Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 201 / Tuesday, October 17, 2000 / Notices 61367

1 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4.

3See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 43060

(July 23, 2000), 65 FR 46188.

4See letter from Lynette K. Hotchkiss, Vice

President and Associate General Counsel, The Bond

Market Association, to Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary,

SEC, dated August 11, 2000.

NUCLEAR REGULATORY

COMMISSION

Sunshine Act Meeting

AGENCY HOLDING THE MEETING: Nuclear

Regulatory Commission.

DATE: Weeks of October 16, 23, 30,

November 6, 13, and 20, 2000.

PLACE: Commissioners’ Conference

Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,

Maryland.

STATUS: Public and Closed.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: 

Week of October 16

Tuesday, October 17

11:25 a.m.

Affirmation Session (Public

Meeting) (If needed)

Week of October 23—Tentative

Monday, October 23

1:55 p.m.

Affirmation Session (Public

Meeting) (If needed)

Week of October 30—Tentative

There are no meetings scheduled for

the Week of October 30.

Week of November 6—Tentative

There are no meetings scheduled for

the Week of November 6.

Week of November 13—Tentative

Friday, November 17

9:25 a.m.

Affirmation Session (Public Meeting)

(If needed)

9:30 a.m.

Briefing on Risk-Informed Regulation

Implementation Plan (Public

Meeting) (Contact: Tom King, 301–

415–5790)

This meeting will be webcast live at

the Web address: www.nrc.gov/

live.html.

Week of November 20—Tentative

There are no meetings scheduled for

the Week of November 20.

The schedule for Commission

meetings is subject to change on short

notice. To verify the status of meetings

call (recording)—(301) 415–1292.

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Bill Hill (301) 415–1661.

The NRC Commission Meeting

Schedule can be found on the Internet

at: http://www.nrc.gov/SECY/smj/

schedule.htm.

This notice is distributed by mail to

several hundred subscribers; if you no

longer wish to receive it, or would like

to be added to it, please contact the

Office of the Secretary, Attn: Operations

Branch, Washington, DC 20555 (301–

415–1661). In addition, distribution of

this meeting notice over the Internet

system is available. If you are interested

in receiving this Commission meeting

schedule electronically, please send an

electronic message to wmh@nrc.gov or

dkw@nrc.gov.

Dated: October 13, 2000.

William M. Hill, Jr.,

Secy Tracking Officer, Office of the Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–26783 Filed 10–13–00; 3:04

p.m.]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–M

NUCLEAR REGULATORY

COMMISSION

Availability of NUREG–1307, Revision

9, ‘‘Report on Waste Burial Charges.

Changes in Decommissioning Waste

Disposal Costs at Low-Level Waste

Burial Facilities’’

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory

Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory

Commission is announcing the

completion and availability of NUREG–

1307, Revision 9, ‘‘Report on Waste

Burial Charges,’’ dated September 2000.

ADDRESSES: NUREG–1307 may be

purchased from The Superintendent of

Documents, U.S. Government Printing

Office, P.O. Box 37082, Washington, DC

20402–9328; www.access.gpo.gov/su

docs; 202–512–1800; or The National

Technical Information Service,

Springfield, Virginia 22161–0002;

www.ntis.gov; 1–800–553–6847 or,

locally, 703–605–6000.

You may also electronically access

NUREG—series publications and other

NRC records at NRC’s Public Electronic

Reading Room at www.nrc.gov/NRC/

ADAMS/index.html.

This publication is also posted at

NRC’s Web site address www.nrc.gov/

NRC/NUREGS/indexnum.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

David J. Wrona, Division of Licensing

Project Management, Office of Nuclear

Reactor Regulation, Washington, DC

20555–0001 (telephone 301–415–1924).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Nuclear

power reactor licensees are required, per

10 CFR 50.75, to adjust annually the

estimated decommissioning costs of

their nuclear facilities in order to ensure

adequate funds are available for

decommissioning. The regulation

references NUREG–1307 as the

appropriate source for obtaining the

adjustment factor for waste burial/

disposition costs; this Revision 9 of

NUREG–1307 provides the current

waste burial costs at the Washington

and South Carolina disposal sites. In

addition, this revision provides costs for

low-level radioactive waste disposition

using waste vendors. Licensees can

factor these numbers into the

adjustment formula, as specified in 10

CFR 50.75(c)(2), to determine the

minimum decommissioning fund

requirement for their nuclear facilities.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 6th day

of October 2000.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Michael T. Masnik,

Chief, Decommissioning Section, Project

Directorate IV & Decommissioning, Division

of Licensing Project Management, Office of

Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

[FR Doc. 00–26643 Filed 10–16–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–M

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE

COMMISSION

(Release No. 34–43426; File No. SR–MSRB–

00–08)

Self-Regulatory (Organizations;

Municipal Securities Rulemaking

Board; Order Approving Proposed

Rule Change Relating to Reports of

Sales and Purchases, Pursuant to Rule

G–14

October 10, 2000.

I. Introduction

On June 15, 2000, the Municipal

Securities Rulemaking Board (‘‘MSRB’’

or ‘‘Board’’) submitted to the Securities

and Exchange Commission (‘‘SEC’’ or

‘‘Commission’’) pursuant to Section

19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act

of 1934 (‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4

thereunder,2 a proposed rule change

relating to reports of sales and

purchases, pursuant to MSRB Rule G–

14. The proposed rule change was

published for comment in the Federal

Register on July 27, 2000.3 The

Commission received one comment

letter on the proposal.4 This order

approves the Board’s proposal.

II. Description of the Proposal

a. Introduction

According to the Board, one of its

long-standing policies is to increase

price transparency in the municipal

61368 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 201 / Tuesday, October 17, 2000 / Notices

5The Board began distributing a report

summarizing prices for issues that are frequently

traded on the inter-dealer market in 1995; in 1998,

dealer-customer prices were added in a second

summary report; and in January 2000, a report with

details of trades in frequently traded issues was

added. See Securities Exchange Act Release No.

42241 (December 16, 1999), 64 FR 72123 (December

23, 1999). The proposed rule change would not

affect the summary and detailed public reports of

frequently traded issues.

6See, e.g., ‘‘Board to Proceed with Pilot Program

to Disseminate Inter-Dealer Transaction

Information,’’ MSRB Reports, Vol. 14, No. 1

(January 1994). In its approval order for the InterDealer Daily Report, the SEC noted that the Board,

in proceeding to subsequent levels of transparency,

‘‘should continue to work toward publicly

disseminating the maximum level of useful

information to the public while ensuring that the

information and manner in which it is presented is

not misleading.’’ See Securities Exchange Act

Release No. 34955 (November 9, 1994), 59 FR 59810

(November 18, 1994).

7To enable the Board to compile a

comprehensive trade database for enforcement

purposes, dealers report certain data after trade

date. These data are not available to the Board in

time to be included in the T + 1 daily reports. The

post-T data also include ‘‘corrections’’ to trades that

were initially reported inaccurately with regard to

price, par, etc. Corrected and late trades in

frequently traded issues amount to about 6 percent

of the number of trades included in the current T

+ 1 daily reports.

8See supra note 4.

9See letter from Larry Lawrence, Policy and

Technical Advisor, MSRB, to Kelly Riley, Division

of Market Regulation, SEC, dated September 1,

2000.

10 In approving this rule, the Commission has

considered the proposed rule’s impact on

efficiency, competition, and capital formation. 15

U.S.C. 78c(f). 11 15 U.S.C. 78o–4(b)(2)(C).

securities market. Since 1995, the Board

has expanded the scope of public

transparency in several steps.5 Each step

has provided industry participants and

the public successively more

information about the market.

The Board’s reports currently provide

information about ‘‘frequently traded’’

municipal securities. ‘‘Frequently

traded’’ municipal securities are those

municipal securities that trade four or

more times on a given business day. The

existing reports are produced daily on a

T + 1 basis, i.e., with information for

trades effected during the proceeding

day.

In designing the first T + 1

transparency report and subsequent

enhanced versions, the Board adopted

the threshold of four trades a day

because of its concern that an isolated

transaction may not necessarily provide

a reliable indicator of ‘‘market

price’’and might be misleading to an

observer not familiar with the market.

At the same time, the Board committed

to review the use of these reports and

eventually to move to a more

contemporaneous and comprehensive

price transparency report.6

b. Proposed Report

The Board is now proposing to make

publicly available a Comprehensive

Transaction Report that would include

information on all individual municipal

securities transactions. For each trade,

the proposed Report would show the

trade date, the CUSIP number of the

issue traded, a short description of the

issue, the par value traded, the time of

the trade report by the dealer, the price

of the transaction, and the reported

yield of transaction, if any. Each

transaction would be categorized as a

sale by a dealer to a customer, a

purchase from a customer, or an interdealer trade.

In addition to information on

infrequently traded issues, the proposed

Report would provide information on

two other types of trades not in the

current Daily Transaction Reports:

trades reported late (after trade date),

and corrected trades (trades reported

incorrectly on trade date that

subsequently are corrected by the

dealer.7

The proposed Comprehensive

Transaction Report would be made

available once a month to subscribers.

The Board would send subscribers each

month a compact disk containing all

trades effected during the previous

calender month. The Board plans to

make sample disks with a single

month’s data available to prospective

users without charge, so that they may

determine whether they wish to

subscribe.

The Board is proposing to establish a

fee of $2,000 for an annual subscription.

According to the Board, the proposed

fee is structured to defray the Board’s

cost for production of 12 monthly data

sets, transcription to compact disks,

mailing, and subscription maintenance.

III. Summary of Comment Letters

The Commission received one

comment letter regarding the proposed

rule change.8 The following summarizes

the issues raised in the comment letter

and the MSRB’s response.9

The commenter generally supported

the Board’s goal of providing

comprehensive and contemporaneous

transaction reports but provided several

suggestions that it believed would

increase the utility of the proposed

Comprehensive Transaction Report.

First, the commenter suggested that the

Board release transaction data for trades

that occur 30 days prior on a daily basis

rather than a cumulative monthly basis

at the end of the following month. The

commenter noted that the proposed

dissemination system could result in

data that was 60 days old by the time

of dissemination, limiting the

usefulness of the data. Second, the

commenter suggested that the Board

make the data available over the Internet

on secure, password protected sites,

rather that solely in compact disk

format. The commenter believes that an

Internet delivery system would be more

easily downloaded and used by

subscribers and would reduce the cost

of the service. Finally, the commenter

sought confirmation that the annual

subscription fee charged for the service

was directly related to the actual cost of

disseminating the data to ensure that the

service would not become a profit

center for the Board.

In response, the Board noted that

releasing data on a monthly basis is

currently the most cost-effective and

technologically efficient method. The

Board recognizes that some data will be

over a month old at the time of its

release but noted that it is evaluating the

means to release the data more

contemporaneously in the future. With

respect to the commenter’s suggestion

that the Board make the historical

transaction data available via the

Internet, the Board noted that to do so

would require an extremely large file

that would take a prohibitively long

time to download. The Board stated that

providing the historical data via the

Internet also would create technical and

technical-support issues for the Board.

The Board noted, however, that it would

continue to consider alternative delivery

methods in the future.

Finally, in response to the

commenter’s request for confirmation

regarding the subscription fees proposed

to be charged for the historical data, the

Board stated that the subscription fees

will not be so high as to create a profit

center for the Board, nor so low that the

service would require a subsidy from

dealer assessments. The Board reiterated

that it is attempting to defray the

approximate cost of disseminating the

data and of establishing and

maintaining subscriber accounts.

IV. Discussion

The Commission finds that the

proposed rule change is consistent with

the requirements of the Act and the

rules and regulations thereunder

applicable to the Board.10 In particular,

the Commission believes the proposed

rule change is consistent with Section

15B(b)(2)(C) of the Act,11 which

requires, among other things, that the

rules of the Board be designed to

prevent fraudulent and manipulative

acts and practices, to promote just and

equitable principles of trade, to foster

cooperation with persons engaged in

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 201 / Tuesday, October 17, 2000 / Notices 61369

12These trade volume statistics are based on

February 2000 market activity.

13 15 U.S.C. o–4(b)(2)(C).

14 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2).

15 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12).

regulating, clearing, settling, processing

information with respect to and

facilitating transactions in municipal

securities, to remove impediments to

and perfect the mechanism of a free and

open market in municipal securities,

and, in general, to protect investors and

the public interest.

The Commission finds that the

proposed Comprehensive Transaction

Report is consistent with the Act

because it will enhance transparency in

the municipal securities market. The

proposed Report will provide municipal

securities participants with more

transaction information about issues

currently being traded. In particular, the

MSRB represents that participants will

now have access to three times as many

transactions as are included in the

current T + 1 daily reports. According

to the MSRB, on average, 29,000

transactions would be reported per day.

Also, the MSRB represents that the

number of issues reported would

increase from about 1,600 on a typical

day to about 14,000.12 Furthermore, the

proposed Report expands the current T

+ 1 reports by also including trades

reported late and corrected trades. Thus,

this detailed Report will allow

municipal securities market participants

to monitor and analyze individual

trades in infrequently traded securities,

which should better assist them in

making informed investment decisions.

The proposed Report should also

enhance the price discovery process by

providing a more complete picture of

the municipal securities market. The

proposed Report will contain detailed

price information regarding frequently

traded issues as well as detailed price

information regarding infrequently

traded municipal securities, i.e., those

traded once, twice, or three times in a

given day.

The Commission commends the

MSRB’s efforts to increase municipal

market transparency by looking for

means to update its reporting programs

and systems. The Commission,

however, believes that the MSRB should

continue to work towards including

more information on infrequently traded

issues on a T + 1 basis, by shortening

the delay for publication of the

Comprehensive Transaction Report, or

by other collection and dissemination

methods. The Commission supports the

MSRB’s goal to ultimately provide

comprehensive and contemporaneous

transaction reports to the market.

The Commission is satisfied with the

Board’s response to the comment letter.

While the comment letter provided

valid and helpful suggestions, the Board

stated that it could not undertake the

changes relating to the delivery method

and the timing of delivery of the

historical data at this time due to

technology and cost constraints. The

Board did commit, however, to consider

the suggestions in the future once the

service becomes operative and the

Board has more experience with the

needs of subscribers. The Commission

believes that it would not be in the

public interest to postpone the

dissemination of the historical data as

proposed until the delivery method and

time of delivery could be modified to

satisfy the commenter’s suggestions.

Finally, the Commission believes that

the Board’s statement that the

subscription fees will neither generate

profits for the Board nor create the need

for dealers to subsidize its operations is

consistent with the requirements of

Section 15B(b)(2)(C) of the Act.13

In conclusion, the Commission finds

that the proposed rule change is

consistent with the Act because it

provides municipal securities market

participants with more detailed market

data upon which they will be able to

make more informed investment

decisions. Thus, the proposed rule

change should enhance the

transparency of the municipal securities

market.

V. Conclusion

It is therefore ordered, pursuant to

Section 19(b)(2) of the Act,14 that the

proposed rule change (SR–MSRB–00–

08) is hereby approved.

By the Commission, for the Division of

Market Regulation, pursuant to delegated

authority.15

Margaret H. McFarland,

Deputy Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–26545 Filed 10–16–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010–01–M

STATE JUSTICE INSTITUTE

Notice of Public Meeting

DATE: Friday, November 10, 2000, 9

a.m.–5 p.m.

PLACE: La Costa Hotel, Carlsbad, CA.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:

Consideration of proposals submitted

for Institute funding and internal

Institute business.

PORTIONS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC:

Consideration of proposals submitted

for Institute funding.

PORTIONS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC:

Discussion of internal personnel

matters.

CONTACT PERSON: David Tevelin,

Executive Director, State Justice

Institute, 1650 King Street, Suite 600,

Alexandria, VA 22314, (703) 684–6100.

David I. Tevelin,

Executive Director.

[FR Doc. 00–26735 Filed 10–13–00; 2:48 pm]

BILLING CODE 6820–SC–M

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration

Environmental Impact Statement; City

of Missoula, Montana

AGENCY: Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

SUMMARY: The FHWA hereby gives

notice that it intends to prepare an

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

for an urban corridor (involving Russell

Street and South 3rd Street) all within

the limits of the City of Missoula,

Missoula County, Montana. The study

will evaluate possible improvements to

these existing roadways and all practical

alignment alternatives.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.

Dale Paulson, Program Development

Engineer, Federal Highway

Administration, 2880 Skyway Drive,

Helena, Montana 59602; Telephone:

(406) 449–5303 ext. 239; Mr. Joel M.

Marshik, Manager, Environmental

Services, Montana Department of

Transportation, 2701 Prospect Avenue,

Helena, Montana 59602; Telephone:

(406) 444–7632; or Mr. Joe Oliphant,

Project Development Coordinator, City

of Missoula, 435 Ryman Street,

Missoula, Montana 59802–4207,

Telephone: (406) 523–2877.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Electronic Access

An electronic copy of this document

may be downloaded using a modem and

suitable communications software from

the Government Printing Office’s

Electronic Bulletin Board Service at

(202) 512–1661. Internet users may

reach the Office of the Federal Register’s

home page at http://www.nara.gov/

fedreg/ and the Government Printing

Office’s database at http://

www.access.gpo.gov.

Background

The FHWA, in cooperation with the

Montana Department of Transportation

(MDT) and the City of Missoula, will