[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 50, Volume 7]
[Revised as of January 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 50CFR228.16]

[Page 591]
 
                    TITLE 50--WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES
 
  CHAPTER II--NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND 
           ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
 
PART 228_NOTICE AND HEARING ON SECTION 103(d) REGULATIONS--Table 
 
Sec. 228.16  Conduct of the hearing.

    (a) The hearing shall be held at the time and place fixed in the 
notice of the hearing, unless the presiding officer changes the time or 
place. If a change occurs, the presiding officer shall publish the 
change in the Federal Register and shall expeditiously notify all 
parties by telephone or by mail: Provided, that if that change in time 
or place of hearing is made less than 5 days before the date previously 
fixed for the hearing, the presiding officer shall also announce, or 
cause to be announced, the change at the time and place previously fixed 
for the hearing.
    (b) The presiding officer shall, at the commencement of the hearing, 
introduce into the record: the notice of hearing as published in the 
Federal Register; all subsequent documents published in the Federal 
Register; the draft Environmental Impact Statement if it is required and 
the comments thereon and agency responses to the comments; and a list of 
all parties. Direct testimony shall then be received with respect to the 
matters specified in the final agenda in such order as the presiding 
officer shall announce. With respect to direct testimony submitted as 
rebuttal testimony or in response to new issues presented by the 
prehearing conference, the presiding officer shall determine the 
relevancy of such testimony.
    (c) The hearing shall be publicly conducted and reported verbatim by 
an official reporter.
    (d) If a party objects to the admission or rejection of any direct 
testimony or to any other ruling of the presiding officer during the 
hearing, he or she shall state briefly the grounds of such objection, 
whereupon an automatic exception will follow if the objection is 
overruled by the presiding officer. The transcript shall not include 
argument or debate thereon except as ordered by the presiding officer. 
The ruling by the presiding officer on any objection shall be a part of 
the transcript and shall be subject to review at the same time and in 
the same manner as the Assistant Administrator's final decision. Only 
objections made before the presiding officer may subsequently be relied 
upon in the proceedings.
    (e) All motions and requests shall be addressed to, and ruled on by, 
the presiding officer, if made prior to his certification of the 
transcript or by the Assistant Administrator if made thereafter.