[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 42 (Thursday, March 3, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11699-11700]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-4812]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary of Transportation

14 CFR Chapters I, II, III

23 CFR Chapters I, II, III

46 CFR Chapter II

48 CFR Chapter 12

49 CFR Chapters I, II, III and V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI

[Docket No. DOT-OST-2011-0025]


Notice of Retrospective Review of DOT Existing Regulations

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and tentative agenda; opportunities 
for public participation in review.

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SUMMARY: On February 16, 2011, Department of Transportation (DOT) 
published a notice of regulatory review of existing DOT regulations. 
This review is in accordance with Executive Order 13563, ``Improving 
Regulation and Regulatory Review.'' As part of the notice of review, 
DOT announced it will hold a public meeting to discuss and consider the 
public's comments. This notice provides information on how to 
participate in this meeting and opportunities for enhanced public 
participation in the review and the public meeting. Please note that 
the deadline for registering to speak at the public meeting has been 
extended to March 7, 2011.

DATES: 
Deadline to register to attend hearing in person/watch Web stream/
listen by phone--March 7, 2011.
Deadline to register to speak in person/by phone at the meeting--March 
7, 2011.
Agenda released on http://regs.dot.gov--March 9, 2011.
Web streaming/call-in info distributed to registrants--March 10, 2011.
Deadline to submit any digital presentation materials--March 10, 2011.
Public Meeting--March 14, 2011--9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES:
    Public Meeting Location: The public meeting will be held in the DOT 
Conference Center's Media Center, located on the ground floor of 1200 
New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590.
    DOT Regulatory Review IdeaScale Web site: http://dotregreview.ideascale.com/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Abdul-Wali, Office of 
Regulation and Enforcement, Department of Transportation, (202) 366-
6322; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On January 18, 2011, President Obama issued Executive Order 13563, 
which outlined a plan to improve regulation and regulatory review (76 
FR 3821, January 31, 2011). Executive Order 13563 reaffirms and builds 
upon governing principles of contemporary regulatory review, including 
Executive Order 12866, ``Regulatory Planning and Review'' (58 FR 51735, 
October 4, 1993), by requiring Federal agencies to design cost-
effective, evidence-based regulations that are compatible with economic 
growth, job creation, and competitiveness. The President's plan 
recognizes that these principles should not only guide the Federal 
government's approach to new regulation, but to existing ones as well. 
To that end, Executive Order 13563 requires agencies to review existing 
significant rules to determine if they are outmoded, ineffective, 
insufficient, or excessively burdensome.
    On February 16, 2011, DOT published a notice of regulatory review 
(76 FR 8940) that invited public comment on how to effectively 
implement Executive Order 13563 and set forth a number of issues and 
questions. Our notice stated that we would hold a public meeting on 
March 14, 2011. The following section provides the procedures for 
participating in the meeting and our IdeaScale Web site that can also 
be used to submit comments to DOT.

Public Meeting Procedures

    1. As stated in our February 16 notice, those who wish to make 
presentations at the meeting should submit initial comments with 
sufficient details with

[[Page 11700]]

their registration to enable DOT to set an agenda and ensure that the 
appropriate officials are present for the discussions. We hope to be 
able to accommodate everyone who would like to speak at the meeting, 
but if there are more interested participants than time available, we 
will limit participants in order of date and time of registration. When 
registering to speak, please also estimate the amount of time that you 
would like to use for your presentation; final times will be allotted 
to participants based on the time available and the issues raised in 
their initial comments. Any person wishing to present an oral statement 
should notify Jennifer Abdul-Wali at the address above by March 7, 
2011; any digital presentation materials for the meeting should be 
submitted to her by March 10, 2011. If available, time will be given 
for those people attending the meeting in person to speak, even if they 
had not previously registered to speak.
    2. Due to security requirements, all public attendees must register 
to ensure their access to the building. To register, contact Jennifer 
Abdul-Wali. Foreign National registrants must provide your full name, 
title, country of citizenship, date of birth, passport number, and 
passport expiration date when registering. Because seating space is 
limited, we may have to limit attendees in order of date and time of 
registration.
    3. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early for processing through 
security. All participants and attendees must enter through the New 
Jersey Avenue entrance (West Building--at the corner of New Jersey 
Avenue and M Street, SE.). Photo identification is required and Foreign 
National attendees must bring their passports with them. Participants 
or attendees who have Federal government identification will still need 
to register to attend. To facilitate security screening, all 
participants and attendees are encouraged to limit the bags and other 
items (laptops, cameras, etc.) they bring into the building. Anyone 
exiting the building for any reason will be required to re-enter 
through the security checkpoint at the New Jersey Avenue entrance.
    4. DOT does not offer visitor parking; we suggest that attendees 
consider using alternative means of transportation to the building. DOT 
Headquarters is served by Metrorail (Navy Yard station), Metrobus, DC 
Circulator, and taxi service. There are a number of private parking 
lots near the DOT building, but the DOT cannot guarantee the 
availability of parking spaces.
    5. For information on facilities or services for persons with 
disabilities, or to request special assistance at the meeting, contact 
Ms. Abdul-Wali as soon as possible.
    6. For those unable to attend the public meeting in person, it will 
be broadcast via Web streaming (with captioning) and over a listen-only 
phone line. Registrants will be given the Web URL or phone number on 
March 10, 2011. Because the number of people who can participate in Web 
streaming and by phone is limited, we will provide access in order of 
date and time of registration.
    7. We will post an Agenda for the public meeting at http://regs.dot.gov by March 9, 2011.
    8. DOT's General Counsel will preside over the public meeting. 
Senior officials of DOT's operating administrations also will attend 
this meeting as part of a panel with the General Counsel to receive 
comments from the public. During the hearing, we may ask questions that 
will clarify statements or gather more information or data to help us 
understand the problems or issues raised by commenters.
    9. The meeting is designed to solicit public views and gather 
additional information for our regulatory review. Therefore, the 
meeting will be conducted in an informal and non-adversarial manner. In 
developing prepared remarks, participants should leave time during 
their remarks for questions and discussion by the panel.
    10. We plan to make a record of the meeting available to the 
public; information about how to access the record will be placed in 
the docket and posted on http://regs.dot.gov.

DOT IdeaScale Web Site

    In order to provide the public with alternative means of providing 
feedback to DOT in ways that may better suit their needs, we have 
created a Web site using IdeaScale that will allow submissions to DOT 
in a less formal manner. This Web site will provide members of the 
public an opportunity to submit their ideas about our regulatory 
review, categorized by the DOT Operating Administration that 
administers the regulation. Participants in this site may discuss one 
another's ideas and agree/disagree with others. This Web site may be 
particularly useful for individuals and small entities (including 
State, local, and Tribal governments) who prefer a less formal method 
of submitting ideas to DOT. It may also assist participants in refining 
their suggestions and gathering additional information or data to 
support those suggestions.
    To ensure that ideas are most useful in informing our deliberation 
and decision process, you should include the citation to the regulation 
on which you are commenting (e.g. 49 CFR 1.69), a description of any 
concerns regarding the regulation (e.g. it is duplicative, too costly, 
etc.), and any supporting information (e.g., the citation to a 
duplicative regulation or actual cost or benefit data) that would 
assist DOT in making a decision. Please also include in your comment 
whether you found this Web site useful for your purposes, so that we 
can best plan how to deploy DOT's scarce resources to most effectively 
reach the public in the future. To go directly to the IdeaScale Web 
site use the following link: http://dotregreview.ideascale.com/.

Follow-Up Action by DOT

    The comments received during our review will provide meaningful and 
significant information for DOT senior officials, including those in 
the Office of the Secretary and each of DOT's operating 
administrations. As soon as possible after the public meeting and the 
close of the comment period, taking account of the number of comments 
received and the complexity of issues raised, DOT will publish a report 
providing at least a brief response to the comments we receive, 
including a description of any further action we intend to take.

Privacy Act Statement

    Anyone is able to search all comments entered into any of our 
dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or 
signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, 
business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act 
Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 
19476, 04/11/2011) or at http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 610; E.O. 13563, 76 FR 3821, Jan. 21 2011; 
E.O. 12866, 58 FR 51735, Oct. 4, 1993.)

    Issued on February 25, 2011, in Washington, DC.
Robert S. Rivkin,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2011-4812 Filed 3-2-11; 8:45 am]
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