Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Office 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is amending its regulations by relocating and consolidating certain regulations of its predecessor agenciesthe Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) and Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)that pertain to the responsibilities of boards of directors, corporate practices, and corporate governance matters. The OFHEO regulations addressed corporate governance matters at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises), while the Finance Board regulations addressed the powers and responsibilities of the boards of directors and management of the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks). The final rule consolidates most of those regulations into a new FHFA regulation, parts of which will apply to both the Banks and the Enterprises (together, regulated entities), and parts of which will apply only to the Banks or only to the Enterprises. Most of the content of the new regulations has been derived from the regulations of the predecessor agencies, with such modifications as are necessary to apply the regulations to all of the regulated entities, to respond to issues raised by the commenters, or to clarify the regulatory text. The final rule also amends the Prudential Management and Operations Standards (Prudential Standards) provisions by designating certain introductory languagewhich pertains to the general responsibilities of senior management and boards of directorsas a separate Prudential Standard. The final rule also repeals a provision of the OFHEO regulations that related to minimum safety and soundness requirements for the Enterprises.

In this notice, OSHA grants a permanent variance to Impregilo Healy Parsons Joint Venture from the provisions of OSHA standards that regulate work in compressed-air environments at 29 CFR 1926.803.

This document primarily proposes to amend OSHA regulations to remove the detailed descriptions of State plan coverage, purely historical data, and other unnecessarily codified information. In addition, this document proposes to move most of the general provisions of subpart A of part 1952 into part 1902, where the general regulations on State plan criteria are found. It also proposes to amend several other OSHA regulations to delete references to part 1952, which would no longer apply. The purpose of these proposed revisions is to eliminate the unnecessary codification of material in the Code of Federal Regulations and save the time and funds currently expended in publicizing State plan revisions. The proposed streamlining of OSHA State plan regulations would not change the areas of coverage or any other substantive components of any State plan. It also does not affect the rights and responsibilities of the State plans, or any employers or employees, except to eliminate the burden on State plan designees to keep paper copies of approved State plans and plan supplements in an office, and to submit multiple copies of proposed State plan documents to OSHA. This document also contains a request for comments for an Information Collection Request (ICR) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), which covers all collection of information requirements in OSHA State plan regulations.

In this notice, OSHA announces its final decision to expand the scope of recognition for Curtis-Straus LLC, as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposes to amend its existing exposure limits for occupational exposure in general industry to beryllium and beryllium compounds and promulgate a substance-specific standard for general industry regulating occupational exposure to beryllium and beryllium compounds. This document proposes a new permissible exposure limit (PEL), as well as ancillary provisions for employee protection such as methods for controlling exposure, respiratory protection, medical surveillance, hazard communication, and recordkeeping. In addition, OSHA seeks comment on a number of alternatives, including a lower PEL, that could affect construction and maritime, as well as general industry.

In this notice, OSHA announces the application of Newport News Shipbuilding for a permanent variance from the OSHA shipyard-employment standards that prohibit shipyard employers from permitting workers to ride the hook or the load, from swinging or suspending loads over the heads of workers, and placing employees in a hazardous position between a swinging load and a fixed object while engaged in the construction and assembly of modular ship sections.

In this notice, OSHA announces its final decision to expand the scope of recognition for T[Uuml]V S[Uuml]D America, Inc., as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL).