[The Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions]
[Introduction to The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]


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Part II





Regulatory Information Service Center





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Introduction to The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal 
Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 233 / Monday, December 7, 2009 / The 
Regulatory Plan

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 233 / Monday, December 7, 2009 / The 
Regulatory Plan

[[Page 64131]]





REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE CENTER



Introduction to The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal 
Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions



AGENCY: Regulatory Information Service Center.

ACTION: Introduction to The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of 
Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.

_______________________________________________________________________

SUMMARY: The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires that agencies publish 
semiannual regulatory agendas in the Federal Register describing 
regulatory actions they are developing that may have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities (5 U.S.C. 
602). Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' signed 
September 30, 1993 (58 FR 51735) and Office of Management and Budget 
memoranda implementing section 4 of that Order establish minimum 
standards for agencies' agendas, including specific types of 
information for each entry. Section 4 of Executive Order 12866 also 
directs that each agency prepare, as part of its submission to the fall 
edition of the Unified Agenda, a regulatory plan of the most important 
significant regulatory actions that the agency reasonably expects to 
issue in proposed or final form during the upcoming fiscal year. The 
Regulatory Plan (Plan) and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and 
Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda) help agencies fulfill these 
requirements.

    Editions of the Unified Agenda prior to fall 2007 were printed in 
their entirety in the Federal Register. Beginning with the fall 2007 
edition, the Internet is the basic means for conveying Regulatory 
Agenda information to the maximum extent legally permissible. The 
complete Unified Agenda for fall 2009, including The Regulatory Plan, 
is available to the public at http://reginfo.gov.

    The fall 2009 Unified Agenda publication appearing in the Federal 
Register consists of The Regulatory Plan and agency regulatory 
flexibility agendas, in accordance with the publication requirements of 
the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Agency regulatory flexibility agendas 
contain only those Agenda entries for rules which are likely to have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities 
and entries that have been selected for periodic review under section 
610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

    The complete fall 2009 Unified Agenda contains the plans of 27 
Federal agencies and the regulatory agendas for these and 32 other 
Federal agencies.

ADDRESSES: Regulatory Information Service Center (MI), General Services 
Administration, 1800 F Street NW., Suite 3039, Washington, DC 20405.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about specific 
regulatory actions, please refer to the Agency Contact listed for each 
entry.

    To provide comment on or to obtain further information about this 
publication, contact: John C. Thomas, Executive Director, Regulatory 
Information Service Center (MI), General Services Administration, 1800 
F Street NW., Suite 3039, Washington, DC 20405, (202) 482-7340. You may 
also send comments to us by e-mail at:

[email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
                                                                   Page
 
  Introduction to The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal
                   Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions
 
I. What Are The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda?.........   64132
II. Why Are The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda             64133
 Published?.....................................................
III. How Are The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda            64133
 Organized?.....................................................
IV. What Information Appears for Each Entry?....................   64134
V. Abbreviations................................................   64135
VI. How Can Users Get Copies of the Plan and the Agenda?........   64136
 
Introduction to the Fall 2009 Regulatory Plan...................   64137
 
                         AGENCY REGULATORY PLANS
 
                           Cabinet Departments
 
Department of Agriculture.......................................   64149
Department of Commerce..........................................   64182
Department of Defense...........................................   64189
Department of Education.........................................   64194
Department of Energy............................................   64198
Department of Health and Human Services.........................   64201
Department of Homeland Security.................................   64213
Department of Housing and Urban Development.....................   64246
Department of the Interior......................................   64250
Department of Justice...........................................   64257
Department of Labor.............................................   64264
Department of Transportation....................................   64283
Department of the Treasury......................................   64304
Department of Veterans Affairs..................................   64317
 
                        Other Executive Agencies
 
Environmental Protection Agency.................................   64318
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.........................   64340
General Services Administration.................................   64342
National Aeronautics and Space Administration...................   64343
National Archives and Records Administration....................   64344
Office of Personnel Management..................................   64345
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation............................   64347
Small Business Administration...................................   64349
Social Security Administration..................................   64354
 
                     Independent Regulatory Agencies
 
Federal Maritime Commission.....................................   64362
Federal Trade Commission........................................   64363
National Indian Gaming Commission...............................   64372
Postal Regulatory Commission....................................   64374
 
                             AGENCY AGENDAS
 
                           Cabinet Departments
 
Department of Agriculture.......................................   64375
Department of Commerce..........................................   64395
Department of Energy............................................   64421
Department of Health and Human Services.........................   64423
Department of Homeland Security.................................   64447
Department of the Interior......................................   64455
Department of Justice...........................................   64457
Department of Labor.............................................   64461
Department of Transportation....................................   64469
Department of the Treasury......................................   64493
 
                        Other Executive Agencies
 
Environmental Protection Agency.................................   64495
General Services Administration.................................   64505
Small Business Administration...................................   64509
 

[[Page 64132]]

 
                             Joint Authority
 
Department of Defense/General Services Administration/National     64517
 Aeronautics and Space Administration (Federal Acquisition
 Regulation)....................................................
 
                     Independent Regulatory Agencies
 
Federal Communications Commission...............................   64521
Federal Reserve System..........................................   64565
National Credit Union Administration............................   64567
Nuclear Regulatory Commission...................................   64571
Securities and Exchange Commission..............................   64577
 



INTRODUCTION TO THE REGULATORY PLAN AND THE UNIFIED AGENDA OF 
FEDERAL REGULATORY AND DEREGULATORY ACTIONS



I. What Are The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda?

    The Regulatory Plan serves as a defining statement of the 
Administration's regulatory and deregulatory policies and priorities. 
The Plan is part of the fall edition of the Unified Agenda. Each 
participating agency's regulatory plan contains: (1) A narrative 
statement of the agency's regulatory priorities and, for most agencies, 
(2) a description of the most important significant regulatory and 
deregulatory actions that the agency reasonably expects to issue in 
proposed or final form during the upcoming fiscal year. This edition 
includes the regulatory plans of 27 agencies.

    The Unified Agenda provides information about regulations that the 
Government is considering or reviewing. The Unified Agenda has appeared 
in the Federal Register twice each year since 1983 and has been 
available online since 1995. To further the objective of using modern 
technology to deliver better service to the American people for lower 
cost, beginning with the fall 2007 edition, the Internet is the basic 
means for conveying Regulatory Agenda information to the maximum extent 
legally permissible. The complete Unified Agenda, including The 
Regulatory Plan, is available to the public at http://reginfo.gov. The 
online Unified Agenda offers flexible search tools and will soon offer 
access to the entire historic Unified Agenda database.

    The fall 2009 Unified Agenda publication appearing in the Federal 
Register consists of The Regulatory Plan and agency regulatory 
flexibility agendas, in accordance with the publication requirements of 
the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Agency regulatory flexibility agendas 
contain only those Agenda entries for rules which are likely to have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities 
and entries that have been selected for periodic review under section 
610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Printed entries display only the 
fields required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Complete agenda 
information for those entries appears, in a uniform format, in the 
online Unified Agenda at http://reginfo.gov.

    These publication formats meet the publication mandates of the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order 12866, as well as move 
the Agenda process toward the goal of e-Government, at a substantially 
reduced printing cost compared with prior editions. The current format 
does not reduce the amount of information available to the public, but 
it does limit most of the content of the Agenda to online access. The 
complete online edition of the Unified Agenda includes regulatory 
agendas from 59 Federal agencies. Agencies of the United States 
Congress are not included.

    The following agencies have no entries identified for inclusion in 
the printed regulatory flexibility agenda. An asterisk (*) indicates 
agencies that appear in the Regulatory Plan. The regulatory agendas of 
these agencies are available to the public at http://reginfo.gov.

    Department of Defense *

    Department of Education *

    Department of Housing and Urban Development *

    Department of State

    Department of Veterans Affairs *

    Agency for International Development

    Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board

    Commission on Civil Rights

    Commodity Futures Trading Commission

    Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely 
Disabled

    Consumer Product Safety Commission

    Corporation for National and Community Service

    Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of 
Columbia

    Equal Employment Opportunity Commission *

    Farm Credit Administration

    Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

    Federal Housing Finance Agency

    Federal Maritime Commission *

    Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

    Federal Trade Commission *

    Institute of Museum and Library Services

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration *

    National Archives and Records Administration *

    National Endowment for the Arts

    National Endowment for the Humanities

    National Indian Gaming Commission *

    National Science Foundation

    Office of Government Ethics

    Office of Management and Budget

    Office of Personnel Management *

    Peace Corps

    Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation *

    Postal Regulatory Commission *

    Railroad Retirement Board

    Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board

    Selective Service System

    Social Security Administration *

    Surface Transportation Board

    The Regulatory Information Service Center (the Center) compiles the 
Plan and the Unified Agenda for the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), part of the Office of Management and Budget. 
OIRA is responsible for overseeing the Federal Government's regulatory, 
paperwork, and information resource management activities, including 
implementation of Executive Order 12866. The Center also provides 
information about Federal regulatory activity to the President and his 
Executive Office, the Congress, agency managers, and the public.

[[Page 64133]]

    The activities included in the Agenda are, in general, those that 
will have a regulatory action within the next 12 months. Agencies may 
choose to include activities that will have a longer timeframe than 12 
months. Agency agendas also show actions or reviews completed or 
withdrawn since the last Unified Agenda. Executive Order 12866 does not 
require agencies to include regulations concerning military or foreign 
affairs functions or regulations related to agency organization, 
management, or personnel matters.

    Agencies prepared entries for this publication to give the public 
notice of their plans to review, propose, and issue regulations. They 
have tried to predict their activities over the next 12 months as 
accurately as possible, but dates and schedules are subject to change. 
Agencies may withdraw some of the regulations now under development, 
and they may issue or propose other regulations not included in their 
agendas. Agency actions in the rulemaking process may occur before or 
after the dates they have listed. The Regulatory Plan and the Unified 
Agenda do not create a legal obligation on agencies to adhere to 
schedules in this publication or to confine their regulatory activities 
to those regulations that appear within it.



II. Why Are The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda Published?

    The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda help agencies comply 
with their obligations under the Regulatory Flexibility Act and various 
Executive orders and other statutes.



Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires agencies to identify those 
rules that may have a significant economic impact on a substantial 
number of small entities (5 U.S.C. 602). Agencies meet that requirement 
by including the information in their submissions for the Unified 
Agenda. Agencies may also indicate those regulations that they are 
reviewing as part of their periodic review of existing rules under the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 610). Executive Order 13272 
entitled ``Proper Consideration of Small Entities in Agency 
Rulemaking,'' signed August 13, 2002 (67 FR 53461) provides additional 
guidance on compliance with the Act.



Executive Order 12866

     Executive Order 12866 entitled ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' 
signed September 30, 1993 (58 FR 51735) requires covered agencies to 
prepare an agenda of all regulations under development or review. The 
Order also requires that certain agencies prepare annually a regulatory 
plan of their ``most important significant regulatory actions,'' which 
appears as part of the fall Unified Agenda. Executive Order 13497, 
signed January 30, 2009 (74 FR 6113), revoked the amendments to 
Executive Order 12866 that were contained in Executive Order 13258 and 
Executive Order 13422.



Executive Order 13132

     Executive Order 13132 entitled ``Federalism,'' signed August 4, 
1999 (64 FR 43255), directs agencies to have an accountable process to 
ensure meaningful and timely input by State and local officials in the 
development of regulatory policies that have ``federalism 
implications'' as defined in the Order. Under the Order, an agency that 
is proposing regulations with federalism implications, which either 
preempt State law or impose nonstatutory unfunded substantial direct 
compliance costs on State and local governments, must consult with 
State and local officials early in the process of developing the 
regulation. In addition, the agency must provide to the Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget a federalism summary impact statement 
for such regulations, which consists of a description of the extent of 
the agency's prior consultation with State and local officials, a 
summary of their concerns and the agency's position supporting the need 
to issue the regulation, and a statement of the extent to which those 
concerns have been met. As part of this effort, agencies include in 
their submissions for the Unified Agenda information on whether their 
regulatory actions may have an effect on the various levels of 
government and whether those actions have federalism implications.



Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

    The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4, title II) 
requires agencies to prepare written assessments of the costs and 
benefits of significant regulatory actions ``that may result in the 
expenditure by State, local, and tribal governments, in the aggregate, 
or by the private sector, of $100,000,000 or more . . . in any 1 year . 
. . .'' The requirement does not apply to independent regulatory 
agencies, nor does it apply to certain subject areas excluded by 
section 4 of the Act. Affected agencies identify in the Unified Agenda 
those regulatory actions they believe are subject to title II of the 
Act.



Executive Order 13211

     Executive Order 13211 entitled ``Actions Concerning Regulations 
That Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use,'' signed 
May 18, 2001 (66 FR 28355), directs agencies to provide, to the extent 
possible, information regarding the adverse effects that agency actions 
may have on the supply, distribution, and use of energy. Under the 
Order, the agency must prepare and submit a Statement of Energy Effects 
to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, for ``those matters 
identified as significant energy actions.'' As part of this effort, 
agencies may optionally include in their submissions for the Unified 
Agenda information on whether they have prepared or plan to prepare a 
Statement of Energy Effects for their regulatory actions.



Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act

    The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (Pub. L. 
104-121, title II) established a procedure for congressional review of 
rules (5 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), which defers, unless exempted, the 
effective date of a ``major'' rule for at least 60 days from the 
publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. The Act 
specifies that a rule is ``major'' if it has resulted or is likely to 
result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or 
meets other criteria specified in that Act. The Act provides that the 
Administrator of OIRA will make the final determination as to whether a 
rule is major.



III. How Are The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda 
Organized?

    The Regulatory Plan appears in part II of a daily edition of the 
Federal Register. The Plan is a single document beginning with an 
introduction, followed by a table of contents, followed by each 
agency's section of the Plan. Following the Plan in the Federal 
Register, as separate parts, are the regulatory flexibility agendas for 
each agency whose agenda includes entries for rules which are likely to 
have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities or rules that have been selected for periodic review under 
section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Each printed agenda 
appears as a separate part. The sections of the Plan and the parts of 
the Unified Agenda are

[[Page 64134]]

organized alphabetically in four groups: Cabinet departments; other 
executive agencies; the Federal Acquisition Regulation, a joint 
authority (Agenda only); and independent regulatory agencies. Agencies 
may in turn be divided into subagencies. Each printed agency agenda has 
a table of contents listing the agency's printed entries that follow.

    Each agency's section of the Plan contains a narrative statement of 
regulatory priorities and, for most agencies, a description of the 
agency's most important significant regulatory and deregulatory 
actions. Each agency's part of the Agenda contains a preamble providing 
information specific to that agency plus descriptions of the agency's 
regulatory and deregulatory actions.

    The online, complete Unified Agenda contains the preambles of all 
participating agencies. Unlike the printed edition, the online Agenda 
has no fixed ordering. In the online Agenda, users can select the 
particular agencies whose agendas they want to see. Users have broad 
flexibility to specify the characteristics of the entries of interest 
to them by choosing the desired responses to individual data fields. To 
see a listing of all of an agency's entries, a user can select the 
agency without specifying any particular characteristics of entries.

    Each entry in the Agenda is associated with one of five rulemaking 
stages. In the Plan, only the first three stages are applicable. Some 
agencies use subheadings to identify regulations that are grouped 
according to particular topics. The rulemaking stages are:

1. Prerule Stage -- actions agencies will undertake to determine 
    whether or how to initiate rulemaking. Such actions occur prior to 
    a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and may include Advance 
    Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRMs) and reviews of existing 
    regulations.
2. Proposed Rule Stage -- actions for which agencies plan to publish a 
    Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as the next step in their rulemaking 
    process or for which the closing date of the NPRM Comment Period is 
    the next step.
3. Final Rule Stage -- actions for which agencies plan to publish a 
    final rule or an interim final rule or to take other final action 
    as the next step.
4. Long-Term Actions -- items under development but for which the 
    agency does not expect to have a regulatory action within the 12 
    months after publication of this edition of the Unified Agenda. 
    Some of the entries in this section may contain abbreviated 
    information.
5. Completed Actions -- actions or reviews the agency has completed or 
    withdrawn since publishing its last agenda. This section also 
    includes items the agency began and completed between issues of the 
    Agenda.

    A bullet () preceding the title of an entry indicates that 
the entry is appearing in the Unified Agenda for the first time.

    In the printed edition, all entries are numbered sequentially from 
the beginning to the end of the publication. The sequence number 
preceding the title of each entry identifies the location of the entry 
in this edition. The sequence number is used as the reference in the 
printed table of contents. Sequence numbers are not used in the online 
Unified Agenda because the unique Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) is 
able to provide this cross-reference capability.

    Editions of the Unified Agenda prior to fall 2007 contained several 
indexes, which identified entries with various characteristics. These 
included regulatory actions for which agencies believe that the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act may require a Regulatory Flexibility 
Analysis, actions selected for periodic review under section 610(c) of 
the Regulatory Flexibility Act, and actions that may have federalism 
implications as defined in Executive Order 13132 or other effects on 
levels of government. These indexes are no longer compiled, because 
users of the online Unified Agenda have the flexibility to search for 
entries with any combination of desired characteristics. The online 
edition retains the Unified Agenda's subject index based on the Federal 
Register Thesaurus of Indexing Terms. In addition, online users have 
the option of searching Agenda text fields for words or phrases.



IV. What Information Appears for Each Entry?

    All entries in the Unified Agenda contain uniform data elements 
including, at a minimum, the following information:

     Title of the Regulation -- a brief description of the subject of 
the regulation. In the printed edition, the notation ``Section 610 
Review'' following the title indicates that the agency has selected the 
rule for its periodic review of existing rules under the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 610(c)). Some agencies have indicated 
completions of section 610 reviews or rulemaking actions resulting from 
completed section 610 reviews. In the online edition, these notations 
appear in a separate field.

     Priority -- an indication of the significance of the regulation. 
Agencies assign each entry to one of the following five categories of 
significance.

(1) Economically Significant

 As defined in Executive Order 12866, a rulemaking action that will 
    have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or 
    will adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of 
    the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, 
    public health or safety, or State, local, or tribal governments or 
    communities. The definition of an ``economically significant'' rule 
    is similar but not identical to the definition of a ``major'' rule 
    under 5 U.S.C. 801 (Pub. L. 104-121). (See below.)

(2) Other Significant

 A rulemaking that is not Economically Significant but is considered 
    Significant by the agency. This category includes rules that the 
    agency anticipates will be reviewed under Executive Order 12866 or 
    rules that are a priority of the agency head. These rules may or 
    may not be included in the agency's regulatory plan.

(3) Substantive, Nonsignificant

 A rulemaking that has substantive impacts but is neither Significant, 
    nor Routine and Frequent, nor Informational/Administrative/Other.

(4) Routine and Frequent

 A rulemaking that is a specific case of a multiple recurring 
    application of a regulatory program in the Code of Federal 
    Regulations and that does not alter the body of the regulation.

(5) Informational/Administrative/Other

 A rulemaking that is primarily informational or pertains to agency 
    matters not central to accomplishing the agency's regulatory 
    mandate but that the agency places in the Unified Agenda to inform 
    the public of the activity.

[[Page 64135]]

    Major -- whether the rule is ``major'' under 5 U.S.C. 801 (Pub. L. 
104-121) because it has resulted or is likely to result in an annual 
effect on the economy of $100 million or more or meets other criteria 
specified in that Act. The Act provides that the Administrator of the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will make the final 
determination as to whether a rule is major.

     Unfunded Mandates -- whether the rule is covered by section 202 of 
the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4). The Act 
requires that, before issuing an NPRM likely to result in a mandate 
that may result in expenditures by State, local, and tribal 
governments, in the aggregate, or by the private sector of more than 
$100 million in 1 year, agencies, other than independent regulatory 
agencies, shall prepare a written statement containing an assessment of 
the anticipated costs and benefits of the Federal mandate.

     Legal Authority -- the section(s) of the United States Code 
(U.S.C.) or Public Law (Pub. L.) or the Executive order (E.O.) that 
authorize(s) the regulatory action. Agencies may provide popular name 
references to laws in addition to these citations.

     CFR Citation -- the section(s) of the Code of Federal Regulations 
that will be affected by the action.

     Legal Deadline -- whether the action is subject to a statutory or 
judicial deadline, the date of that deadline, and whether the deadline 
pertains to an NPRM, a Final Action, or some other action.

     Abstract -- a brief description of the problem the regulation will 
address; the need for a Federal solution; to the extent available, 
alternatives that the agency is considering to address the problem; and 
potential costs and benefits of the action.

     Timetable -- the dates and citations (if available) for all past 
steps and a projected date for at least the next step for the 
regulatory action. A date printed in the form 08/00/10 means the agency 
is predicting the month and year the action will take place but not the 
day it will occur. In some instances, agencies may indicate what the 
next action will be, but the date of that action is ``To Be 
Determined.'' ``Next Action Undetermined'' indicates the agency does 
not know what action it will take next.

     Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required -- whether an analysis is 
required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) 
because the rulemaking action is likely to have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities as defined by the Act.

     Small Entities Affected -- the types of small entities 
(businesses, governmental jurisdictions, or organizations) on which the 
rulemaking action is likely to have an impact as defined by the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act. Some agencies have chosen to indicate 
likely effects on small entities even though they believe that a 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis will not be required.

     Government Levels Affected -- whether the action is expected to 
affect levels of government and, if so, whether the governments are 
State, local, tribal, or Federal.

     International Impacts -- whether the regulation is expected to 
have international trade and investment effects, or otherwise may be of 
interest to the Nation's international trading partners.

     Federalism -- whether the action has ``federalism implications'' 
as defined in Executive Order 13132. This term refers to actions ``that 
have substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship 
between the national government and the States, or on the distribution 
of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.'' 
Independent regulatory agencies are not required to supply this 
information.

     Agency Contact -- the name and phone number of at least one person 
in the agency who is knowledgeable about the rulemaking action. The 
agency may also provide the title, address, fax number, e-mail address, 
and TDD for each agency contact.

    Some agencies have provided the following optional information:

    RIN Information URL -- the Internet address of a site that provides 
more information about the entry.

     Public Comment URL -- the Internet address of a site that will 
accept public comments on the entry. Alternatively, timely public 
comments may be submitted at the governmentwide e-rulemaking site, 
http://www.regulations.gov.

     Additional Information -- any information an agency wishes to 
include that does not have a specific corresponding data element.

     Compliance Cost to the Public -- the estimated gross compliance 
cost of the action.

     Affected Sectors -- the industrial sectors that the action may 
most affect, either directly or indirectly. Affected Sectors are 
identified by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 
codes.

     Energy Effects -- an indication of whether the agency has prepared 
or plans to prepare a Statement of Energy Effects for the action, as 
required by Executive Order 13211 ``Actions Concerning Regulations That 
Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use,'' signed May 
18, 2001 (66 FR 28355).

     Related RINs-- one or more past or current RINs associated with 
activity related to this action, such as merged RINs, split RINs, new 
activity for previously completed RINs, or duplicate RINs.

    Entries appearing in The Regulatory Plan include some or all of the 
following additional data elements, but will, at a minimum, include 
information in Statement of Need and in Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

     Statement of Need -- a description of the need for the regulatory 
action.

     Summary of the Legal Basis -- a description of the legal basis for 
the action, including whether any aspect of the action is required by 
statute or court order.

     Alternatives -- a description of the alternatives the agency has 
considered or will consider as required by section 4(c)(1)(B) of 
Executive Order 12866.

     Anticipated Costs and Benefits -- a description of preliminary 
estimates of the anticipated costs and benefits of the action.

     Risks -- a description of the magnitude of the risk the action 
addresses, the amount by which the agency expects the action to reduce 
this risk, and the relation of the risk and this risk reduction effort 
to other risks and risk reduction efforts within the agency's 
jurisdiction.



V. Abbreviations

    The following abbreviations appear throughout this publication:

[[Page 64136]]

     ANPRM -- An Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is a preliminary 
notice, published in the Federal Register, announcing that an agency is 
considering a regulatory action. An agency may issue an ANPRM before it 
develops a detailed proposed rule. An ANPRM describes the general area 
that may be subject to regulation and usually asks for public comment 
on the issues and options being discussed. An ANPRM is issued only when 
an agency believes it needs to gather more information before 
proceeding to a notice of proposed rulemaking.

     CFR -- The Code of Federal Regulations is an annual codification 
of the general and permanent regulations published in the Federal 
Register by the agencies of the Federal Government. The Code is divided 
into 50 titles, each title covering a broad area subject to Federal 
regulation. The CFR is keyed to and kept up to date by the daily issues 
of the Federal Register.

     EO -- An Executive order is a directive from the President to 
Executive agencies, issued under constitutional or statutory authority. 
Executive orders are published in the Federal Register and in title 3 
of the Code of Federal Regulations.

     FR -- The Federal Register is a daily Federal Government 
publication that provides a uniform system for publishing Presidential 
documents, all proposed and final regulations, notices of meetings, and 
other official documents issued by Federal agencies.

     FY -- The Federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.

     NPRM -- A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is the document an agency 
issues and publishes in the Federal Register that describes and 
solicits public comments on a proposed regulatory action. Under the 
Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553), an NPRM must include, at a 
minimum:

 a statement of the time, place, and nature of the public 
    rulemaking proceeding;
 a reference to the legal authority under which the rule is 
    proposed; and
 either the terms or substance of the proposed rule or a 
    description of the subjects and issues involved.

     PL (or Pub. L.) -- A public law is a law passed by Congress and 
signed by the President or enacted over his veto. It has general 
applicability, unlike a private law that applies only to those persons 
or entities specifically designated. Public laws are numbered in 
sequence throughout the 2-year life of each Congress; for example, PL 
111-5 is the fifth public law of the 111th Congress.

     RFA -- A Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is a description and 
analysis of the impact of a rule on small entities, including small 
businesses, small governmental jurisdictions, and certain small not-
for-profit organizations. The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 
et seq.) requires each agency to prepare an initial RFA for public 
comment when it is required to publish an NPRM and to make available a 
final RFA when the final rule is published, unless the agency head 
certifies that the rule would not have a significant economic impact on 
a substantial number of small entities.

     RIN -- The Regulation Identifier Number is assigned by the 
Regulatory Information Service Center to identify each regulatory 
action listed in The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda, as 
directed by Executive Order 12866 (section 4(b)). Additionally, OMB has 
asked agencies to include RINs in the headings of their Rule and 
Proposed Rule documents when publishing them in the Federal Register, 
to make it easier for the public and agency officials to track the 
publication history of regulatory actions throughout their development.

     Seq. No. -- The sequence number identifies the location of an 
entry in the printed edition of the Unified Agenda. Note that a 
specific regulatory action will have the same RIN throughout its 
development but will generally have different sequence numbers if it 
appears in different printed editions of The Regulatory Plan and the 
Agenda. Sequence numbers are not used in the online Unified Agenda.

     USC -- The United States Code is a consolidation and codification 
of all general and permanent laws of the United States. The USC is 
divided into 50 titles, each title covering a broad area of Federal 
law.



VI. How Can Users Get Copies of the Plan and the Agenda?

    Copies of the Federal Register issue containing the printed edition 
of The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda (agency regulatory 
flexibility agendas) are available from the Superintendent of 
Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 371954, 
Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. Telephone: (202) 512-1800 or 1-866-512-1800 
(toll-free).

    Copies of individual agency materials may be available directly 
from the agency or may be found on the agency's website. Please contact 
the particular agency for further information.

    All editions of The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of 
Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions since fall 1995 are 
available in electronic form at http://reginfo.gov. This site currently 
offers flexible search tools for recent editions. By early 2010, 
searchable access to the entire historic Unified Agenda database back 
to 1983 will be added to the site.

    In accordance with regulations for the Federal Register, the 
Government Printing Office's GPO Access website contains copies of the 
Agendas and Regulatory Plans that have been printed in the Federal 
Register. These documents are available at:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/ua/index.html

Dated: November 18, 2009.

John C. Thomas,
Executive Director.