[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 27 (Wednesday, February 9, 2011)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 7102-7106]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-2760]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Industry and Security

15 CFR Part 748

[Docket No. 100826397-1059-02]
RIN 0694-AE98


Simplified Network Application Processing System, On-line 
Registration and Account Maintenance

AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amends the Export 
Administration Regulations to implement a mandatory on-line 
registration process for obtaining an account to submit license 
applications and similar documents electronically through SNAP-R. This 
final rule sets forth the information that parties registering on-line 
are required to provide to BIS and the duties that registered parties 
have with respect to keeping information in their accounts current. 
This rulemaking is consistent with the goals and principles of 
Executive Orders 13563 and 12866, which are to enhance effectiveness 
and efficiency and to promote transparency and openness in government, 
and the Presidential Memorandum on Regulatory Flexibility, Small 
Business, and Job Creation (January 18, 2011).

DATES: Effective date: March 11, 2011.
    Compliance dates: Beginning on April 11, 2011, all new SNAP-R 
registrations must be made in accordance with this rule.
    Beginning on June 10, 2011 accounts of filing entities that do not 
have account administrators will not be accessible until an existing 
individual user for that entity logs-on to SNAP-R and registers as 
account administrator.
    Beginning on September 8, 2011 the accounts of filing entities that 
do not have an account administrator will become inactive. In order to 
reactivate the account, filing entities will have to complete the 
entire registration process that applies to new entities.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas W. Andrukonis, Director, Export 
Management and Compliance Division, Office of Exporter Services, 
telephone (202) 482-6393, e-mail [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Immediate Voluntary Implementation of On-Line Registration

    Beginning on February 9, 2011, BIS will accept on-line SNAP-R

[[Page 7103]]

registrations from parties who wish to submit them.

Background

    BIS administers an export licensing program pursuant to the Export 
Administration Regulations (EAR). In connection with this program, BIS 
requires most parties to submit license applications, classification 
requests, encryption registrations, License Exception AGR notifications 
and foreign national review requests in connection with the License 
Exceptions APP and CIV (herein ``work items'') electronically via BIS's 
Simplified Network Application Processing (SNAP-R) system. To use SNAP-
R, BIS required filing entities to register for an account through a 
paper and facsimile registration process.
    On November 23, 2010, BIS published a proposed rule with request 
for comments entitled ``Simplified Network Application Processing 
System, On-line Registration and Account Maintenance'' (75 FR 71376) to 
amend the EAR to replace the paper and facsimile process for 
registering to use SNAP-R with an on-line account registration and 
account maintenance process, and to make modifications to user accounts 
in SNAP-R. In developing this rule, BIS considered ways to reduce 
regulatory burden and provide flexibility, an approach consistent with 
Executive Orders 13563 and 12866 and Presidential Memorandum on 
Regulatory Flexibility, Small Business, and Job Creation (January 18, 
2011). This rule will eliminate the current and archaic practice of 
using a paper and facsimile based process for obtaining authorization 
to submit work items electronically. It will also reduce the time 
between initial submission of registration information and receipt of 
authorization to use the electronic filing system. Finally, the system 
will allow registered filing entities to add or remove individual users 
without waiting for approval from BIS.
    The final day of the comment period on the proposed rule was 
January 24, 2011. BIS received nine comments on the proposed rule. 
Eight of the commenters expressed approval of the proposed changes. One 
commenter expressed opposition to the proposed changes. Commenters who 
expressed approval mentioned the following points as benefits of the 
changes: The process would be faster than paper registration; the time 
needed to add a new employee to a filing entity's account under the 
paper registration system caused delays and interruptions in new 
employee training; and on-line registration would free up government 
employee time for other tasks. In addition, the fact that the new rule 
would not require a corporate officer to sign registration-related 
documents would simplify account maintenance within companies that use 
the system.
    The reasoning of the commenters who favored the change generally 
aligns with BIS's purposes in proposing this rule, i.e. reduced time 
and effort to register for an on-line submission account, reduced time 
and effort to maintain that account, faster accommodation of personnel 
changes in companies that use the system, and more effective use of 
existing resources in both the public and private sector.
    In addition to expressing general support for the rule, three of 
the eight commenters who favored the rule offered suggestions related 
to implementation of the rule or improvements to the SNAP-R system. A 
summary of each suggestion and BIS's response is below.
    One commenter who favored the changes proposed by the rule noted 
that in some instances paper might be a submitter's only option and 
asked whether there would be a manual process in the future.
    BIS believes that its existing systems are adequate to accommodate 
situations in which submitting paper is the only option. This rule 
addresses the process of registering with BIS to submit license 
applications and other documents to BIS on-line. This rule does not 
change the text of Sec.  748.1(d)(1) of the EAR (15 CFR 748.1(d)(1)), 
which provides conditions under which parties may make those 
submissions to BIS by paper. Those circumstances include low volume (no 
more than one submission in the past twelve months) and lack of access 
to the Internet. None of those circumstances requires prior 
registration with BIS. In practice, there are very few submissions made 
via the paper submissions process in a given year (ten paper 
submissions out of 26,803 total submissions in calendar year 2010). BIS 
believes that because the agency has procedures in place for accepting 
paper submissions, which do not require prior registration, a separate 
paper-based registration process for on-line submissions via SNAP-R is 
not needed. Those parties for whom paper is truly the only option need 
not register, on-line or otherwise.
    One commenter, who favored the changes in the proposed rule, asked 
that BIS clarify whether the system would function automatically, that 
is, once an individual end-user designates himself or herself on-line 
as an account administrator, would the system immediately accept the 
action and generate a response or would BIS review the information and 
respond later. If the response would be later, this commenter asked 
that BIS state the estimated time-frame for a response.
    When an individual user registers as the account administrator for 
a filing entity, all individual users for that filing entity will be 
notified by an automatically generated e-mail at the e-mail address 
currently recorded for those individual users in the SNAP-R system. All 
but two of the account administrator's capabilities will be immediately 
available to the new account administrator. There will be a two week 
delay before the new account administrator will be able to reset 
individual user passwords or change individual user e-mail addresses. 
BIS intends that the combination of e-mail notification to all 
individual users of the filing entity and the two week delay in 
implementing these two functions will provide a safeguard to prevent 
individual users who are not authorized by the filing entity to be the 
account administrator from doing so. During the two week period, the 
filing entity could contact BIS to notify the agency that the person 
claiming to be the account administrator is not authorized to do so. If 
BIS receives no notice during the two week period, the two delayed 
account administrator functions would become active automatically.
    One commenter stated that it supported the changes in the proposed 
rule but offered one recommendation concerning SNAP-R and one comment 
concerning the process for making the transition from the paper based 
registration and account maintenance system to the on-line registration 
and account maintenance system. This commenter suggested that SNAP-R be 
further revised to allow first party account administrators to 
authorize access under a third party filer's company identification 
number. The commenter noted that such a change would allow greater 
flexibility to parties who wish to authorize third parties to submit on 
their behalf and for the first and third parties to collaborate on 
submissions. The commenter suggested that changes to SNAP-R concerning 
the relationship between first and third parties would require 
additional software development but likely could be accomplished 
without amending the EAR.
    The EAR does not designate certain filers as first parties and 
others as third parties although the paper-based SNAP-R registration 
procedure does make this distinction. For this reason, BIS concurs that 
regulatory amendment is not necessarily required to implement

[[Page 7104]]

changes to make the SNAP-R system more useful in situations in which an 
agent submits license applications or other documents on behalf of a 
principal. However, such changes would require further software 
development. Moreover, BIS would want to take steps to assure itself 
that any such changes would be useful to more than one party and that 
the changes would not undermine the integrity and security of the on-
line submission system. Therefore, BIS is making no changes to the 
proposed rule in response to this comment, but will continue to look 
for ways to improve SNAP-R irrespective of whether the improvements 
would require regulatory change.
    This commenter also noted that BIS's plan, to inactivate SNAP-R 
accounts of the filing entities for which no individual user who has 
logged-in and registered as that entity's company administrator within 
the first 180 days of the effective date, could cause accounts of 
infrequent users to be inactivated. The commenter stated that if BIS 
intends to shut down accounts that have not been updated, it should 
notify the account holder directly and advise it of the need to take 
action.
    BIS proposed to inactivate those accounts that do not have a 
registered account administrator beginning on the 181st day after the 
effective date of the rule for two reasons. First, a large number of 
SNAP-R accounts have not been used in years and may have been 
established for companies that no longer export or that no longer 
exist. BIS needs to make such accounts inactive to promote efficient 
operation of the SNAP-R system. Second, BIS needs to complete the 
transition from a paper based registration and account maintenance 
system to an on-line system within a reasonable and certain period of 
time. Assuring that all active accounts have account administrators is 
integral to an effective on-line system. In addition, BIS notes that 
because the effective date of this rule will be 30 days after 
publication, the deactivation of accounts will actually take place 211 
days after publication of the rule. That said, BIS recognizes that not 
all parties who need to use the system are frequent users. BIS plans to 
publicize the transition to the on-line registration system and the 
deadlines for existing SNAP-R users to designate account administrators 
through the on-line process through a variety of ways including: 
Sending e-mail notices to user e-mail addresses that are in the SNAP-R 
system; sending e-mail notifications to parties who subscribe to BIS's 
listserv service; Web site postings; and announcements at BIS outreach 
events. Finally, BIS notes that the only burden to a filing entity for 
failing to have a registered account administrator by the deadline is 
that the filing entity will have to complete the registration process 
on-line as if it were a new user of the system. That registration 
process will consist of providing basic identifying information and 
certifying that it understands that it will be submitting documents to 
the government electronically and agrees to the terms for doing so.
    One commenter expressed opposition to the procedures in the 
proposed rule. That commenter noted that new SNAP users can be added 
via the existing process and stated that the proposed changes would 
waste the users' and BIS' time. BIS recognizes that filing entities 
will need additional time to designate account administrators. However, 
BIS believes that over time, the time savings of allowing filing 
entities to manage their own accounts will exceed any time invested in 
designating account administrators. Those time savings will include 
elimination of the time spent while requests for changes are sent to 
BIS and responses are returned to the requester. BIS notes that most 
commenters recognized the net time savings and favored the proposal.
    Accordingly BIS is making no changes to the text of the proposed 
rule in this final rule.
    How the SNAP-R on-line registration process will work.
    Organizations or individuals who submit work items are referred to 
in revised Sec.  748.7 of the EAR as ``filing entities.'' Individuals 
who act on behalf of filing entities are referred to as ``individual 
users.'' For each filing entity, at least one individual user must act 
as an ``account administrator.'' An account administrator is able to 
submit work items on behalf of his or her filing entity and has 
additional responsibilities within the on-line registration system.
    An account administrator can add and remove individual users to or 
from the account of his or her filing entity. The account administrator 
can also designate other individual users who are authorized to act on 
behalf of the same filing entity as account administrators or can 
terminate an individual user's account administrator status. The 
account administrator can deactivate the account of an individual user 
and reactivate the account of a previously deactivated individual user. 
The account administrator can update the filing entity's identifying 
information, such as name and address, and any individual user's 
identifying information, such as name and telephone number. The account 
administrator can also reset an individual user's password.
    BIS expects under this revised system, account administrators for 
filing entities will handle routine changes to the filing entity's 
accounts and BIS personnel will become involved only if necessary to 
protect a government interest, such as preventing misuse of the SNAP-R 
system, or if necessary to assist someone attempting to register on-
line or administer an account.
    Immediate acceptance of on-line registration for parties who wish 
to use it.
    Beginning on February 9, 2011, BIS will accept on-line 
registrations for both filing entities and account administrators from 
parties who wish to submit them.
    Deadline for new filing entities to use electronic registration.
    Beginning on April 11, 2011, the on-line registration process will 
be mandatory for all new registrants. Until that date, new registrants 
can register via paper if they wish to do so.
    Requirement to designate an account administrator at the time of 
registration.
    A person registering on-line for a filing entity that does not have 
a SNAP-R account will be required to enter all of the identifying 
information for the filing entity including a certification that the 
person is authorized to register the filing entity and to act as 
account administrator for the filing entity as well as his or her own 
identifying information. That person will become the initial account 
administrator for that filing entity.
    Deadlines for designating an account administrator if the filing 
entity is not registered electronically.
    Filing entities that are registered to use SNAP-R on the effective 
date of the final rule and filing entities that elect to use the paper 
and facsimile based registration process prior to April 11, 2011 will 
be required to designate an account administrator as described below.
    Prior to June 10, 2011, any individual user who is authorized to 
submit work items on behalf of a filing entity will be able to continue 
to access SNAP-R, submit new work items and perform any necessary tasks 
in connection with pending work items. In addition, the first such 
individual user who designates himself or herself as the account 
administrator will be required to certify that he or she is authorized 
to act as account administrator and will become the initial account 
administrator. BIS will inform via e-mail all other individual users 
who are

[[Page 7105]]

authorized to act for that filing entity of the identity of the newly 
designated account administrator.
    On or after June 10, 2011, but before September 8, 2011, an 
individual user from a filing entity that does not have at least one 
account administrator will be able to access the SNAP-R system only: 
(1) For the purpose of designating himself or herself as account 
administrator for that filing entity and (2) certifying that he or she 
is authorized to act as account administrator. As soon as one 
individual user is designated as the account administrator, that 
individual user as well as all of the other individual users from that 
filing entity will regain full SNAP-R access.
    Beginning on September 8, 2011, all filing entity accounts for 
which no account administrator has been designated will become 
inactive. To use the account for any purpose, an individual will have 
to log on to the SNAP-R Web site and furnish all of the information 
that would be required to register as a new filing entity.

Rulemaking Requirements

    1. This rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes 
of E.O. 12866.
    2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is 
required to respond to, nor is subject to a penalty for failure to 
comply with, a collection of information, subject to the requirements 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) (PRA), 
unless that collection of information displays a currently valid Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number. This regulation contains 
a collection previously approved by OMB under control number 0694-0096. 
BIS believes that this rule will not materially affect the burden 
imposed by that collection. Send comments regarding these burden 
estimates or any other aspect of these collections of information, 
including suggestions for reducing the burden, to Jasmeet Seehra, 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), by e-mail to 
[email protected], or by fax to (202) 395-7285; and to the Regulatory 
Policy Division, Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of 
Commerce, Room 2705, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20230.
    3. This rule does not contain policies with Federalism implications 
as that term is defined under E.O. 13132.
    4. The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce 
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration that the proposed rule, if adopted in final form, would 
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities. The basis for that certification was published in the 
preamble to the proposed rule and is not repeated here. BIS received no 
comments regarding the certification. As a result, a final regulatory 
flexibility analysis is not required and one has not been prepared.

List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 748

    Administrative practice and procedure, Exports, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements.

    Accordingly, the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR parts 
730-774) are amended as follows:

PART 748--APPLICATIONS (CLASSIFICATION, ADVISORY, AND LICENSE) AND 
DOCUMENTATION

0
1. The authority citation for part 748 continues to read as follows:

    Authority:  50 U.S.C. app. 2401 et seq.; 50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.; 
E.O. 13026, 61 FR 58767, 3 CFR, 1996 Comp., p. 228; E.O. 13222, 66 
FR 44025, 3 CFR, 2001 Comp., p. 783; Notice of August 12, 2010, 75 
FR 50681 (August 16, 2010).


0
2. Section 748.7 is revised to read as follows:


Sec.  748.7  Registering for electronic submission of license 
applications and related documents.

    (a) Scope. This section describes the procedures for registering to 
submit electronic documents to BIS. The procedures in this section 
apply to submission of export and reexport license applications (other 
than Special Comprehensive Licenses and Special Iraq Reconstruction 
Licenses), classification requests, encryption registrations, License 
Exception AGR notifications and foreign national review requests under 
License Exceptions APP or CIV.
    (b) Registration and use of BIS's Simplified Network Applications 
System--Redesign (SNAP-R). Parties wishing to submit electronically 
must log on to https://snapr.bis.doc.gov/registration to register. Upon 
initial registration, the party (the filing entity) will have to supply 
the name of the entity that will be submitting documents electronically 
and its address and the name, telephone number, facsimile number and e-
mail address of the person who will act as account administrator. The 
person will be required to certify that the information so supplied is 
correct and complete, that the person has authority to register the 
entity that will be making electronic submissions and that the person 
has authority to act as an account administrator for that entity.
    (c) Role of account administrator. The account administrator is 
able to add and remove individual users to and from the account of the 
filing entity for which it is the account administrator. The account 
administrator can also make individual users account administrators and 
can terminate an individual user's administrator status. The account 
administrator can deactivate the account of an individual user and 
reactivate the account of a previously deactivated individual user. The 
account administrator can update the filing entity's identifying 
information such as name and address and any individual user's 
identifying information such as name, telephone number, facsimile 
number and e-mail address. The account administrator can reset 
individual users' passwords.
    (d) Role of individual users. An individual user may submit to BIS 
export and reexport license applications (other than Special 
Comprehensive Licenses and Special Iraq Reconstruction Licenses), 
classification requests, encryption registrations, License Exception 
AGR notifications and foreign national review requests under License 
Exceptions APP or CIV.
    (e) Effect of submission to BIS. BIS may refuse to accept an 
electronic submission if it has reason to believe that the individual 
user making the submission lacks authority to do so. However, BIS is 
not obligated to conduct any checks to determine whether an individual 
user has the necessary authority and will generally treat users as 
acting within their authority. Acting through their account 
administrators, parties have the ability to remove an individual user 
when that individual user is no longer authorized to make submissions 
on behalf of that party to BIS and should do so promptly.
    (f) Requirement to keep identifying information accurate and 
current.
    (1) Filing entities. Filing entities must, through their account 
administrators, update their identifying information such as name, 
address and telephone number in their SNAP-R account as necessary to 
keep that information accurate and current.
    (2) Individual users. Individual users must, through their account 
administrators, update their identifying information such as name, 
telephone number, facsimile number and e-mail address in their SNAP-R 
accounts as necessary to keep that information accurate and current.


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    Dated: February 3, 2011.
Matthew S. Borman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration.
[FR Doc. 2011-2760 Filed 2-8-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-33-P