[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 170 (Tuesday, September 2, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Page 51276]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-20138]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 080506635-8697-01]


Announcing Approval of the Withdrawal of Ten Federal Information 
Processing Standards (FIPS)

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces that the Secretary of Commerce has 
approved the withdrawal of ten Federal Information Processing Standards 
(FIPS).
    These FIPS are being withdrawn because they are obsolete, or have 
not been updated to adopt current voluntary industry standards, federal 
specifications, federal data standards, or current good practices for 
information security. Some of these FIPS adopt voluntary industry 
standards. Federal agencies and departments are directed by the 
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-
113) to use technical standards that are developed in voluntary 
consensus standards bodies. Consequently, FIPS that duplicate voluntary 
industry standards are no longer needed.
    Some of these FIPS adopt data standards that are developed and used 
by other Federal government agencies. These FIPS have not been updated 
to reflect changes and modifications that have been made to the data 
standards. The remaining FIPS adopt obsolete Federal specifications for 
information access and for information security. More recent advisory 
guidance has been issued concerning access to publicly available 
government information and computer data authentication. Federal 
agencies are responsible for using current voluntary industry standards 
and current federal specifications and data standards in their 
acquisition and management activities.

DATES: This withdrawal is effective September 2, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shirley M. Radack, (301) 975-2833, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, STOP 
8930, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930, e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A notice was published in the Federal 
Register (70 FR 40984-85) on July 15, 2005, announcing the proposed 
withdrawal of the ten Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). 
The Federal Register notice solicited comments on the proposed 
withdrawal of the FIPS from the public, research communities, 
manufacturers, voluntary standards organizations, and Federal, State, 
and local government organizations. In addition to being published in 
the Federal Register, the notice was posted on the NIST Web pages. 
Information was provided about the submission of electronic comments.
    Comments were received from one federal government organization. No 
comments were received from industry organizations or individuals.
    Following is a summary of the comments received.
    Comments were received from the Department of Energy (DOE) Office 
of Scientific and Technical Information. The DOE comments supported the 
withdrawal of FIPS 192, Application Profile for the Government 
Information Locator Service (GILS), and FIPS 192-1 (a)&(b), Application 
Profile for the Government Information Locator Service (GILS). DOE 
agreed that the withdrawal of these standards was appropriate since 
technology advances have made the standards obsolete.
    DOE stated that the GILS standard was created in 1994 to provide a 
mechanism for users to identify, locate, and access or acquire publicly 
available federal information resources. However, in the years since 
GILS was issued, advances in technology have made the standard 
obsolete. Today there are many tools available for finding information 
on the Internet, including Google, FirstGov, Meta Search Engines, and 
the Open Archives Initiative. These newer techniques enable agencies to 
avoid the ongoing, resource intensive cataloging efforts mandated by 
the GILS.
    No comments were received concerning the other standards that had 
been proposed for withdrawal.
    The FIPS number, title, and technical specifications for each of 
the ten FIPS being withdrawn are:
    FIPS 4-2, Representation of Calendar Date to Facilitate Interchange 
of Data Among Information Systems; adopts American National Standard 
ANSI X3.30-1997: Representation of Date for Information Interchange 
(revision of ANSI X3.30-1985 (R1991)).
    FIPS 5-2, Codes for the Identification of the States, the District 
of Columbia and the Outlying Areas of the United States, and Associated 
Areas.
    FIPS 6-4, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the U.S., Its 
Possessions, and Associated Areas.
    FIPS 10-4, Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, 
and Their Principal Administrative Divisions.
    FIPS 113, Computer Data Authentication.
    FIPS 161-2, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) (adopts families of 
EDI standards known as X12, UN/EDIFACT and HL7).
    FIPS 183, Integration Definition for Function Modeling (IDEF0).
    FIPS 184, Integration Definition for Information Modeling (IDEFIX).
    FIPS 192, Application Profile for the Government Information 
Locator Service (GILS).
    FIPS 192-1 (a)&(b), Application Profile for the Government 
Information Locator Service (GILS).
    Once the FIPS are withdrawn, information on them may be found at: 
http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/withdraw.htm. Withdrawal means that 
these FIPS will no longer be part of a subscription service that is 
provided by the National Technical Information Service. NIST will 
continue to provide relevant information on standards and guidelines by 
means of electronic dissemination methods.
    Current versions of the data standards and specifications are 
available through the Web pages of the Federal agencies that develop 
and maintain the data codes. NIST will keep references to these 
withdrawn FIPS on its FIPS Web pages, and will link to current versions 
of these standards and specifications where appropriate.

    Authority: Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are 
issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology after 
approval by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to Section 5131 of 
the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 
104-106), the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 
2002 (Pub. L. 107-347), and Appendix III to Office of Management and 
Budget Circular A-130.

    E.O. 12866: This notice has been determined to be not significant 
for the purposes of E.O. 12866.

    Dated: August 22, 2008.
James M. Turner,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. E8-20138 Filed 8-29-08; 8:45 am]
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