This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

11395 

Vol. 76, No. 41 

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 

1The Executive Order was subsequently 

published in the Federal Register on January 21, 

2011, at 76 FR 3821. 

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND 

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 

2 CFR Chapter XXIV 

5 CFR Chapter LXV 

12 CFR Chapter XVII 

24 CFR Chapters I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII, 

IX, X, XII, and Subtitles A and B 

48 CFR Chapter 24 

[Docket No. FR–5506–N–01] 

Reducing Regulatory Burden; 

Retrospective Review Under E.O. 

13563 

AGENCY: Office of the General Counsel, 

HUD. 

ACTION: Request for information. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with Executive 

Order 13563, ‘‘Improving Regulation and 

Regulatory Review,’’ HUD is reviewing 

its existing regulations to evaluate their 

continued effectiveness in addressing 

circumstances for which the regulations 

were promulgated. As part of this 

review, HUD invites public comments 

to assist in the development of a plan 

for periodically analyzing existing 

significant regulations to determine 

whether they should be modified, 

streamlined, expanded, or repealed. 

HUD also seeks comment to identify 

specific current regulations that may be 

outdated, ineffective, or excessively 

burdensome. The purpose of this 

regulatory review is to make the 

Department’s regulations more effective 

and less burdensome in achieving 

HUD’s mission to create strong, 

sustainable, inclusive communities, and 

quality affordable homes for all. 

DATES: Comment Due Date: May 2, 

2011. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments regarding 

this notice to the Regulations Division, 

Office of General Counsel, Department 

of Housing and Urban Development, 

451 7th Street, SW., Room 10276, 

Washington, DC 20410–0500. 

Communications must refer to the above 

docket number and title. There are three 

methods for submitting public 

comments. All submissions must refer 

to the above docket number and title. 

1. Submission of Comments by Mail. 

Comments may be submitted by mail to 

the Regulations Division, Office of 

General Counsel, Department of 

Housing and Urban Development, 451 

7th Street, SW., Room 10276, 

Washington, DC 20410–0001. 

2. E-mail Submission of Comments: 

Comments may be submitted by e-mail 

to RegulatoryReview@hud.gov. 

3. Electronic Submission of 

Comments. Interested persons may 

submit comments electronically through 

the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 

http://www.regulations.gov. HUD 

strongly encourages commenters to 

submit comments electronically. 

Electronic submission of comments 

allows the commenter maximum time to 

prepare and submit a comment, ensures 

timely receipt by HUD, and enables 

HUD to make them immediately 

available to the public. Comments 

submitted electronically through the 

http://www.regulations.gov Web site can 

be viewed by other commenters and 

interested members of the public. 

Commenters should follow the 

instructions provided on that site to 

submit comments electronically. 

Note: To receive consideration as public 

comments, comments must be submitted 

through one of the three methods specified 

above. Again, all submissions must refer to 

the docket number and title of the rule. No 

Facsimile Comments. Facsimile (FAX) 

comments are not acceptable. 

Public Inspection of Public 

Comments. All properly submitted 

comments and communications 

submitted to HUD will be available for 

public inspection and copying between 

8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the above 

address. Due to security measures at the 

HUD Headquarters building, an advance 

appointment to review the public 

comments must be scheduled by calling 

the Regulations Division at 202–708– 

3055 (this is not a toll-free number). 

Individuals with speech or hearing 

impairments may access this number 

via TTY by calling the Federal 

Information Relay Service at 800–877– 

8339. Copies of all comments submitted 

are available for inspection and 

downloading at http:// 

www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Camille E. Acevedo, Associate General 

Counsel for Legislation and Regulations, 

Office of General Counsel, Department 

of Housing and Urban Development, 

451 7th Street, SW., Room 10282, 

Washington, DC 20410; telephone 

number 202–708–1793 (this is not a tollfree number). Persons with hearing or 

speech impairments may access this 

number through TTY by calling the tollfree Federal Information Relay Service 

at 800–877–8339. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

A. HUD’s Regulatory Mission 

HUD plays a significant role in the 

lives of families and in communities 

throughout America. HUD’s mission is 

to create strong, sustainable, inclusive 

communities and quality affordable 

homes for all. Consistent with that 

mission, HUD has statutory 

responsibility for a wide variety of 

regulations. HUD’s regulatory programs 

and initiatives help create suitable 

living environments, and help to ensure 

that all citizens have access to decent, 

safe, and sanitary housing. HUD’s 

regulations also assist in the 

enforcement of the nation’s fair housing 

laws. HUD regulations also govern the 

provision of housing and other essential 

support to a wide range of individuals 

and families with special needs, 

including homeless individuals, the 

elderly, and persons with disabilities. 

Moreover, in light of recent economic 

events, HUD has undertaken a variety of 

rulemaking initiatives to strengthen the 

housing market to bolster the economy 

and protect consumers. 

B. Executive Order 13563 on Improving 

Regulation and Regulatory Review 

On January 18, 2011, President 

Obama issued Executive Order 13563, 

‘‘Improving Regulation and Regulatory 

Review.’’ 1 The Executive Order requires 

federal agencies to seek more affordable, 

less intrusive ways to achieve policy 

goals and give careful consideration to 

the benefits and costs of those 

regulations. Agencies are directed to 

tailor their regulations to impose the 


emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with PROPOSALS
11396 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 41 / Wednesday, March 2, 2011 / Proposed Rules 

minimal amount of burden on society to 

obtain regulatory objectives. The 

Executive Order also emphasizes the 

importance of meaningful public 

participation in the rulemaking process, 

and encourages agencies to increase 

their use of online technologies to 

simplify and facilitate participation for 

all stakeholders. Executive Order 13563 

also requires agencies to coordinate, 

simplify, and harmonize regulations to 

reduce costs and promote certainty for 

businesses and the public. 

The Executive Order recognizes that 

these principles should not only guide 

the federal government’s approach to 

new regulations, but to existing ones as 

well. To that end, agencies are required 

to review existing significant regulations 

to determine if they are outmoded, 

ineffective, insufficient or excessively 

burdensome. Executive Order 13563 

also requires that each agency develop 

and submit to the Office of Management 

and Budget’s Office of Information and 

Regulatory Affairs a preliminary plan 

for periodically reviewing existing 

significant regulations to determine 

whether they should be modified, 

streamlined, expanded, or repealed so 

as to make the agency’s regulatory 

program more effective or less 

burdensome in achieving regulatory 

objectives. 

II. This Notice—HUD’s Implementation 

of Executive Order 13563 

Through this notice, HUD announces 

several steps that it is undertaking to 

comply with the regulatory review 

requirements of Executive Order 13563. 

The steps announced in this notice will 

help HUD to ensure that its regulations 

are updated and remain necessary, are 

properly tailored, and effectively 

achieve regulatory objectives without 

imposing unwarranted costs. 

First, pursuant to the Executive Order, 

HUD is developing a preliminary plan 

for periodically analyzing existing 

significant regulations. Consistent with 

the principles articulated in the 

Executive Order, and HUD’s 

commitment to public participation in 

the rulemaking process, HUD is 

beginning this process by soliciting 

views from the public on defined 

methods for identifying rules that may 

be obsolete, unnecessary, unjustified, 

excessively burdensome, or 

counterproductive. HUD intends for its 

preliminary plan to include an initial 

list of candidate rules for review. 

Accordingly, HUD also seeks 

suggestions for specific current 

regulations that may be outmoded, 

ineffective, or excessively burdensome, 

and therefore should be included on the 

list. 

HUD has also established an e-mail 

inbox at RegulatoryReview@hud.gov 

which interested parties may use, on an 

ongoing basis, to identify regulations 

that may be in need of review. The 

email box may also be used for the 

submission of comments in response to 

this notice. Irrespective of how they are 

submitted, HUD will make all 

comments received in response to this 

notice publicly available on http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Please see the 

ADDRESSES section of this notice for 

additional information regarding the 

submission of comments. 

III. Issues for Public Comment 

The following is the list of topics on 

which HUD specifically seeks 

comments. The topics represent a 

preliminary attempt to identify issues 

raised by HUD’s effort to develop a 

preliminary plan for the retrospective 

analysis of its regulations and to 

identify regulations on which it should 

focus. With regards to specific existing 

regulations, HUD is particularly 

interested in receiving comments on 

regulations that have been in effect for 

a sufficient amount of time to warrant 

a fair evaluation. Comments should 

reference a specific regulation by 

citation to the Code of Federal 

Regulations, and provide information on 

the perceived problem and the rationale 

for any recommended solution. 

Commenters should focus on rule 

changes that will achieve a broad public 

impact, rather than an individual 

personal or corporate benefit. 

This is a non-exhaustive list that is 

meant to assist in the formulation of 

comments and is not intended to limit 

the issues that commenters may choose 

to address. 

1. How can HUD best obtain and 

consider accurate, objective information 

and data about the cost, burdens, and 

benefits of existing regulations? Are 

there existing sources of data available 

that HUD can use to evaluate the effects 

of its regulations over time? 

2. What factors should HUD use to 

select and prioritize rules and reporting 

requirements for review? 

3. Are there any specific existing HUD 

regulatory requirements that are illadvised or so burdensome as to merit 

elimination? 

4. Are there any specific existing HUD 

regulatory requirements that, while 

necessary, are ineffective and in need of 

streamlining or other modification to 

achieve their objectives? Why are these 

requirements ineffective—are they 

unnecessarily complicated, 

burdensome, or outdated? What changes 

to the regulations would increase their 

usefulness and meet HUD’s objectives? 

5. Are there any HUD regulatory 

requirements that have been overtaken 

by technological developments? Can 

new technologies be used to modify, 

streamline, or do away with these 

requirements? 

6. Are there any existing HUD 

requirements that duplicate or conflict 

with requirements of another Federal 

agency? Can the requirement be 

modified to eliminate the conflict? 

7. Are there HUD regulations that are 

working well and that can be expanded 

or used as a model for other HUD 

programs? 

Dated: February 22, 2011. 

Helen R. Kanovsky, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2011–4563 Filed 3–1–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4210–67–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

10 CFR Part 431 

[Docket No. EERE–2010–BT–STD–0048] 

RIN 1904–AC04 

Energy Conservation Standards for 

Distribution Transformers: Public 

Meeting and Availability of the 

Preliminary Technical Support 

Document 

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy, Department of 

Energy. 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and 

availability of preliminary technical 

support document. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE or Department) will hold 

a public meeting to discuss and receive 

comments on the following issues: The 

equipment classes DOE plans to analyze 

for the purpose of considering the 

amendment of energy conservation 

standards for distribution transformers; 

the analytical framework, models, and 

tools DOE is using to evaluate standards 

for this type of equipment; the results of 

preliminary analyses performed by DOE 

for this equipment; and potential energy 

conservation standard levels derived 

from these analyses that DOE could 

consider for this equipment. DOE also 

encourages interested parties to submit 

written comments on these subjects. To 

inform stakeholders and facilitate the 

public meeting and comment process, 

DOE has prepared an agenda, a 

preliminary technical support document 

(TSD), and briefing materials, which are 

available at: http:// 

www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ 

appliance_standards/commercial/ 

distribution_transformers.html. 


emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with PROPOSALS