[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 109 (Thursday, June 8, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26734-26735]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-11791]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary of Transportation
[Docket No. OST-2017-0057]
Transportation Infrastructure: Notice of Review of Policy,
Guidance, and Regulation
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST), DOT.
ACTION: Notice; request for input.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation (DOT) is reviewing its
existing policy statements, guidance documents, and regulations to
identify unnecessary obstacles to transportation infrastructure
projects. As part of this review, the Department invites affected
stakeholders and the public to identify non-statutory requirements that
the Department imposes and that should be removed or revised.
DATES: Comments should be received on or before July 24, 2017. Late-
filed comments will be considered to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: You may file comments identified by the docket number DOT-
OST-2017-0057 by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Room W12-140, Washington, DC
20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: The Docket Management Facility
is located on the West Building, Ground Floor, of the U.S. Department
of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Room W12-140, between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Instructions: You must include the agency name and the Docket
Number DOT-OST-2017-0057 at the beginning of your comment. All comments
received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov,
including any personal information provided.
Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits
comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT
posts these comments, without edit, to www.regulations.gov, as
described in the system of records notice, DOT/ALL-14 FDMS, accessible
through www.dot.gov/privacy. In order to facilitate comment tracking
and response, we encourage commenters to provide their name, or the
name of their organization; however, submission of names is completely
optional. Whether or not commenters identify themselves, all timely
comments will be fully considered. If you wish to provide comments
containing proprietary or confidential information, please contact the
agency for alternate submission instructions.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, visit the Docket Management Facility described above
or go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions
for accessing the docket.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael A. Smith, Office of the
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey
Ave. SE., Washington, DC 20590, 202-366-2917, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose
The Department of Transportation recognizes that there are
regulatory and administrative burdens that impede transportation
infrastructure projects. The Department also recognizes that the
stakeholders who deliver projects have
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direct experience with those burdens. Public and private project
sponsors, engineering and construction professionals, related
organizations, and other stakeholders encounter and overcome these
obstacles to project delivery on a daily basis. The purpose of this
notice is to solicit input from those affected stakeholders to help the
Department identify requirements that the Department imposes through
rules, or interpretations found in policy statements or guidance, that
unjustifiably delay or prevent completion of surface, maritime, and
aviation transportation infrastructure projects. The Department's
primary focus is on administrative items that it has the authority to
change, but if there are critical changes that are achievable only
through legislative action, please submit proposed legislative changes.
Commenters should make legislative suggestions only if all non-
statutory options have been exhausted.
The DOT's mission is to serve the United States by ensuring a safe,
fast, efficient, accessible, and convenient transportation system that
meets the nation's vital interests and enhances the quality of life of
the American people, today and into the future. To advance that mission
through financial assistance and regulatory activity, the Department
imposes requirements that affect the delivery of transportation
infrastructure projects. Under its financial assistance programs, DOT
places conditions of the receipt and expenditure of Federal funds.
Under its safety authorities, DOT directly regulates State, local, and
individual activities. These assistance conditions and safety
regulations are intended to satisfy statutory mandates and, when
discretionary, properly balance public benefits against the burdens
that they impose. However, imbalances can arise. The current benefits
may not justify the current burdens due to changing circumstances,
incomplete analyses, or other factors.
Request for Input
The Department is requesting that affected stakeholders and the
public submit comments identifying requirements that the Department
imposes through rules, or interpretations found in policy statements or
guidance documents, that unjustifiably delay or prevent completion of
surface, maritime, and aviation transportation infrastructure projects.
In some circumstances, Federal statute requires the Department, without
exercising discretion, to issue regulations implementing specific
statutory requirements. Because the Department lacks authority to
remove those requirements, the Department asks commenters responding to
this notice to focus their comments on requirements that either lack
statutory mandate or could be accomplished through reasonable
alternatives. However, if non-statutory changes are insufficient to
address a specific obstacle to transportation infrastructure projects,
commenters may submit legislative solutions.
Content of Comments
The Department will review all comments submitted to the docket
associated with this notice, DOT-OST-2017-0057. To maximize the
usefulness of comments, the Department encourages commenters to provide
the following information:
1. Specific reference. A specific reference to the policy
statement, guidance document, regulation, or statute that imposes the
burden that the comment discusses. This should be a citation to the
Code of Federal Regulations, a guidance document number, or an Internet
link. A specific reference will assist the Department identify the
requirement, the original source of the requirement, and relevant
documentation that may describe the history and effects of the
requirement.
2. Description of burden. A description of the burden that the
identified policy statement, guidance document, regulation, or statute
imposes on the completion of transportation infrastructure projects. A
comment that describes how the policy statement, guidance document,
regulation, or statute impedes efficient project delivery is more
useful than a comment that merely asserts that it is burdensome.
Comments that reflect experience with the requirement and provide data
describing that experience are more credible than comments that are not
tied to direct experience. Verifiable, quantifiable data describing
burdens are more useful than anecdotal descriptions.
3. Description of less burdensome alternatives. If the commenter
believes that the objective that motivated the policy statement,
guidance document, regulation, or statute may be achieved using a less
burdensome alternative, the commenter should describe that alternative
in detail. Likewise, if the commenter believes that there is not a less
burdensome alternative or there is not a legitimate objective
motivating the requirement, then that should be explained in the
comment.
4. Examples of affected projects. Examples of projects that are,
have been, or will be negatively affected by the identified policy
statement, guidance document, regulation, or statute and examples of
projects that will benefit it the requirement is removed or revised. A
comment listing specific projects is more useful because it will assist
the Department in investigating the burden and how it may be most
effectively addressed.
Scope of Comments
The Department is interested in comments on any DOT requirement
that unjustifiably delays or prevents surface, maritime, and aviation
transportation infrastructure projects, including requirements
contained regulations, or interpretations found in policy statements or
guidance documents, issued from the Office of the Secretary of
Transportation (OST) and the following Operating Administrations: The
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA); the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); the
Federal Transit Administration (FTA); the Maritime Administration
(MARAD); and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
(PHMSA).
Under this notice, the Department is not soliciting petitions for
rulemaking.
Relationship to Other Review Activities
Improvement of regulations is a continuous focus for the
Department. For that reason, DOT regularly and deliberately reviews its
rules in accordance with the Department's 1979 Regulatory Policies and
Procedures (44 FR 11034), Executive Order (EO) 12866, EO 13563, and
section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. That process is
summarized in Appendix D of the Department's semi-annual regulatory
agenda (e.g., 81 FR 94784). In EO 13771 and EO 13777, President Trump
directed agencies to further scrutinize their regulations. The review
described in this notice will supplement the Department's periodic
regulatory review and its activities under EO 13771 and EO 13777.
Unlike those activities, this request for input is narrowly focused on
identifying and addressing impediments to the completion of
transportation infrastructure projects. The comments that DOT receives
in response to this notice will inform those other, broader activities.
Issued on May 30, 2017.
James Ray,
Senior Advisor for Infrastructure.
[FR Doc. 2017-11791 Filed 6-7-17; 8:45 am]
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