77180 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 250 / Monday, December 31, 2012 / Notices 

for Comments’’ above). The Notice of 

Intent to Testify must include the name 

of the witness, name of the organization 

(if applicable), address, telephone 

number, fax number, and email address. 

A short Hearing Statement may 

accompany the Notice of Intent to 

Testify. 

4. Business Confidential Information 

A person requesting that information 

contained in a comment submitted by 

that person be treated as confidential 

business information must certify that 

such information is business 

confidential and would not customarily 

be released to the public by the 

submitter. Confidential business 

information must be clearly designated 

as such, the submission must be marked 

‘‘BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL’’ at the top 

and bottom of the cover page and each 

succeeding page, and the submission 

should indicate, via brackets, the 

specific information that is confidential. 

Additionally, ‘‘Business Confidential’’ 

should be included in the ‘‘Type 

comment’’ field. Anyone submitting a 

comment containing business 

confidential information must also 

submit, as a separate submission, a nonconfidential version of the confidential 

submission, indicating where 

confidential information has been 

redacted. The non-confidential 

summary will be placed in the docket 

and open to public inspection. 

5. Inspection of Comments 

USTR will maintain a docket on the 

2013 Special 301 Review, accessible to 

the public. The public file will include 

non-confidential comments, notices of 

intent to testify, and hearing statements 

received by USTR from the public, 

including foreign governments, with 

respect to the 2013 Special 301 Review. 

Comments will be placed in the docket 

and open to public inspection pursuant 

to 15 CFR 2006.13, except confidential 

business information exempt from 

public inspection in accordance with 15 

CFR 2006.15. Comments may be viewed 

on the http://www.regulations.gov Web 

site by entering docket number USTR– 

2012–0022 in the search field on the 

home page. 

Stanford K. McCoy, 

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for 

Intellectual Property and Innovation. 

[FR Doc. 2012–31336 Filed 12–28–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3290–F3–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary of 

Transportation 

[Docket No. DOT–OST–2013–0213] 

Notice of Transportation Services’ 

OMB Designation, timely return of 

excess transit benefits to the Treasury, 

and stakeholder notification of the 

minimum internal controls 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: On April 27, 2012, the Office 

of Management and Budget (OMB) 

designated the U.S. Department of 

Transportation’s (DOT) Office of 

Transportation Services (TRANServe), 

located within the Office of the 

Assistant Secretary for Administration, 

as the lead Federal Agency by to 

facilitate the timely return of any excess 

transit benefits accumulating on 

vanpool companies’ accounts to the 

Treasury and to prevent the future 

accumulation of excess transit benefits, 

among other things. As the lead Federal 

agency, TRANServe is directed to 

inform commercial vanpool companies 

of the Federal internal controls that now 

govern the Transit Benefit Program to 

prevent future accumulations, and assist 

in the timely return of the current 

excess transit benefits. Thus, the 

following notice sets forth the process 

for returning excess transit benefits, as 

well as the minimum internal controls 

that have been developed for operating 

a compliant transit benefit program as it 

relates to van pools. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Denise P. Wright, Business Office 

Manager, and for information regarding 

Funds Recovery contact Ms. Craig 

Bellet, Working Capital Fund—Office of 

Financial Management 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue SE., Washington DC 20590. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

On April 21, 2000, Executive Order 

13150 directed all federal agencies to 

develop a transportation fringe benefit 

program that offered qualified Federal 

employees the option to exclude from 

taxable wages and compensation 

employee commuting costs incurred 

through the use of mass transportation 

and vanpools. Since their development, 

these transit benefit programs have 

become an important tool in addressing 

urban roadway congestion. However, 

they were only designed to subsidize 

employees’ costs for using public 

transportation to travel between their 

residence and place of employment. 

These benefits are calculated on a 

monthly basis as required under 26 CFR 

1.132–9, and as such, employees are not 

permitted to accumulate benefits in 

excess of their actual monthly 

commuting costs or to use accumulated 

benefits to offset commuting costs in 

subsequent months. Furthermore, 

overestimating transit costs, giving or 

selling transit benefits to others, or 

purchasing transit benefits from 

unauthorized sources is prohibited. 

Employees who misuse transit benefits 

are subject to appropriate administrative 

action, including discipline and 

disqualification from the Federal Transit 

Benefit Program. 

In 2011, the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) was advised that 

excess transit benefits may have been 

accumulating in programs that allow 

transit benefits to be used for vanpool 

services between employees’ residences 

and their places of employments. On 

April 27, 2012, OMB directed that these 

excess funds be returned to the U.S. 

Department of the Treasury and that 

federal agencies strengthen internal 

controls to ensure compliance with the 

Federal Transit Benefit Program. To 

accomplish these directives, OMB 

designated the DOT, Office of Assistant 

Secretary for Administration, as the lead 

Federal agency to inform commercial 

vanpool companies of the Federal 

internal controls that govern the Transit 

Benefit Program and to assist in the 

timely return of the Federal funds. 

Pursuant to the OMB direction, 

TRANServe is responsible for the 

recovery of the excess transit benefit 

provided to van pool riders including 

both customers of TRANServe and those 

riders who received the transit benefit 

through other channels. TRANServe has 

also worked with senior leadership of 

the relevant Federal agencies to further 

define the necessary controls that 

should be in place to operate a 

compliant transit benefit program. The 

process for recovering the existing 

excess funds, as well as the controls that 

have been developed to prevent future 

excess accumulations, is described 

below. 

II. Funds Recovery Process 

This section presents the process for 

the timely return of the Federal funds. 

Pursuant to 26 CFR 1.132–9, qualified 

transportation fringe benefits are 

calculated on a monthly basis. 

Therefore, employees are not permitted 

to accumulate fare media in excess of 

their actual monthly commuting costs or 

to use accumulated fare media (acquired 

with tax-exempt subsidies) to offset 

commuting costs in the future. In this 

instance, accumulated fare media in 

excess of the actual monthly commuting 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with 

Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 250 / Monday, December 31, 2012 / Notices 77181 

1Pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.3(h), this is not 

considered to be information as defined under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35. 

costs means Federal funds held on 

account over and above the certified 

eligible monthly amount, which have 

the potential to be used to offset 

commuting costs in the future. Van pool 

providers and/or operators that have 

retained funds in excess of the allotted 

monthly amount must return the excess 

funds by April 27, 2013 or 120 days 

from date of this notice, whichever is 

greater. All excess funds should be 

returned via the Web site www.pay.gov. 

To remit payment via www.pay.gov, in 

the ‘‘Find Public Forms’’ search box, 

type ‘‘DOTWCF’’ in the search field and 

select ‘‘DOT OST Working Capital Fund 

Miscellaneous Payments’’ from the 

query list. Complete all fields with the 

requested information. In the ‘‘reason 

for payment’’ field, select ‘‘other’’ and 

enter the following statement in the 

information box: ‘‘Unused van pool 

funding by federal participants.’’ At the 

same time the funds are returned via 

www.pay.gov, the following information 

should also be transmitted via email to 

TRANServe@dot.gov, to assist the 

responsible agency in auditing 

transaction activity: 1

i. Name and location of vanpool 

operator 

ii. Funds origin, to include agency 

and location 

iii. Dollars segregated by agency 

The email subject line should state 

‘‘Pay.gov Van Pool Funds Remittance.’’ 

Also include a copy of the emailed 

receipt you receive from www.pay.gov. 

Van Pool providers and/or operators 

shall encrypt the data in order to protect 

it during transmission. Once received, 

DOT shall handle the data in 

accordance with the security controls 

identified in the DOT’s System of 

Records Notice, DOT/ALL 8 Employee 

Transportation Facilitation, 65 FR 19482 

(April 11, 2000). 

III. Minimum Internal Controls 

To ensure that funds are not 

accumulated in excess of the allotted 

monthly amount, we have also worked 

with other federal agencies to develop 

the following internal controls for the 

management of the Federal Transit 

Benefit Program. These controls will 

ensure effective and efficient operations, 

reliability of financial reporting, and 

compliance with applicable laws and 

regulations. The controls are provided 

as tools to help federal transit benefit 

program and financial managers achieve 

results and safeguard the integrity of 

their programs. Federal agency program 

administration should be built around 

these core principles and monitored 

accordingly. The internal controls listed 

are general controls and agency policy 

and procedure may be more prescriptive 

with the following internal controls 

serving as the minimum standard. For 

the purposes of this notice with respect 

to the minimum internal controls, the 

following definitions are applicable: 

Federal Van Pool Driver—an 

individual owner or transportation 

servicer of a qualified IRS van pool and/ 

or a Federal employee operating a 

vehicle. The Federal Van Pool Driver 

may be the primary member listed for 

qualified parking. 

Federal Van Pool Operator—an 

individual having primary 

responsibility as identified through a 

contractual relationship with the Van 

Pool Provider. The Federal Van Pool 

operator may be the primary member 

listed for qualified parking. 

Federal Van Pool Provider—an entity 

which contractually offers the use of a 

vehicle (van) to a Federal Van Pool 

Operator meeting the van pool 

qualifications set forth in 26 CFR 

§ 1.132–9 26. 

The minimum internal controls 

include the following: 

1. The agency transit benefit program 

must provide the ability for all 

participants to adjust the monthly 

transit benefit amount. 

2. With respect to van pools, the 

agency transit benefit program manager 

should verify that the van pool is 

registered or certified by the local transit 

authority, where applicable. While 

agency transit benefit program managers 

have no authority to require van pool 

registration or certification by local 

transit authorities, some State and local 

transit authorities require van pool 

registration and certification. This 

administrative process should be 

leveraged to ensure statutory and 

regulatory compliance as well as transit 

authority compliance. 

3. The agency transit benefit program 

manager should maintain a list of van 

pool vendors utilized by agency 

participants, to include the name of the 

driver or operator, van pool business 

name, address, and phone number. The 

list of van pool vendors, with driver and 

operator identified, should be cross 

referenced and validated to ensure 

consistency and accuracy with the 

agency van pool participants receiving 

the transit benefit. Van pool operators or 

drivers are to provide this information 

directly to the agency transit benefit 

program manager. 

4. Van pool drivers and operators who 

use qualified parking consistent with 26 

CFR 1.132–9, or are named on a 

workplace parking permit, are not 

eligible to receive the transit benefit. 

However, the allowable cost for the 

driver and/or operator may be covered 

as part of the operating expenses 

attributed to the van pool. 

5. The transit benefit cannot be used 

to hold a seat on the van pool in the 

event of participant absence. All 

participants must utilize the van pool 

for commuting to and from work at least 

50% of eligible work days. 

6. The van pool must seat a minimum 

of 6 passengers (not including the 

driver), and must have at least 50% of 

the adult seating capacity of the vehicle 

(not including the driver) used for the 

transportation of employees to and from 

work representing 80% of the usage of 

the van. 

7. The agency transit benefit program 

manager must be provided a published 

price list by the Federal van pool driver 

or operator, which is applicable to all 

riders (federal and non-federal). As 

established by the Federal van pool 

driver or operator, the published costs 

should include all necessary fees. 

Updated price lists should be provided 

to the agency transit benefit program 

manager as prices are changed or 

modified. 

8. In the event a transit program 

receives a rider subsidy from a transit 

authority, the appropriate participant 

offset must be applied to the individual 

monthly benefit amount. 

9. A van pool invoice or receipt is 

required to document the actual 

commuting cost for individual van pool 

participants. 

The internal controls described above 

should prevent individuals from 

accruing transit benefits in excess of the 

allotted monthly amount, as required by 

26 CFR 1.132–9. 

Issued in Washington, DC on December 27, 

2012. 

Marie Petrosino-Woolverton, 

Director, Office of Financial Management & 

Transportation Services. 

[FR Doc. 2012–31384 Filed 12–28–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–9X–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Railroad Administration 

[Docket No. FRA 2012–0006–N–18] 

Proposed Agency Information 

Collection Activities; Comment 

Request 

AGENCY: Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA), Department of 

Transportation. 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with