[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 81 (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 22317-22320]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-9739]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
23 CFR Parts 1200 and 1300
[Docket No. NHTSA-2010-0054]
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 passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles,
trucks, buses, trailers, incomplete vehicles, motorcycles, and motor
vehicle equipment.
DATES: You should submit comments early enough to ensure that Docket
Management receives them not later than June 28, 2010.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket ID Number
NHTSA-2010-0054] by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
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://
[[Page 22318]]
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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Regulations to be
Year reviewed Analysis year Review year
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1................... 49 CFR 571.223 2008 2009
through 571.500,
and parts 575 and
579.
2................... 23 CFR parts 1200 2009 2010
and 1300.
3................... 49 CFR parts 501 2010 2011
through 526 and
571.213.
4................... 49 CFR 571.131, 2011 2012
571.217, 571.220,
571.221, and
571.222.
5................... 49 CFR 571.101 2012 2013
through 571.110,
and 571.135,
571.138 and
571.139.
6................... 49 CFR parts 529 2013 2014
through 578,
except parts 571
and 575.
7................... 49 CFR 571.111 2014 2015
through 571.129
and parts 580
through 588.
8................... 49 CFR 571.201 2015 2016
through 571.212.
9................... 49 CFR 571.214 2016 2017
through 571.219,
except 571.217.
10.................. 49 CFR parts 591 2017 2018
through 595 and
new parts and
subparts.
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C. Regulations Under Analysis
During Year 2, we will continue to conduct a preliminary assessment
of the following sections of 23 CFR parts 1200 and 1300:
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Section Title
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1200.......................... Uniform procedures for State highway
safety programs.
1204.......................... [Reserved].
1205.......................... Highway safety programs; determinations
of effectiveness.
1206.......................... Rules of procedure for invoking
sanctions under the Highway Safety Act
of 1966.
1208.......................... National minimum drinking age.
1210.......................... Operation of motor vehicles by
intoxicated minors.
1215.......................... Use of safety belts--compliance and
transfer-of-funds procedures.
[[Page 22319]]
1225.......................... Operation of motor vehicles by
intoxicated persons.
1235.......................... Uniform system for parking for persons
with disabilities.
1240.......................... Safety incentive grants for use of seat
belts--allocations based on seat belt
use rates.
1250.......................... Political subdivision participation in
State highway safety programs.
1251.......................... State Highway Safety Agency.
1252.......................... State matching of planning and
administration costs.
1270.......................... Open container laws.
1275.......................... Repeat intoxicated driver laws.
1313.......................... Incentive grant criteria for alcohol-
impaired driving prevention programs.
1327.......................... Procedures for participating in and
receiving information from the National
Driver Register Problem Driver Pointer
System.
1335.......................... State highway safety data improvements.
1340.......................... Uniform criteria for State observational
surveys of seat belt use.
1345.......................... Incentive grant criteria for occupant
protection programs.
1346-1349..................... [Reserved].
1350.......................... Incentive grant criteria for motorcycle
safety program.
1351-1399..................... [Reserved].
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We are seeking comments on whether any requirements in 23 CFR parts
1200 and 1300 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 23 CFR parts 1200 and
1300 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 23 CFR parts 1200
and 1300 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,
[[Page 22320]]
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
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.
Marilena Amoni,
Associate Administrator for the National Center for Statistics and
Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2010-9739 Filed 4-27-10; 8:45 am]
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