69692 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 224 / Tuesday, November 20, 2012 / Notices 

1 In a future rulemaking, the Department may 

address the use of debit cards in purchasing charter 

air transportation. 

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 

[Disaster Declaration #13382 and #13383] 

North Carolina Disaster #NC–00046 

AGENCY: U.S. Small Business 

Administration. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This is a notice of an 

Administrative declaration of a disaster 

for the State of North Carolina dated 11/ 

08/2012. 

Incident: Hurricane Sandy. 

Incident Period: 10/27/2012 through 

10/30/2012. 

Effective Date: 11/08/2012. 

Physical Loan Application Deadline 

Date: 01/07/2013. 

Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan 

Application Deadline Date: 08/08/2013. 

ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan 

applications to: U.S. Small Business 

Administration, Processing and 

Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport 

Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A. 

Escobar, Office of Disaster Assistance, 

U.S. Small Business Administration, 

409 3rd Street SW., Suite 6050, 

Washington, DC 20416. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is 

hereby given that as a result of the 

Administrator’s disaster declaration, 

applications for disaster loans may be 

filed at the address listed above or other 

locally announced locations. 

The following areas have been 

determined to be adversely affected by 

the disaster: 

Primary Counties: Dare. 

Contiguous Counties: 

North Carolina: Currituck; Hyde; 

Tyrrell. 

The Interest Rates are: 

Percent 

For Physical Damage: 

Homeowners With Credit Available Elsewhere ...................... 3.375 

Homeowners Without Credit 

Available Elsewhere .............. 1.688 

Businesses With Credit Available Elsewhere ...................... 6.000 

Businesses Without Credit 

Available Elsewhere .............. 4.000 

Non-Profit Organizations With 

Credit Available Elsewhere ... 3.125 

Non-Profit Organizations Without Credit Available Elsewhere ..................................... 3.000 

For Economic Injury: 

Businesses & Small Agricultural 

Cooperatives Without Credit 

Available Elsewhere .............. 4.000 

Non-Profit Organizations Without Credit Available Elsewhere ..................................... 3.000 

The number assigned to this disaster 

for physical damage is 133828 and for 

economic injury is 133830. 

The State which received an EIDL 

Declaration # is North Carolina. 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Numbers 59002 and 59008) 

Dated: November 8, 2012. 

Karen G. Mills, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2012–28256 Filed 11–19–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8025–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary 

Guidance on Review and Approval of 

Public Charter Prospectuses 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, 

Department of Transportation. 

ACTION: Guidance on Review and 

Approval of Public Charter 

Prospectuses. 

SUMMARY: The Department is publishing 

the following notice on new policies 

affecting the review and approval of 

public charter filings under 14 CFR Part 

380 and related changes in the 

Department’s enforcement policies. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Nicholas Lowry, Attorney, Office of 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 

(C–70), 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., 

Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366–9349. 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary 

Washington, DC 

Guidance on Review and Approval of 

Public Charter Prospectuses 

Notice 

The abrupt cessation of service by the 

public charter operator, Southern Sky 

Air & Tours, LLC d/b/a Direct Air, in 

March 2012, and its subsequent 

bankruptcy, resulted in the cancellation 

of numerous charter flights and 

disrupted the travel plans of thousands 

of consumers. In light of the Direct Air 

collapse, the Office of International 

Aviation’s Special Authorities Division, 

in conjunction with the Office of 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 

(Enforcement Office), has revised its 

policies regarding the review and 

approval of public charter prospectuses 

filed under 14 CFR Part 380 and the 

related enforcement policy. 

A number of practices followed by 

Direct Air may have exacerbated 

consumer harm. Among these were 

Direct Air’s contracting out of its 

reservations process to a third party, 

and its entry into direct air carrier 

contracts that were apparently limited 

to providing aircraft, crew, maintenance 

and insurance (ACMI). The public 

charter operator separately contracted 

on its own behalf directly with fuel 

suppliers and perhaps ground handlers. 

In addition, the charter operator 

collected consumer funds, accepting 

debit as well as credit card payments, 

through a voucher program in which 

consumers paid in advance for flights 

without selecting specific travel dates 

and without entering into the formal 

operator-participant contracts required 

by Part 380. 

In the future, pursuant to the public 

interest responsibilities we have under 

14 CFR 380.24, we will no longer 

approve public charter prospectus 

filings that do not, as part of the filings, 

contain: 

(1) A statement, in addition to that 

required under section 380.28(a)(1)(iii), 

confirming that the contracts between 

the public charter operator and the 

direct air carriers include the full cost 

of the direct air service; that is, contracts 

between the tour operator and the direct 

air carriers must be all-inclusive and 

cannot be ACMI (i.e., fuel or ground 

handling cannot be addressed in 

separate contracts between the public 

charter operator and a third-party 

vendor); and 

(2) A statement that the public charter 

operator will retain direct control of all 

passenger reservation records and will 

share those records with the direct air 

carrier to ensure that, in the event of a 

major disruption in the program as 

occurred with Direct Air, the direct air 

carrier would be able to identify and 

contact tour participants regarding 

returning flights, and to ensure that the 

charter operator can fulfill its obligation 

to provide appropriate cancellation 

notices to those with reservations more 

than 10 days in the future; if a public 

charter operator contracts with a thirdparty for reservations service, a 

duplicate, current copy of all 

reservations records must be accessible 

to the tour operator at all times. 

In addition, to ensure that consumers 

not paying in cash receive the 

protections of the Fair Credit Billing Act 

(15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), public charter 

operators may accept payment, as the 

explicit language of section 380.31 

currently provides, only by credit card, 

but not by debit card.1 The Department 

will consider exemptions to this 

requirement provided it can be assured 

that debit card issuers, their merchant 


wreier-aviles on DSK5TPTVN1PROD with 
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 224 / Tuesday, November 20, 2012 / Notices 69693 

banks and credit card/debit card 

processors, will provide the same 

chargeback protections to those using 

debit cards as credit card users receive 

under the Fair Credit Billing Act. 

Finally, as a matter of enforcement 

policy, the Enforcement Office will 

consider any voucher program such as 

that offered by Direct Air a per se 

violation of 14 CFR Part 380, and if that 

office discovers such a program it will 

pursue immediate enforcement action. 

A voucher program that accepts 

consumer funds without the consumer 

entering into a contract with specific 

flight dates is not the equivalent of the 

operator-participant contract required 

under Part 380 and does not provide 

protection of consumer funds under the 

escrow provisions of section 380.34. 

This revised policy regarding 

approval of charter prospectuses will 

take effect 30 days from the date of this 

notice. Prospectuses filed after that date 

will not be accepted without the 

supplemental statements, outlined 

above. The Enforcement Office intends 

to undertake enforcement action, where 

appropriate, if it obtains evidence of 

violations of commitments made in 

those statements, or of the acceptance of 

debit purchases, or of sales initiatives 

such as the voucher program described 

above. Questions regarding this notice 

may be addressed to the Office of 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 

(C–70), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., 

Washington, DC 20590. 

An electronic version of this 

document is available at http:// 

www.regulations.gov 

Dated: November 13, 2012. 

Paul L. Gretch, 

Director, Office of International Aviation. 

Samuel Podberesky, 

Assistant General Counsel for Aviation 

Enforcement and Proceedings. 

[FR Doc. 2012–28060 Filed 11–19–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request 

November 14, 2012. 

The Department of the Treasury will 

submit the following information 

collection request to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

review and clearance in accordance 

with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995, Public Law 104–13, on or after the 

date of publication of this notice. 

DATES: Comments should be received on 

or before December 20, 2012 to be 

assured of consideration. 

ADDRESSES: Send comments regarding 

the burden estimate, or any other aspect 

of the information collection, including 

suggestion for reducing the burden, to 

(1) Office of Information and Regulatory 

Affairs, Office of Management and 

Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for 

Treasury, New Executive Office 

Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 

20503, or email at 

OIRA_Submission@OMB.EOP.GOV and 

(2) Treasury PRA Clearance Officer, 

1750 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Suite 

8140, Washington, DC 20220, or email 

at PRA@treasury.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Copies of the submission(s) may be 

obtained by calling (202) 927–5331, 

email at PRA@treasury.gov, or the entire 

information collection request maybe 

found at www.reginfo.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Generic Clearances for 

Meaningful Access Information 

Collections. 

OMB Control Number: NEW. 

Abstract: A court order was issued in 

American Council of the Blind v. 

Paulson, 591 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 

2008) (‘‘ACB v. Paulson’’) requiring the 

Department of the Treasury and BEP to 

‘‘provide meaningful access to United 

States currency for blind and other 

visually impaired persons, which steps 

shall be completed, in connection with 

each denomination of currency, not 

later than the date when a redesign of 

that denomination is next approved by 

the Secretary of the Treasury * * *.’’ 

In compliance with the court’s order, 

BEP intends to meet individually with 

blind and visually impaired persons and 

request their feedback about tactile 

features that BEP is considering for 

possible incorporation into the next U.S. 

paper currency redesign. BEP 

employees will attend national 

conventions and conferences for 

disabled persons. At those gatherings, 

BEP employees will invite blind and 

visually impaired persons to provide 

feedback about certain tactile features 

being considered for inclusion in future 

United States currency paper designs. 

The BEP also intends to contract with 

specialists in the field of visual acuity 

to develop methodologies for 

conducting scientific tests. Using those 

methodologies, the BEP or its contracted 

specialists will conduct acuity testing 

with select groups of blind and visually 

impaired volunteers. The acuity tests 

will help either confirm or provide 

other perspectives on the results of 

BEP’s information collections at 

national conferences and conventions. 

The acuity tests will also help ground 

bases for which BEP determines the 

tactile feature to be incorporated into 

the next United States paper currency 

design. 

The BEP’s information collection 

activities at national conferences will 

use identical methodologies or 

otherwise share a common element. 

Similarly, the BEP’s scientific studies 

will use very similar methodologies or 

share a common element. Thus the BEP, 

in order to comply with the court’s 

order in ACB v. Paulson requests OMB 

approval for two generic clearances to 

conduct various information collection 

activities. Over the next three years, the 

BEP anticipates undertaking a variety of 

new information collection activities 

related to BEP’s efforts to provide 

meaningful access to U.S. paper 

currency for blind and visually 

impaired persons. Following standard 

OMB requirements, for each information 

collection that BEP proposes to 

undertake under each of these generic 

clearances, the OMB will be notified at 

least two weeks in advance and 

provided with a copy of the information 

collection instrument along with 

supportive materials. The BEP will only 

undertake a new collection if the OMB 

does not object to the BEP’s proposal. 

Type of Review: New Collection. 

Affected Public: Individuals, 

Organizations. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

Approximately 500 per year. The BEP 

will conduct the majority of its 

information collection activities at 

conferences and conventions of 

organizations of blind and visually 

impaired persons. The BEP is able to 

estimate the number of attendees at 

such conferences and meetings based on 

historical data. The BEP, however, only 

collects information from volunteers 

who stop by its information booth, and 

who care to take the time responding to 

questions. It is difficult, therefore, to 

estimate the actual number of 

respondents from whom BEP may be 

able to collect information in a year. The 

BEP’s scientific studies may include 

more focused sample sizes, comprised 

of persons volunteering to participate in 

the studies. 

Estimated Average Time per 

Respondent: 30 minutes per response. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: Approximately 250 burden 

hours. 

Request for Comments: Comments 

submitted in response to this notice will 

be summarized and/or included in the 

request for Office of Management and 

Budget approval. All comments will 

become a matter of public record. The 

public is invited to submit written 

comments concerning: (a) Whether the 


wreier-aviles on DSK5TPTVN1PROD with