[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 7 (Thursday, January 10, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1391-1392]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-657]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION


New Mail Delivery/Document Filing Information Relating to 
Department of Transportation Informal Rulemaking Proceedings and 
Certain Preemption Determination Proceedings

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation now is receiving all United 
States Postal Service (USPS) deliveries. However, actions taken over 
the last three months in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks 
and to contain the anthrax threat have significantly delayed or 
prevented our receipt of mail sent to DOT. These actions may have 
caused filings related to DOT informal rulemaking and certain 
preemption determination proceedings to arrive after the close of the 
comment period or not at all. We are providing notice of alternative 
methods for ensuring that your filings come to us. We also want to 
assure you that we will do everything that we can to consider comments 
that we otherwise would have received before the close of the comment 
period.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gwyneth Radloff, Office of the General 
Counsel, 400 Seventh St. SW., Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366-9319. If 
you have questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, 
call Dorothy Beard, Chief, Dockets, Department of Transportation, 
telephone 202-366-5149.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: After the September 11, 2001, terrorist 
attacks, overnight shippers, e.g., FEDEX, advised the U.S. Department 
of Transportation (DOT) offices that they faced delivery delays because 
the airlines had been grounded. In addition, DOT requested that, 
beginning October 16, 2001, the United States Postal Service (USPS) 
halt most mail deliveries until it could put in place appropriate 
safety measures to address the potential threat from anthrax-
contaminated mail. Mail caught in transit between October 13 and 
October 22 at DC's Brentwood Facility, where testers found traces of 
anthrax, may be part of quarantined mail that we might never receive 
(although we did get one delivery on October 22, 2001). Mail sent to 
DOT from mid-October to November 27 has been significantly delayed. DOT 
began receiving mail again on November 28. Even now, the USPS continues 
to irradiate first class and express mail bound for DOT. This means 
that we will receive mail after delays of a week or more. We do not 
know the full extent of the impact delayed or blocked mail delivery 
will have on our informal rulemaking proceedings and preemption 
determination proceedings for the Research and Special Programs 
Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
    We wish to advise the public that we will take this interruption of 
mail service into account, with respect to DOT rulemakings or 
preemption determination proceedings with comment periods that closed 
before mail delivery resumed on November 28, 2001. In some cases, where 
feasible, our agencies are extending or reopening comment periods. In 
other cases, we will do everything possible to ensure that we consider 
comments that we otherwise would have received before the close of the 
comment period. For example, we generally have the authority to 
consider late-filed

[[Page 1392]]

comments and will do so to the extent practicable. We will also take 
note of the date of the USPS postmark for late-filed comments. Please 
note that Docket Office time stamps all items as they receive them.
    Because we cannot be sure if we received filings sent just before 
October 13 or when, if ever, we will receive filings and comments 
caught in Brentwood between October 13 and November 27, please check 
our Dockets Web page (http://dms.dot.gov) to see if we received and 
processed your document(s). If your document is not in the electronic 
docket, we may not have received it. Please bear in mind that 
processing a document into the electronic system after receipt may take 
up to eight business days, especially since the DOT Mail Room must x-
ray and screen all package deliveries prior to their acceptance into 
the DOT Docket Management System. If you do not have the electronic 
capability to check the docket, many public libraries have computers 
that you can use to electronically search the DOT dockets. Also, you 
can come to DOT and use the reading room computers in our Dockets 
Office, which is located on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 
Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, and is open between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    If your check of the docket reveals that we have not received your 
document, please fax us a copy at 202-493-2251 or resubmit your 
document with a notation that you are resending it. Please send it to 
the Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, room 
PL-401, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Please make 
sure the docket number is noted on the first page. We ask you to take 
these steps as soon as possible so that we will be able to consider 
your comments if we still can.
    This notice addresses only preemption determination proceedings of 
the Research and Special Programs Administration and the Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration and informal rulemaking proceedings 
conducted by any of the Department's agencies: the Bureau of 
Transportation Statistics, the Federal Aviation Administration, the 
Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety 
Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal 
Transit Administration, the Maritime Administration, the National 
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Office of the Secretary, the 
Research and Special Programs Administration, the St. Lawrence Seaway 
Development Corporation, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
    We currently are accepting U.S. mail delivery by the USPS and 
deliveries from alternate delivery carriers. We also are accepting 
hand-delivered packages in the Docket Office, which is located on the 
Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, 
DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal 
holidays. In addition, where possible, we encourage filers to use our 
Electronic Submission System on the DOT Dockets Web page (http://dms.dot.gov) by clicking on ES Submit and following the online 
instructions.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on December 31, 2001.
Kirk K. Van Tine,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 02-657 Filed 1-9-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P