General Services Administration October 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The General Services Administration (GSA) is amending the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) by implementing recommendations contained in the September 2007, Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, ``Premium Class Travel: Internal Control Weaknesses Governmentwide Led to Improper and Abusive Use of Premium Class Travel'' (GAO-07-1268). This final rule strengthens the management and accountability measures related to the use of premium class transportation accommodations by Federal employees while on official business travel.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is amending the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to update Part 532, Contract Financing, of the regulation. This project is part of the GSAM rewrite Project, in which all parts of the regulation are being reviewed and updated to include new statutes, legislation, and policies.

This notice announces that GSA is posting online a proposed FTR bulletin on collection of relocation data, concurrent with a proposed rule. The proposed FTR Bulletin 10-XX provides the proposed data dictionary for both of these data collection processes. Proposed FTR Bulletin 10-XX may be viewed on GSA's Web site, at https:// www.gsa.gov/relopolicy, and the proposed rule appears elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. By this Notice, GSA is seeking comment on the proposed bulletin. Among the questions for which GSA is seeking comment are:

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the General Services Administration will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a revision to the reinstatement of a previously approved information collection requirement regarding GSA Forms 1364/ 1364A, Proposal to Lease Space (Not Required by Regulation). This form is used to obtain information about property being offered for lease to house Federal agencies. In the past, GSA also used a 1364A which requested information regarding how tenant improvements were financed by a prospective lessor. The new version of form combines the former 1364 and 1364A, and it also collects other financial aspects contained in an offer for analysis and negotiation into lease contracts (e.g., real estate taxes, adjustments for vacant space, offerors' design and construction fees).

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the General Services Administration will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a reinstatement of a previously approved information collection requirement regarding industrial funding fee and sales reporting.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension and revision of a previously approved information collection requirement concerning small business procurement credit programs. A request for public comments was published in the Federal Register at 74 FR 27800 on June 11, 2009. No comments were received.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement section 866 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 which applies to Executive Agencies other than DoD. The DoD is subject to section 852 of the John Warner NDAA for FY 2007 which is also being implemented in this interim rule. Section 866 requires the Councils to amend the FAR and section 852 requires the Secretary of Defense to prescribe regulations to minimize excessive pass-through charges by contractors from subcontractors, or of tiers of subcontractors, that add no or negligible value, and to ensure that neither a contractor nor a subcontractor receives indirect costs or profit/fee (i.e., pass-through charges) on work performed by a lower- tier subcontractor to which the higher-tier contractor or subcontractor

This document makes amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation in order to make editorial changes.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement section 814 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, section 867 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy guidance memorandum dated December 4, 2007, entitled Appropriate Use of Incentive Contracts.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have adopted as final, without change, an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement section 871 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (NDAA) which allows the Government Accountability Office to interview current contractor employees during the audit of the contractor's records.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Section 697, Registry of Disaster Response Contractors (Pub. L. 109-295), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act, 2007 (6 U.S.C. 796). The Act requires that the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of DHS, establish and maintain a registry of contractors, which are willing to perform debris removal, distribution of supplies, reconstruction, and other disaster or emergency relief activities. In addition, the Act requires contracting officers to consult the Registry during market research and acquisition planning.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), this document announces that GSA is planning to submit a request to replace an emergency Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Before submitting this ICR to OMB for review and approval, GSA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the General Services Administration will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a reinstatement of a previously approved information collection requirement regarding Environmental Conservation, Occupational Safety, and Drug-Free Workplace. A request for public comments was published at 74 FR 11889, March 20, 2009. No comments were received.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. The Councils have agreed to delay the public comment due date. The comment period is being extended to provide additional time for interested parties to review the proposed FAR changes of FAR Case 2008- 027, Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, to November 5, 2009.