49436 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 183 / Monday, September 22, 1997 / Rules and Regulations

provides an acceptable level of safety may be

used if approved by the Manager, Chicago

Aircraft Certification Office, FAA. Operators

shall submit their requests through an FAA

Principal Maintenance Inspector, who may

concur or comment and then send it to the

Manager, Chicago Aircraft Certification

Office.

Note 2: Information concerning the

existence of approved alternative methods of

compliance with this AD, if any, may be

obtained from the Chicago Aircraft

Certification Office.

(f) The check, test, and replacement, if

necessary, shall be done in accordance with

Enstrom Helicopter Corporation Service

Directive Bulletin No. 0086, dated March 31,

1996. This incorporation by reference was

approved by the Director of the Federal

Register in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)

and 1 CFR part 51. Copies may be obtained

from Enstrom Helicopter Corporation, Twin

County Airport, P.O. Box 490, Menominee,

Michigan 49858. Copies may be inspected at

the FAA, Office of the Assistant Chief

Counsel, 2601 Meacham Blvd., Room 663,

Fort Worth, Texas; or at the Office of the

Federal Register, 800 North Capitol Street,

NW., suite 700, Washington, DC.

(g) This amendment becomes effective on

October 7, 1997.

Issued in Fort Worth, Texas, on September

16, 1997.

Eric Bries,

Acting Manager, Rotorcraft Directorate,

Aircraft Certification Service.

[FR Doc. 97–25059 Filed 9–19–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of the Census

15 CFR Part 30

[Docket No. 970624153–7228–02]

RIN 0607–AA23

Conditional Exemptions for Filing

Shipper’s Export Declarations (SED)

for Tools of Trade

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census,

Commerce.

ACTION: Final rule.

SUMMARY: The Bureau of the Census is

amending the Foreign Trade Statistics

Regulations (FTSR) to include an

exemption for exporters who currently

must file a Shipper’s Export Declaration

(SED) for temporary exports of tools of

trade. This exemption will apply

whenever the tools of trade are

company-owned commodities and

software, accompany the employees or

representatives of the exporting

company, and are intended to remain

outside of the country for less than one

year. The current regulation only

allowed an exemption for filing an SED

when the tools of trade were owned by

individuals. This exemption will still

apply. The Department of Treasury

concurs with the provisions contained

in this rule.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This rule will become

effective September 22, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information

should be directed to C. Harvey Monk,

Jr., Chief, Foreign Trade Division,

Bureau of the Census, Room 2104,

Federal Building 3, Washington, D.C.

20233–6700, by telephone on (301) 457–

2255 or by fax on (301) 457–2645.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FTSR

currently exempts tools of trade that are

owned by individuals from the

requirement to file an SED. However, for

tools of trade owned by a company

rather than an individual, the FTSR

provided no such exemption.

Companies doing business abroad

requested that the Census Bureau

review the current regulation to allow

an exemption to eliminate the SED

filing requirement for company-owned

tools of trade that accompany

employees or representatives of the

company for temporary use abroad.

Based upon our evaluation of these

customer requests, the Census Bureau

determined to broaden the current

exemption criteria for filing SEDs to

include an exemption for companyowned tools of trade.

Based upon reviews by the Bureau of

Export Administration (BXA) and the

U.S. Customs Service, the Census

Bureau determined that, for statistical

purposes, it is not necessary to collect

information on temporary exports of

company-owned tools of trade that do

not normally require an export license

or that are exported without a license as

specified in 15 CFR 740.9 of the BXA

Export Administration Regulations

(EAR). For SED filing exemption

purposes, the Census Bureau will

include certain provisions of 15 CFR

740.9 of the EAR in its criteria for

exemptions to the SED filing

requirements.

Therefore, the Bureau of the Census is

amending 15 CFR 30.56 (b) to include

an exemption to SED filing

requirements for exports of companyowned tools of trade, which are

reasonable kinds and quantities of

commodities and software for use by

employees or representatives of the

company in its enterprises or

undertakings abroad. Commodities and

software are eligible for export under

this exemption provided that the

commodities and software:

(1) Are owned by the individual or

the exporting company;

(2) Accompany the individual

exporter, employee or representative of

the exporting company;

(3) Are necessary and appropriate and

intended for the personal and/or

business use of the individual exporter,

employee or representative of the

company or business;

(4) Are not for sale; and

(5) Are returned to the United States

no later than one year from the date of

export.

This revision to 15 CFR 30.56 (b) will

increase the conditional exemptions for

tools of trade owned by individuals,

companies and/or businesses and

minimize the reporting burden for filing

an SED.

Response to Comments

The Census Bureau issued a Notice of

Proposed Rulemaking and Request for

Comments in the Federal Register (62

FR 36242) on Monday, July 7, 1997. The

Bureau of the Census received four

letters commenting on the proposed

rule. All of the letters expressed support

for the proposal and recommended

prompt enactment of the final rule. No

changes were made to the final rule as

a result of comments received.

Rulemaking Requirements

This rule is exempt from all

requirements of Section 553 of the

Administrative Procedure Act because it

deals with a foreign affairs function (5

U.S.C. (A) (1)).

Because a notice of proposed

rulemaking was not required by 5 U.S.C.

553 or any other law, a Regulatory

Flexibility Analysis was not required

and was not prepared (5 U.S.C. 603(a)).

This rule is exempt from the

requirements of Executive Order 12866.

This rule does not contain policies

with Federalism implications sufficient

to warrant preparation of a Federalism

assessment under Executive Order

12612.

Paperwork Reduction Act

Notwithstanding any other provisions

of law, no person is required to respond

to, nor shall a person be subject to a

penalty for failure to comply with, a

collection of information subject to the

requirements of the Paperwork

Reduction Act (PRA) unless that

collection of information displays a

currently valid Office of Management

and Budget (OMB) control number.

This rule covers collections of

information subject to the provisions of

the Paperwork Reduction Act, which are

cleared by the Office of Management

and Budget under OMB control

numbers 0607–0001, 0607–0018, and

0607–0152.
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 183 / Monday, September 22, 1997 / Rules and Regulations 49437

This rule will result in a reduction of

reporting-hour burden requirements

under provisions of the Paperwork

Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104–

13.

List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 30

Economic statistics, Foreign trade,

Exports, Reporting and recordkeeping

requirements.

For the reasons set out in the

preamble, Part 30 is amended as

follows:

PART 30—FOREIGN TRADE

STATISTICS REGULATIONS

1. The authority citation for 15 CFR

Part 30 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 13 U.S.C. 301–

307; Reorganization Plan No. 5 of 1950 (3

CFR 1949–1953 Comp., p. 1004); Department

of Commerce Organization Order No. 35–2A.

August 4, 1975, 40 CFR 42765.

Subpart D—Exemptions from the

Requirements for the Filing of

Shipper’s Export Declarations

2. Section 30.56 (b) is revised to read

as follows:

§ 30.56 Conditional exemptions.

* * * * *

(b) Tools of trade are usual and

reasonable kinds and quantities of

commodities and software, and their

containers, that are intended for use by

individual exporters or by employees or

representatives of the exporting

company in furthering the enterprises

and undertakings of the exporter abroad.

Commodities and software eligible for

this exemption are those that do not

normally require an export license or

that are exported without a license as

specified in 15 CFR 740.9 of the EAR

(15 CFR chapter VII, subchapter C) and

are subject to the following provisions:

(1) Are owned by the individual

exporter or exporting company;

(2) Accompany the individual

exporter, employee or representative of

the exporting company;

(3) Are necessary and appropriate and

intended for the personal and/or

business use of the individual exporter,

employee or representative of the

company or business;

(4) Are not for sale; and

(5) Are returned to the United States

no later than one year from the date of

export.

* * * * *

Dated: September 5, 1997.

Martha Farnsworth Riche,

Director, Bureau of the Census.

[FR Doc. 97–25021 Filed 9–19–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

20 CFR Part 416

RIN 0960–AE67

Supplementary Security Income;

Overpayment Recovery by Offset of

Federal Income Tax Refund

AGENCY: Social Security Administration

ACTION: Final rules.

SUMMARY: These final regulations govern

use of the Federal income tax refund

offset program established under section

2653 of the Deficit Reduction Act of

1984, Pub. L. No. 98–369. They permit

the recovery of supplemental security

income (SSI) overpayments through the

withholding of amounts due to former

SSI recipients as Federal income tax

refunds. In these rules, we reflect the

provisions of the statute and explain the

procedures that we will follow in

referring SSI overpayments to the

Department of the Treasury for income

tax refund offset (TRO).

EFFECTIVE DATE: These final rules are

effective September 22, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Robert J. Augustine, Legal Assistant,

Division of Regulations and Rulings,

Social Security Administration, 6401

Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD

21235, (410) 966–5121. For information

on eligibility or claiming benefits, call

our national toll-free number, 1–800–

772–1213.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section

2653 of the Deficit Reduction Act of

1984, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 3720A and

26 U.S.C. § 6402(d), authorized the

Secretary of the Treasury, upon

receiving notice from a Federal agency

that a named individual owes the

agency a past-due, legally enforceable

debt, to withhold all or a part of any

income tax refund that is due to the

debtor and pay the amount withheld to

the agency. Section 2653 specifically

precluded the use of these procedures to

recover overpayments of Social Security

benefits paid under title II of the Social

Security Act (the Act). Under 31 U.S.C.

§ 3720A, a Federal agency that is owed

a past-due, legally enforceable debt by

an individual shall notify the Secretary

of the Treasury of the debt in

accordance with regulations issued by

the Department of the Treasury. The

applicable Treasury regulations are

codified at 31 CFR Part 285 (62 FR

34175). Before an agency may refer a

debt to Treasury, it must, under 31

U.S.C. § 3720A, take the following

actions: (1) notify the debtor that the

agency proposes to refer the debt for tax

refund offset; (2) give the debtor at least

60 days to present evidence that all or

part of the debt is not past-due or not

legally enforceable; (3) consider all

evidence the debtor presents in

determining that all or a part of the debt

is past-due and legally enforceable; and

(4) satisfy any other conditions that the

Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe

to ensure that the agency’s findings are

valid and that the agency has made

reasonable efforts to obtain the payment

of the debt.

Although section 2653 gave us the

authority to use the TRO provisions to

recover overpayments made to

recipients of SSI payments under title

XVI of the Act, we elected not to do so

at that time because we did not think it

appropriate to use a procedure we were

precluded from using to recover title II

overpayments to recover overpayments

made under the needs-based title XVI

program.

Section 5129 of the Omnibus Budget

Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA 90)

removed the restriction on using the

TRO provisions to recover title II

overpayments. Section 5129 added

several additional conditions to the

referral of title II overpayments for

offset. These included: (1) the overpaid

individual may not be currently entitled

to Social Security benefits under title II

of the Act; (2) the notice that we send

to the overpaid individual concerning

our intent to seek the offset must

describe the conditions under which we

are required to waive recovery of an

overpayment under section 204(b) of the

Act; and (3) if the overpaid individual

requests that we waive recovery of the

overpayment within the 60-day period

allowed under the program for

presenting evidence that the debt is not

past due or not legally enforceable, we

may not certify the overpayment to

Treasury without first issuing a

determination on the waiver request.

We issued final regulations on October

21, 1991 (56 FR 52466) implementing

these statutory changes.

Since that time, we have been

modifying our computer systems to

extend the TRO provisions to various

subgroups of former title II program

beneficiaries. We now have the

necessary systems modifications in

place to permit us to extend the TRO

provisions to the title XVI program, as

well. These title XVI rules closely

follow the existing rules for the title II

program, including the same conditions

that the OBRA 90 legislation required

for the title II program. That is, these

rules provide that: (1) the overpaid

individual may not currently be eligible

to receive SSI payments under title XVI

of the Act; (2) the notice we send to the

overpaid individual concerning our