Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices 32949 

138 and 49 U.S.C. 303; 23 CFR part 

774 

• American Indian Religious Freedom 

Act, 42 U.S.C. 1996 

• Farmland Protection Policy Act 

(FPPA), 7 U.S.C. 4201–4209 

• Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251– 

1377, Sections 401, 404, and 319 

• Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, 33 

U.S.C. 403 

• Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, 16 U.S.C. 

1271–1287 

• Emergency Wetlands Resources Act, 

16 U.S.C. 3921, 3931 

• Wetlands Mitigation, 23 U.S.C. 

103(b)(6)(m), 133(b)(3) 

• FHWA wetland and natural habitat 

mitigation regulations, 23 CFR part 

777 

• Flood Disaster Protection Act, 42 

U.S.C. 4001–4128 

• Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), 42 

U.S.C. 300f–300j–6 

• Section 4(f) of the Department of 

Transportation Act of 1966, 23 U.S.C. 

138 and 49 U.S.C. 303; and 23 CFR 

part 774 

• Land and Water Conservation Fund 

(LWCF), Public Law 88–578, 78 Stat. 

897 (known as Section 6(f)) 

• Comprehensive Environmental 

Response, Compensation, and 

Liability Act (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 

9601–9675 

• Superfund Amendments and 

Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA), 

42 U.S.C. 9671–9675 

• Resource Conservation and Recovery 

Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. 6901–6992k 

• Landscaping and Scenic 

Enhancement (Wildflowers), 23 

U.S.C. 319 

• E.O. 11990, Protection of Wetlands 

• E.O. 11988, Floodplain Management 

(except approving design standards 

and determinations that a significant 

encroachment is the only practicable 

alternative under 23 CFR 650.113 and 

650.115) 

• E.O. 12898, Federal Actions to 

Address Environmental Justice in 

Minority Populations and Low 

Income Populations 

• E.O. 11593, Protection and 

Enhancement of Cultural Resources 

• E.O. 13007, Indian Sacred Sites 

• E.O. 13175 Consultation and 

Coordination with Indian Tribal 

Governments 

• E.O. 13122 and E.O. 13751, Invasive 

Species 

• Planning and Environmental 

Linkages, 23 U.S.C. 168, except for 

those FHWA responsibilities 

associated with 23 U.S.C. 134 and 135 

• Programmatic Mitigation Plans, 23 

U.S.C. 169 except for those FHWA 

responsibilities associated with 23 

U.S.C. 134 and 135 

The MOU allows the State to act in 

the place of FHWA in carrying out the 

functions described above, except with 

respect to government-to-government 

consultations with federally recognized 

Indian Tribes. The FHWA will retain 

responsibility for conducting formal 

government-to-government consultation 

with federally recognized Indian Tribes, 

which is required under some of the 

above-listed laws and Executive Orders. 

The State may also assist FHWA with 

formal consultations, with consent of a 

tribe, but FHWA remains responsible for 

the consultation. 

This assignment includes transfer to 

the State of Nebraska the obligation to 

fulfill the assigned environmental 

responsibilities on any proposed 

projects meeting the criteria in 

Stipulation 1(B) of the MOU that were 

determined to be CEs prior to the 

effective date of the proposed MOU but 

that have not been completed as of the 

effective date of the MOU. 

The FHWA will consider the 

comments submitted on the proposed 

MOU when making its decision on 

whether to execute this MOU. The 

FHWA will make the final, executed 

MOU publicly available. 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program Number 20.205, Highway Planning 

and Construction. The regulations 

implementing Executive Order 12372 

regarding intergovernmental consultation on 

Federal programs and activities apply to this 

program.) 

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 326; 42 U.S.C. 4331, 

4332; 23 CFR 771.117; 40 CFR 1507.3, 

1508.4. 

Joseph A. Werning, 

Division Administrator, Federal Highway 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2018–15099 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration 

[Docket No. FMCSA–2015–0149] 

Withdrawal of Proposed 

Enhancements to the Safety 

Measurement System 

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration (FMCSA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: On June 29, 2015 and October 

5, 2016, FMCSA proposed 

enhancements to the Agency’s Safety 

Measurement System (SMS) and 

published a preview version of the 

changes. However, the Fixing America’s 

Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) 

required the National Research Council 

of the National Academy of Sciences 

(NAS) to conduct a study of FMCSA’s 

Compliance, Safety, Accountability 

(CSA) program and the Safety 

Measurement System (SMS). NAS 

published their report titled, 

‘‘Improving Motor Carrier Safety 

Measurement’’ on June 27, 2017. This 

notice announces that FMCSA will not 

complete the enhancements previously 

proposed and the preview is removed 

from the SMS website. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Barbara Baker, Compliance Division, 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, 

Telephone (202) 366–3397 or by email 

at Barbara.Baker@dot.gov. Office hours 

are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., ET, 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. If you have questions 

regarding viewing or submitting 

material to the docket, contact Docket 

Services, telephone (202) 366–9826. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

June 2015 Notice 

On June 29, 2015 (80 FR 37037), 

FMCSA proposed the SMS 

enhancements and requested initial 

comments in advance of providing 

motor carriers with a preview of how 

their safety performance data would be 

presented on the SMS website. The 

proposed changes included: 

1. Changing some of the SMS 

Intervention Thresholds to better reflect 

the Behavior Analysis and Safety 

Improvement Categories’ (BASICs) 

correlation to crash risk. 

2. Two changes to the Hazardous 

Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC: 

a. Segmenting the HM Compliance 

BASIC by Cargo Tank (CT) and non-CT 

carriers; and 

b. Releasing motor carrier percentile 

rankings under the HM Compliance 

BASIC to the public. 

3. Reclassifying violations for 

operating while Out of Service (OOS) 

under the Unsafe Driving BASIC rather 

than the BASIC of the underlying OOS 

violation. 

4. Increasing the maximum Vehicle 

Miles Traveled used in the Utilization 

Factor to more accurately reflect the 

operations of high-utilization carriers. 

The Agency’s analysis and 

explanations were provided in the June 

29, 2015, notice. Stakeholders had 30 

days to submit comments. The comment 

period ended on July 29, 2015. 

October 2016 Notice 

The October 5, 2016, Federal Register 

notice (81 FR 69185) announced a 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
32950 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices 

preview of proposed enhancements to 

the SMS website, responded to 

comments to the June 2015 Federal 

Register notice, and advised of 

additional enhancements. 

As a result, the preview reflected six 

potential changes to the SMS 

methodology for calculating percentiles. 

1. SMS Intervention Thresholds were 

adjusted to better reflect correlation to 

crash risk. 

2. Changes to the HM Compliance 

BASIC to segment by CT and non-CT 

carriers and to post motor carrier 

percentile rankings under the HM 

Compliance BASIC to the public. 

3. Reclassifying violations for 

operating while OOS under the Unsafe 

Driving BASIC rather than the BASIC of 

the underlying OOS violation. 

4. Increasing the maximum vehicle 

miles traveled used in the Utilization 

Factor to more accurately reflect the 

operations of high-utilization carriers. 

5. Increasing the minimum number of 

crashes in the Crash Indicator BASIC 

from two to three. 

6. Assigning BASIC percentiles only 

to carriers that have had an inspection 

with a violation in the past year. 

Only 25 comments were received on 

the preview from 11 individuals, five 

trucking or bus companies, nine 

associations and one safety consultant. 

Eight commenters posted comments 

regarding determining the preventability 

of crashes; therefore, these comments 

were outside of the scope of the notice. 

Four other commenters made broad 

comments about the Agency that were 

not applicable to this notice. In 

addition, the Insurance Institute of 

Highway Safety provided a copy of their 

report titled ‘‘Crash Risk Factors for 

Interstate Large Trucks in North 

Carolina’’ as support for the Agency’s 

correlation of vehicle maintenance to 

crashes. 

FAST Act Correlation Study 

Section 5221 of the FAST Act, titled 

‘‘Correlation Study,’’ required FMCSA 

to commission the National Research 

Council of the National Academies to 

conduct a study of FMCSA’s CSA 

program and SMS. 

On June 27, 2017, NAS published the 

report titled ‘‘Improving Motor Carrier 

Safety Measurement.’’ The report is 

available at https://www.nap.edu/ 

catalog/24818/improving-motor-carriersafety-measurement. In preparing the 

report, NAS collected and analyzed all 

the quantitative data available to 

FMCSA in its databases, which contain 

information on the safety of commercial 

motor carriers and drivers subject to the 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Regulations and the HM Regulations. In 

addition, NAS held three public 

meetings to engage stakeholders from 

the truck and bus industry, safety 

advocates, researchers, and other 

government organizations. The meeting 

agendas are included in an appendix to 

the report. FMCSA accepted the NAS 

report’s recommendations, including 

the recommendation to develop a new 

statistical model to support the SMS, 

and is working to implement the 

recommended changes. The NAS 

cautioned the Agency against making 

changes to the algorithm based on ad 

hoc analysis and instead to rely on the 

Item Response Theory model. 

SMS Preview Site 

As a result of the ongoing 

implementation of the NAS 

recommendations, FMCSA removed the 

preview from the SMS website and will 

not be proceeding with the proposed 

changes at this time. 

Issued on: July 10, 2018. 

Raymond P. Martinez, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2018–15109 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration 

[Docket No. FMCSA–2018–0189] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; New Information Collection: 

Truck and Bus Maintenance 

Requirements and Their Impact on 

Safety 

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration (FMCSA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 

FMCSA announces its plan to submit 

the Information Collection Request (ICR) 

described below to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for its 

review and approval and invites public 

comment. This new request titled 

‘‘Truck and Bus Maintenance 

Requirements and Their Impact on 

Safety’’ will allow for a study that 

focuses on vehicle maintenance and 

aims to determine the impact of vehicle 

maintenance requirements on overall 

motor carrier safety. This information 

collection supports the DOT Strategic 

Goal of Safety. 

DATES: We must receive your comments 

on or before September 14, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

identified by Federal Docket 

Management System (FDMS) Docket 

Number FMCSA–2018–0189 using any 

of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Fax: 1–202–493–2251. 

• Mail: Docket Operations; 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: U.S. 

Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

Washington, DC 20590–0001 between 9 

a.m. and 5 p.m. e.t., Monday through 

Friday, except Federal holidays. 

Instructions: All submissions must 

include the Agency name and docket 

number. For detailed instructions on 

submitting comments, see the Public 

Participation heading below. Note that 

all comments received will be posted 

without change to http://

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. Please 

see the Privacy Act heading below. 

Docket: For access to the docket to 

read background documents or 

comments received, go to http://

www.regulations.gov, and follow the 

online instructions for accessing the 

dockets, or go to the street address listed 

above. 

Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 

U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments 

from the public to better inform its 

rulemaking process. DOT posts these 

comments, without edit, including any 

personal information the commenter 

provides, to www.regulations.gov, as 

described in the system of records 

notice (DOT/ALL–14 FDMS), which can 

be reviewed at www.dot.gov/privacy. 

Public Participation: The Federal 

eRulemaking Portal is available 24 

hours each day, 365 days each year. You 

can obtain electronic submission and 

retrieval help and guidelines under the 

‘‘help’’ section of the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal website. If you want 

us to notify you that we received your 

comments, please include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope or 

postcard, or print the acknowledgement 

page that appears after submitting 

comments online. Comments received 

after the comment closing date will be 

included in the docket and will be 

considered to the extent practicable. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Quon Y. Kwan, Program Manager, 

Technology Division, Department of 

Transportation, OA, West Building 6th 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES