Office of the Secretary October 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

In accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, this notice announces a meeting of the Department of Defense Historical Advisory Committee. The committee will discuss the report and recommendations of the Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History. The meeting will be open to the public.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

This Notice is published in accordance with Section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463). A meeting of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERPD), Scientific Advisory Board will be held on October 28-30, 2008. The topic of the meeting is to review new start and continuing research and development projects requesting Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program funds in excess of $1M. This meeting is open to the public. Any interested person may attend, appear before, or file statements with the Scientific Advisory Board at the time and in the manner permitted by the Board.

The Department of the Interior (Department) is amending its regulations by adding a new part to codify its procedures for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which are currently located in chapters 1-6 of Part 516 of the Departmental Manual (DM). This rule contains Departmental policies and procedures for compliance with NEPA, Executive Order (E.O.) 11514, E.O. 13352 and the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508). Department officials will use this rule in conjunction with and supplementary to these authorities. The Department believes that codifying the procedures in regulations that are consistent with NEPA and the CEQ regulations will provide greater visibility to that which was previously contained in the DM and enhance cooperative conservation by highlighting opportunities for public engagement and input in the NEPA process. The Department will continue to maintain Department's information and explanatory guidance pertaining to NEPA in the DM and Environmental Statement Memoranda (ESM) to assist bureaus in complying with NEPA. Bureau-specific NEPA procedures remain in 516 DM Chapters 8-15 and bureau guidance in explanatory and informational directives. Maintaining explanatory information in the Department's DM chapters and ESM, and bureau-specific explanatory and informational directives will facilitate timely responses to new ideas, new information, procedural interpretations, training needs, and editorial changes to assist field offices when implementing the NEPA process.

This notice announces the appointment of the members of the Performance Review Board (PRB) of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, to include the Joint Staff, the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Defense Field Activities, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces and the following Defense Agencies: Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, Defense Contract Management Agency, Defense Commissary Agency, Defense Security Service, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Defense Business Transformation Agency, Defense Legal Services Agency, and Pentagon Force Protection Agency. The publication of PRB membership is required by 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4). The Performance Review Board (PRB) provides fair and impartial review of Senior Executive and Senior Professional performance appraisals and makes recommendations regarding performance ratings and performance awards to the Secretary of Defense.

In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Acquisition and Property Management announces the proposed extension of a public information collection and seeks public comments on the provisions thereof.

This part provides policies and procedures for the Defense Contract Management Agency's (DCMA) implementation of a Privacy Program under the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended.

This part contains uniform Department of Defense policies for indebtedness of military personnel. This updated rule contains editorial changes only as required for internal Department of Defense mandated reconsideration every five years.

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) and the Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in the following case: Kirk Sperber, M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine: Based on the report of an investigation conducted by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) and additional analysis conducted by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) in its oversight review, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) found that Dr. Kirk Sperber, former Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology, MSSM, engaged in scientific misconduct while supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), grants R01 AI45343 and P01 AI44236, and National Cancer Institute, NIH, grant R29 CA256990. PHS finds the Respondent engaged in scientific misconduct by falsifying and fabricating data that were included in NIAID, NIH, grant applications R01 AI45343-01A1, R01 AI45343-04A2, and P01 AI44236-05. Respondent's scientific misconduct occurred while he was a faculty member at MSSM. Respondent is no longer employed at MSSM. Specifically, PHS found that Respondent engaged in scientific misconduct by falsifying and fabricating data in the following publications: 1. In multiple figures reported in Sperber, K., Beuria, P., Singha, N., Gelman, I., Cortes, P., Chen, H., & Kraus, T. ``Induction of apoptosis by HIV-1-infected monocytic cells.'' Journal of Immunology 170:1566-1578, 2003 (``2003 J. Immunol. paper'') (Retracted in December 2005); by duplicating and reusing panels of FACS data in Figures 1A, 2, 4A, 4B, and 7; by duplicating and reusing lanes of polyacrylamide gels in Figure 3, of Western blot analyses in Figures 5A, 5C, 6C, and 9, and of agarose gels in PCR analyses in Figure 5B; and by duplicating and reusing laser confocal micrographs in Figures 10 and 11. Respondent's claims that Figures 1A, 2, 4A, and 7 were representative of experiments repeated five times and that Figures 3, 4B, 5A, 6C, and 9 were representative of experiments repeated three times constitute additional falsifications. The effect of these misrepresentations was to falsely demonstrate the proapoptotic activity of a protein from a novel cDNA clone isolated from an HIV-infected human macrophage cell line and to falsify its presence in brain and lymphoid tissue from patients with HIV-associated dementia. 2. In Figure 10 reported in Rakoff-Nahoum, S., Chen, H., Kraus, T., George, I., Oei, E., Tyorlin, M., Salik, E., Beuria, P., & Sperber, K. ``Regulation of Class II Expression in Monocytic Cells after HIV-1 Infection.'' J. Immunol. 167:2331-2342, 2001 (Retracted in November 2006), by duplicating and reusing four confocal micrographs to misrepresent different panels for the Cath D, 43pol and CD-63, 43neve data; for the Cath D, 43gag and Cath D, 43nef data; for the DAMP, 43 nef and M6PR, 43nef data; and for the M6PR, 43gag and the CD-63, 43gag data. Respondent's reported claim that the results were representative of an experiment repeated five times constitutes an additional falsification. 3. In Figures 3B, 4B, and 6B reporting flow cytometry analyses (FACS) in Chen, H., Yip, Y.K., George, I., Tyorkin, M., Salik, E., & Sperber, K. ``Chronically HIV-1-Infected Monocytic Cells Induce Apoptosis in Cocultured T Cells.'' J. Immunol. 161:4257-4267, 1998 (Retracted in November 2006); by reusing two FACS histograms, each to represent 2 different experiments in Figure 3B; by reusing the same FACS histogram as the negative control for CD-4 cells and for the CD-8 cells in Figure 4B; and by duplications of the top two panels, the middle two panels, and the bottom two panels of data as graded dilutions of different fractions in Figure 6B to falsely show that a soluble factor from 43HIV cells induced apoptosis. Figure 6B was also presented in grant application AI45343-01A1 as Figure 5B. Respondent's reported claims that the results in Figures 3B, 4B, and 6B were each representative of experiments that were repeated three times constitute additional falsifications. PHS also finds that Respondent engaged in scientific misconduct by falsifying and fabricating the following data in NIAID, NIH, research applications R01 AI45343-04A2 and P01 AI44236-05: 4. The results of Figures 1, 6C, 7, 9, 10 and 11 from the 2003 J. Immunology paper were reported in NIAID, NIH, grant application R01 AI45343-04A2; nearly all of the figures in the paper were falsified, so that the claims in the grant application derived from those figures were also false. 5. Two figures in NIAID, NIH, grant application P01 AI44236-05 contained falsified data: In Figure 1b, panels of confocal microscopy images of intestinal biopsies from four patients were falsified by duplication; and in Figure 3, one panel of PCR data was duplicated and similarly misrepresented as data from the same four biopsy specimens. Dr. Sperber has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement in which he neither admitted or denied HHS' findings of scientific misconduct. However, he recognized that if this matter were to proceed to an administrative hearing, there is sufficient evidence upon which an Administrative Law Judge could make findings of scientific misconduct against him. Dr. Sperber agreed not to contest or appeal the jurisdiction of the PHS or HHS findings of scientific misconduct as set forth above and in the MSSM Report. Dr. Sperber has voluntarily agreed, for a period of four (4) years, beginning on September 12, 2008: (1) To exclude himself from any contracting or subcontracting with any agency of the United States Government and from eligibility or involvement in nonprocurement programs of the United States pursuant to HHS' Implementation (2 CFR Part 376 et seq.) of OMB Guidelines to Agencies on Government wide Debarment and Suspension (2 C.F.R., Part 180); and (2) To exclude himself from serving in any advisory capacity to PHS, including but not limited to service on any PHS advisory committee, board, and/or peer review committee, or as a consultant or contractor to PHS.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of Homeland Security is giving notice that it will remove five system of records notices from its inventory of record systems because the United States Coast Guard no longer requires the systems. The five obsolete systems are: DOT/CG 503 Motorboat Registration, April 11, 2000, DOT/CG 509 Non-Judicial Punishment Record, April 11, 2000, DOT/CG 526 Adjudication and Settlement of Claims System, April 11, 2000, DOT/CG 633 Coast Guard Civilian Personnel Security Program, April 11, 2000, and DOT/CG 676 Official Coast Guard Reserve Service Record, April 11, 2000.

This Notice implements Title II of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 concerning the annual obligation of Federal agencies to notify all employees, former employees, and applicants for Federal employment of the rights and protections available to them under the Federal Antidiscrimination Laws and Whistleblower Protection Laws.

The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing this notice pursuant to section 564(b)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), 21 U.S.C. 360bbb-3(b)(4), to justify the emergency use of doxycycline hyclate tablets accompanied by emergency use information, contained in emergency kits for eligible United States Postal Service (USPS) Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) participants and their household members in advance of a potential attack involving Bacillus anthracis. Bacillus anthracis is a biological agent known to cause anthrax. The Secretary, HHS, provides notice of the determination of the Secretary of Homeland Security on September 23, 2008 that there is a significant potential for a domestic emergency involving a heightened risk of attack with a specified biological, chemical, radiological, or nuclear agent or agentsin this case, Bacillus anthracis, although there is no current domestic emergency involving anthrax, no current heightened risk of an anthrax attack, and no credible information indicating an imminent threat of an attack involving Bacillus anthracis. The Secretary also provides notice that, on the basis of such determination, he has declared an emergency justifying the authorization of emergency use of doxycycline hyclate tablets accompanied by emergency use information subject to the terms of any authorization issued by the Food and Drug Commissioner under 21 U.S.C. 360bbb-3(a).

This notice announces a meeting of the DAB-ESGR. This meeting will focus on the response to a recommendation to create a single point communication system to notify employers of Guard and Reserve members. This meeting is open to the public.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(l) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(l) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.