[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 228 (Monday, November 28, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 72888-72891]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-30277]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 571

[Docket No. NHTSA-2011-0160]


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Small Business Impacts of 
Motor Vehicle Safety

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of regulatory review; Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NHTSA seeks comments on the economic impact of its regulations 
on small entities. As required by Section 610 of the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act, we are attempting to identify rules that may have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
We also request comments on ways to make these regulations easier to 
read and understand. The focus of this notice is rules that 
specifically relate to school buses and other buses.

DATES: You should submit comments early enough to ensure that Docket 
Management receives them not later than January 27, 2012.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket ID Number 
NHTSA-2011-0160] by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.

[[Page 72889]]

     Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room 
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
     Fax: (202) 493-2251.
    Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments and 
additional information see the Comments heading of the Supplementary 
Information section of this document. Note that all comments received 
will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including 
any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading 
below.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received 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 19477-78) or you may visit http://DocketsInfo.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Juanita Kavalauskas, Office of 
Regulatory Analysis, Office of Regulatory Analysis and Evaluation, 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590 
(telephone (202) 366-2584, fax (202) 366-3189).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act

A. Background and Purpose

    Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-
354), as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness 
Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), requires agencies to conduct periodic 
reviews of final rules that have a significant economic impact on a 
substantial number of small business entities. The purpose of the 
reviews is to determine whether such rules should be continued without 
change, or should be amended or rescinded, consistent with the 
objectives of applicable statutes, to minimize any significant economic 
impact of the rules on a substantial number of such small entities.

B. Review Schedule

    The Department of Transportation (DOT) published its Semiannual 
Regulatory Agenda on November 22, 1999, listing in Appendix D (64 FR 
64684) those regulations that each operating administration will review 
under section 610 during the next 12 months. Appendix D contained DOT's 
10-year review plan for all of its existing regulations. On November 
24, 2008, NHTSA published in the Federal Register (73 FR 71401) a 
revised 10-year review plan for its existing regulations.
    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, ``we'') 
has divided its rules into 10 groups by subject area. Each group will 
be reviewed once every 10 years, undergoing a two-stage process--an 
Analysis Year and a Review Year. For purposes of these reviews, a year 
will coincide with the fall-to-fall publication schedule of the 
Semiannual Regulatory Agenda. The newly revised 10-year plan will 
assess years 9 and 10 of the old plan in years 1 and 2 of the new plan. 
Year 1 (2008) began in the fall of 2008 and will end in the fall of 
2009; Year 2 (2009) will begin in the fall of 2009 and will end in the 
fall of 2010; and so on.
    During the Analysis Year, we will request public comment on and 
analyze each of the rules in a given year's group to determine whether 
any rule has a significant impact on a substantial number of small 
entities and, thus, requires review in accordance with section 610 of 
the Regulatory Flexibility Act. In each fall's Regulatory Agenda, we 
will publish the results of the analyses we completed during the 
previous year. For rules that have subparts, or other discrete sections 
of rules that do have a significant impact on a substantial number of 
small entities, we will announce that we will be conducting a formal 
section 610 review during the following 12 months.
    The section 610 review will determine whether a specific rule 
should be revised or revoked to lessen its impact on small entities. We 
will consider: (1) The continued need for the rule; (2) the nature of 
complaints or comments received from the public; (3) the complexity of 
the rule; (4) the extent to which the rule overlaps, duplicates, or 
conflicts with other federal rules or with state or local government 
rules; and (5) the length of time since the rule has been evaluated or 
the degree to which technology, economic conditions, or other factors 
have changed in the area affected by the rule. At the end of the Review 
Year, we will publish the results of our review. The following table 
shows the 10-year analysis and review schedule:

                       National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Section 610 Reviews
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                  Year                        Regulations to be reviewed        Analysis year      Review year
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1.......................................  49 CFR 571.223 through 571.500,                 2008              2009
                                           and parts 575 and 579.
2.......................................  23 CFR parts 1200 and 1300........              2009              2010
3.......................................  49 CFR parts 501 through 526 and                2010              2011
                                           571.213.
4.......................................  49 CFR 571.131, 571.217, 571.220,               2011              2012
                                           571.221, and 571.222.
5.......................................  49 CFR 571.101 through 571.110,                 2012              2013
                                           and 571.135, 571.138 and 571.139.
6.......................................  49 CFR parts 529 through 578,                   2013              2014
                                           except parts 571 and 575.
7.......................................  49 CFR 571.111 through 571.129 and              2014              2015
                                           parts 580 through 588.
8.......................................  49 CFR 571.201 through 571.212....              2015              2016
9.......................................  49 CFR 571.214 through 571.219,                 2016              2017
                                           except 571.217.
10......................................  49 CFR parts 591 through 595 and                2017              2018
                                           new parts and subparts.
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C. Regulations Under Analysis

    During Year 4, we will continue to conduct a preliminary assessment 
of the following: 49 CFR 571.131, 571.217, 571.220, 571.221, and 
571.222.

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              Section                               Title
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571.131...........................  School bus pedestrian safety
                                     devices.
571.217...........................  Bus emergency exits and window
                                     retention and release.
571.220...........................  School bus rollover protection.
571.221...........................  School bus body joint strength.
571.222...........................  School bus passenger seating and
                                     crash protection.
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[[Page 72890]]

    We are seeking comments on whether any requirements in 49 CFR 
571.131, 571.217, 571.220, 571.221, and 571.222 have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. ``Small 
entities'' include small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that 
are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their 
fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations under 50,000. 
Business entities are generally defined as small businesses by Standard 
Industrial Classification (SIC) code, for the purposes of receiving 
Small Business Administration (SBA) assistance. Size standards 
established by SBA in 13 CFR 121.201 are expressed either in number of 
employees or annual receipts in millions of dollars, unless otherwise 
specified. The number of employees or annual receipts indicates the 
maximum allowed for a concern and its affiliates to be considered 
small. If your business or organization is a small entity and if any of 
the requirements in 49 CFR 571.131, 571.217, 571.220, 571.221, and 
571.222 have a significant economic impact on your business or 
organization, please submit a comment to explain how and to what degree 
these rules affect you, the extent of the economic impact on your 
business or organization, and why you believe the economic impact is 
significant.
    If the agency determines that there is a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities, it will ask for 
comment in a subsequent notice during the Review Year on how these 
impacts could be reduced without reducing safety.

II. Plain Language

A. Background and Purpose

    Executive Order 12866 and the President's memorandum of June 1, 
1998, require each agency to write all rules in plain language. 
Application of the principles of plain language includes consideration 
of the following questions:
     Have we organized the material to suit the public's needs?
     Are the requirements in the rule clearly stated?
     Does the rule contain technical language or jargon that is 
not clear?
     Would a different format (grouping and order of sections, 
use of headings, paragraphing) make the rule easier to understand?
     Would more (but shorter) sections be better?
     Could we improve clarity by adding tables, lists, or 
diagrams?
     What else could we do to make the rule easier to 
understand?
    If you have any responses to these questions, please include them 
in your comments on this document.

B. Review Schedule

    In conjunction with our section 610 reviews, we will be performing 
plain language reviews over a ten-year period on a schedule consistent 
with the section 610 review schedule. We will review 49 CFR 571.131, 
571.217, 571.220, 571.221, and 571.222 to determine if these 
regulations can be reorganized and/or rewritten to make them easier to 
read, understand, and use. We encourage interested persons to submit 
draft regulatory language that clearly and simply communicates 
regulatory requirements, and other recommendations, such as for putting 
information in tables that may make the regulations easier to use.

Comments

How do I prepare and submit comments?

    Your comments must be written and in English. To ensure that your 
comments are correctly filed in the Docket, please include the docket 
number of this document in your comments.
    Your comments must not be more than 15 pages long. (49 CFR 553.21.) 
We established this limit to encourage you to write your primary 
comments in a concise fashion. However, you may attach necessary 
additional documents to your comments. There is no limit on the length 
of the attachments.
    Please submit two copies of your comments, including the 
attachments, to Docket Management at the address given above under 
ADDRESSES.
    Please note that pursuant to the Data Quality Act, in order for 
substantive data to be relied upon and used by the agency, it must meet 
the information quality standards set forth in the OMB and DOT Data 
Quality Act guidelines. Accordingly, we encourage you to consult the 
guidelines in preparing your comments. OMB's guidelines may be accessed 
at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/reproducible.html. DOT's 
guidelines may be accessed at http://dmses.dot.gov/submit/DataQualityGuidelines.pdf.

How can I be sure that my comments were received?

    If you wish Docket Management to notify you upon its receipt of 
your comments, enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard in the 
envelope containing your comments. Upon receiving your comments, Docket 
Management will return the postcard by mail.

How do I submit confidential business information?

    If you wish to submit any information under a claim of 
confidentiality, you should submit three copies of your complete 
submission, including the information you claim to be confidential 
business information, to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590. In 
addition, you should submit two copies, from which you have deleted the 
claimed confidential business information, to Docket Management at the 
address given above under ADDRESSES. When you send a comment containing 
information claimed to be confidential business information, you should 
include a cover letter setting forth the information specified in our 
confidential business information regulation. (49 CFR part 512.)

Will the agency consider late comments?

    We will consider all comments that Docket Management receives 
before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated 
above under DATES. To the extent possible, we will also consider 
comments that Docket Management receives after that date.

How can I read the comments submitted by other people?

    You may read the comments received by Docket Management at the 
address given above under ADDRESSES. The hours of the Docket are 
indicated above in the same location.
    You may also see the comments on the Internet. To read the comments 
on the Internet, take the following steps:
    (1) Go to the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) at http://regulations.gov.
    (2) FDMS provides two basic methods of searching to retrieve 
dockets and docket materials that are available in the system: (a) 
``Quick Search'' to search using a full-text search engine, or (b) 
``Advanced Search,'' which displays various indexed fields such as the 
docket name, docket identification number, phase of the action, 
initiating office, date of issuance, document title, document 
identification number, type of document, Federal Register reference, 
CFR citation, etc. Each data field in the advanced search may be 
searched independently or in combination with other fields, as desired. 
Each search yields a simultaneous display of all available information 
found in FDMS that is relevant to the requested subject or topic.
    (3) You may download the comments. However, since the comments are

[[Page 72891]]

imaged documents, instead of word processing documents, the ``pdf'' 
versions of the documents are word searchable.
    Please note that even after the comment closing date, we will 
continue to file relevant information in the Docket as it becomes 
available. Further, some people may submit late comments. Accordingly, 
we recommend that you periodically check the Docket for new material.

Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for the National Center for Statistics and 
Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2011-30277 Filed 11-25-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P