to sponsor a public workshop at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The NAS workshop (November 18, 2003, at the National Academies in Washington, DC) attracted several hundred participants, including leaders in the scientific community (available at https://www7.nationalacademies.org/ stl/STLPeerReviewAgenda.html). OMB also participated in outreach activities with major scientific organizations and societies that had expressed specific interest in the draft Bulletin. A formal interagency review of the draft Bulletin, resulting in detailed comments from numerous Federal departments and agencies, was undertaken in collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In light of the substantial interest in the Bulletin, including a wide range of constructive criticisms of the initial draft, OMB decided to issue a revised draft for further comment. This revised draft was published in the Federal Register on April 28, 2004, and solicited a second round of public comment. The revised draft stimulated a much smaller number of comments (57) (available at: http:/ /www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/peer2004/listpeer2004.html). OMB's response to the additional criticisms, suggestions, and refinements offered for consideration is available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ omb/inforeg/peer2004/peerresponse.pdf. The final Bulletin includes refinements that strike a balance among the diverse perspectives expressed during the comment period. Part I of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below provides background. Part II provides the text of the final Bulletin.