[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 12 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2715-2717]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00819]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee--New Task (Part 145 
Working Group)

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of a new task assignment for the Aviation Rulemaking 
Advisory Committee (ARAC) and solicitation of membership applicants.

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SUMMARY: The FAA has assigned the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory 
Committee (ARAC) a new task to provide recommendations regarding the 
agency's guidance on the certification and oversight of all part 145 
repair stations. This notice informs the public of the new ARAC 
activity and solicits membership for the new Part 145 Working Group.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul M. Cloutier, Federal Aviation 
Administration, AFS-300, 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 
20591, [email protected], (858) 999-7671, (202) 267-1812.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

ARAC Acceptance of Task

    As a result of its December 14, 2017, ARAC meeting, the ARAC 
accepted this tasking to establish a Part 145 Working Group. The Part 
145 Working Group will serve as staff to the ARAC and provide advice 
and recommendations on the assigned task. The ARAC will review and 
accept the initial and final recommendation reports and will submit 
them to the FAA.

Background

    The FAA established the ARAC to provide information, advice, and 
recommendations on aviation-related issues to the FAA Administrator, 
through the Associate Administrator of Aviation Safety.
    The FAA recognizes the critical role that guidance documents play. 
Well-designed guidance documents serve many important functions both 
within an organization and externally to the regulatory programs they 
support. While guidance documents do not have the

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force of law in the way regulations do, they are often heavily relied 
on internally to establish, issue, and describe agency policy, 
responsibilities, methods, and procedures. When guidance documents do 
not reflect current regulatory requirements and FAA, AVS, and AFS 
policies, the outcome is an uneven and inconsistent application of 
agency guidance and standards. The Part 145 Working Group will provide 
recommendations to the FAA to support the goal of consistent and clear 
guidance documents.
    Additionally, the agency's policies advocate performance-based 
oversight. However, guidance documents, particularly those directed at 
the agency's workforce are often prescription based. The Part 145 
Working Group is asked to provide recommendations that will support the 
applicant's performance-based decision making and the agency's 
evaluation of those decisions.

The Tasks

    The Working Group is tasked to:
    (1) Perform a comprehensive review of internal and external 
guidance material, in relation to the current laws and regulations, 
that pertain to certificating and overseeing all part 145 repair 
stations. This review will include pertinent--
    (a) FAA Orders, Notices, Advisory Circulars, Job Aids and Safety 
Assurance System (SAS) Data Collection Tools.
    (b) Laws and executive orders, particularly those associated with 
inclusion of small business and paperwork reduction act requirements in 
agency policy and guidance.
    (2) Develop recommendations on improvements to--
    (a) Internal and external guidance material to ensure it is:
    (i) Aligned and compliant with the aviation safety regulations, 
other laws and executive orders reviewed in (1)(b).
    (ii) Annotated to the applicable rule, other law or executive 
order; and,
    (iii) Consistently numbered to ensure a comprehensive relationship 
between the guidance document and the annotated rule, law or executive 
order.
    (iv) Developed to communicate the agency's expectations for 
compliance to the public and the FAA workforce in a comprehensive and 
consistent manner, including the tools necessary to ensure the 
application and evaluation of compliance includes performance-based 
oversight.
    (b) Oversight by the FAA's domestic and foreign workforce vis-
[agrave]-vis the amount, type, scope, and complexity of work being 
performed and the certificate holders' size.
    (3) Develop a preliminary and final report containing 
recommendations based on the analysis and findings. The reports should 
document both majority and dissenting positions on the recommendations 
and the rationale for each position. Disagreements should be 
documented, including the reason and rationale for each position.
    The working group may be reinstated to assist the ARAC in 
responding to the FAA's questions or concerns after the recommendation 
report has been submitted.

Schedule

    The preliminary and final recommendation reports will be submitted 
to the ARAC for review, acceptance, and submission to the FAA. The 
preliminary report is to be submitted no later than 24 months from the 
first meeting of the Part 145 Working Group. The final report will be 
submitted no later than 12 months after the preliminary report is 
forwarded to the FAA by ARAC.

Working Group Activity

    The Part 145 Working Group must comply with the procedures adopted 
by the ARAC, which are as follows:
    1. Conduct a review and analysis of the assigned tasks and any 
other related materials or documents.
    2. Draft and submit a work plan for completion of each task, 
including the rationale supporting such a plan, for consideration by 
the ARAC.
    3. Provide a status report at each ARAC meeting.
    4. Draft and submit the preliminary and final recommendation 
reports based on the review and analysis of the assigned tasks.
    5. Present the preliminary and final recommendation reports to the 
ARAC at a scheduled meeting for public discussion.

Participation in the Working Group

    The Working Group will be comprised of technical and regulatory 
experts having an interest in the assigned task. A working group member 
need not be a member representative of the ARAC. The FAA would like a 
wide range of stakeholders to ensure all aspects of the tasks are 
considered in development of the recommendations.
    The provisions of the August 13, 2014, Office of Management and 
Budget guidance, ``Revised Guidance on Appointment of Lobbyists to 
Federal Advisory Committees, Boards, and Commissions'' (79 FR 47482), 
continues the ban on registered lobbyists participating on Agency 
Boards and Commissions if participating in their ``individual 
capacity.'' The revised guidance now allows registered lobbyists to 
participate on Agency Boards and Commissions in a ``representative 
capacity'' for the ``express purpose of providing a committee with the 
views of a nongovernmental entity, a recognizable group of persons or 
nongovernmental entities (an industry, sector, labor unions, or 
environmental groups, etc.) or state or local government.'' (For 
further information see Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 as amended, 2 
U.S.C. 1603, 1604, and 1605.)
    If you wish to become a member of the Part 145 Working Group, 
contact the person listed under the caption FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT expressing that desire. Describe your interest in the task and 
state the expertise you would bring to the deliberations.
    The FAA must receive all requests by February 20, 2018. The ARAC 
and the FAA will review the requests and advise you whether or not your 
request is approved.
    If you are chosen for membership on the working group, you must 
actively participate by attending all meetings, and providing written 
information when requested. You must devote the resources necessary to 
support the working group in meeting assigned deadlines. You must keep 
your management and those you may represent advised of working group 
activities and decisions to ensure the proposed solutions do not 
conflict with the position of those you represent. Once the working 
group has begun deliberations, members will not be added or substituted 
without the approval of the ARAC Chair, the FAA, including the 
Designated Federal Officer, and the Working Group Chair.
    The Secretary of Transportation determined the formation and use of 
the ARAC is necessary and in the public interest in connection with the 
performance of duties imposed on the FAA by law.

Confidential Information

    All final work products submitted to ARAC are public documents. 
Therefore, it should not contain any non-public proprietary, 
privileged, business, commercial, and other sensitive information 
(collectively, Confidential Information) that the working group members 
would not want to be publicly available. With respect to working 
groups, there may be instances where members will share Commercial 
Information within the working group

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for purposes of completing an assigned tasked. Members must not 
disclose to any third party, or use for any purposes other than the 
assigned task, any and all Confidential Information disclosed to one 
party by the other party, without the prior written consent of the 
party whose Confidential Information is being disclosed. All parties 
must treat the Confidential Information of the disclosing party as it 
would treat its own Confidential Information, but in no event shall it 
use less than a reasonable degree of care. If any Confidential 
Information is shared with the FAA representative on a working group, 
it must be properly marked in accordance with the Office of Rulemaking 
Committee Manual, ARM-001-15.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on January 11, 2018.
Lirio Liu,
Designated Federal Officer, Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee.
[FR Doc. 2018-00819 Filed 1-17-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-13-P