27548 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 96 /Tuesday, May 19, 1998 / Proposed Rules

submissions would be in addition to

and not a substitute for the formal filing

requirements addressed above. Parties

submitting diskettes should submit

them to Sunil Daluvoy of the Cable

Services Bureau, 2033 M Street N.W.,

Room 700I, Washington, D.C. 20554.

Such a submission should be on a 3.5

inch diskette formatted in an IBM

compatible form using MS DOS 5.0 and

WordPerfect 5.1 software. The diskette

should be submitted in ‘‘read only’’

mode. The diskette should be clearly

labelled with the party’s name,

proceeding, type of pleading (comments

or reply comments), and date of

submission. The diskette should be

accompanied by a cover letter.

Federal Communications Commission.

Magalie Roman Salas,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–13168 Filed 5–18–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6712–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 20

RIN 1018–AE96

Migratory Bird Harvest Information

Program; Participating States for the

1998–99 Season

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service,

Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

SUMMARY: The Fish and Wildlife Service

(Service) herein proposes to amend the

Migratory Bird Harvest Information

Program (Program) regulations. The

Service plans to require all States except

Hawaii to participate in the Program

annually, beginning with the 1998–99

hunting season. This regulatory action

will continue to require all licensed

hunters who hunt migratory game birds

in participating States to register as

migratory game bird hunters and

provide their name, address, and date of

birth to the State licensing authority.

Hunters will be required to have

evidence of current participation in the

Program on their person while hunting

migratory game birds in participating

States. The quality and extent of

information about harvests of migratory

game birds must be improved in order

to better manage these populations.

Hunters’ names and addresses are

necessary to provide a sample frame for

voluntary hunter surveys to improve

harvest estimates for all migratory game

birds. States will gather migratory bird

hunters’ names and addresses and the

Service will conduct the harvest

surveys.

DATES: The comment period for the

proposed rule will end on July 20, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should

be sent to the Chief, Office of Migratory

Bird Management (MBMO), U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service, 10815 Loblolly

Pine Drive, Laurel, MD 20708–4028.

The public may inspect comments

during normal business hours in

Building 158, 10815 Loblolly Pine Drive

(Gate 4, Patuxent Wildlife Research

Center), Laurel, MD 20708.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul

I. Padding, MBMO, (301)497–5980.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

purpose of this rule is to expand the

Program to include all States except

Hawaii, beginning in the 1998–99

hunting season.

Background

The purpose of this cooperative

Program is to annually obtain a

nationwide sample frame of migratory

bird hunters, from which representative

samples of hunters will be selected and

asked to participate in voluntary harvest

surveys. State wildlife agencies will

provide the sample frame by annually

collecting the name, address, and date

of birth of each licensed migratory bird

hunter in the State. To reduce survey

costs and to identify hunters who hunt

less commonly-hunted species, States

will also request that each migratory

bird hunter answer a series of questions

to provide a brief summary of his or her

migratory bird hunting activity for the

previous year. States are required to ask

each licensed migratory bird hunter

approximately how many ducks (0, 1–

10, or more than 10), geese (0, 1–10, or

more than 10), doves (0, 1–30, or more

than 30), and woodcock (0, 1–30, or

more than 30) he or she bagged the

previous year, and whether he or she

hunted coots, snipe, rails, and/or

gallinules the previous year. States that

have band-tailed pigeon hunting

seasons are also required to ask

migratory bird hunters whether they

intend to hunt band-tailed pigeons

during the current year. States are not

required to ask questions about species

that are not hunted in the State (for

example, Maine does not allow dove

hunting, therefore, the State of Maine is

not required to ask migratory bird

hunters how many doves they bagged

the previous year). States will send this

information to the Service, and the

Service will sample hunters and

conduct national hunter activity and

harvest surveys.

A notice of intent to establish the

Program was published on June 24,

1991 (56 FR 28812). A final rule

establishing the Program and initiating

a 2-year pilot phase in three volunteer

States (California, Missouri, and South

Dakota) was published on March 19,

1993 (58 FR 15093). The pilot phase was

completed following the 1993–94

migratory bird hunting seasons in

California, Missouri, and South Dakota.

A State/Federal technical group was

formed to evaluate Program

requirements, the different approaches

used by the pilot States, and the

Service’s survey procedures during the

pilot phase. Changes incorporated into

the Program as a result of the technical

group’s evaluation were specified in an

October 21, 1994 final rule (59 FR

53334), that initiated the

implementation phase of the Program.

Implementation of the Program began

with the addition of one State in 1994,

three States in 1995 (60 FR 43318),

seven States in 1996 (61 FR 46350), and

five States in 1997 (62 FR 45706). Final

implementation of the Program will be

accomplished with the addition of 27

States (all except Hawaii) in this

proposed rule.

Currently, all licensed hunters who

hunt migratory game birds in

participating States are required to have

a Program validation, indicating that

they have identified themselves as

migratory bird hunters and have

provided the required information to the

State wildlife agency. Hunters must

provide the required information to

each State in which they hunt migratory

birds. Validations are printed on,

written on, or attached to the annual

State hunting license or on a Statespecific supplementary permit. The

State may charge hunters a handling fee

to compensate hunting-license agents

and to cover the State’s administrative

costs. The Service’s survey design calls

for hunting-record forms to be

distributed to hunters selected for the

survey before they forget the details of

their hunts. Because of this design

requirement, States have only a short

time to obtain hunter names and

addresses from license vendors and to

provide those names and addresses to

the Service. Currently, participating

States must send the required

information to the Service within 30

calendar days of issuance of the

migratory bird hunting authorization.

The Service has requested the

cooperation of participating States to

facilitate obtaining harvest estimates for

hunters who are exempted from a

permit requirement and those that are

also exempted from State licensing

requirements. This includes several

categories of hunters such as junior

hunters, senior hunters, landowners,
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 96 /Tuesday, May 19, 1998 / Proposed Rules 27549

and other special categories. Because

exemptions and the methods for

obtaining harvest estimates for exempt

groups vary from State to State, the

Service will incorporate these methods

into individual memoranda of

understanding with participating States.

Excluding from the Program those

hunters who are not required to obtain

an annual State hunting license also

excludes their harvest from the

estimates. The level of importance of the

excluded harvest on the resulting

estimates depends on how many

hunters are excluded and on the number

of birds they bag. If the level of

importance is significant, excluding

these hunters will result in serious bias.

Minimum survey standards are being

developed for exempted categories.

States may require exempted hunters to

obtain permits (e.g., Maryland required

exempted hunters to obtain permits

upon entry to the Program in 1994).

NEPA Consideration

In compliance with the requirements

of section 102(2)(C) of the National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42

U.S.C. 4332(C)), and the Council on

Environmental Quality’s regulation for

implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1500–

1508), the Service prepared an

Environmental Assessment (EA) on the

establishment of the Program and

options considered in the

‘‘Environmental Assessment: Migratory

Bird Harvest Information Program.’’

This EA is available to the public at the

location indicated under the ADDRESSES

caption. Based on review and evaluation

of the information in the EA, the Service

has determined that amending 50 CFR

20.20 to require all States except Hawaii

to participate in the Program annually,

beginning with the 1998–99 migratory

bird hunting season would not be a

major Federal action that would

significantly affect the quality of the

human environment.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

On June 14, 1991, the Assistant

Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and

Parks concluded that the rule would not

have a significant economic impact on

a substantial number of small entities

under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5

U.S.C. 601 et seq.). This rule will affect

about 3,300,000 migratory game bird

hunters when it is fully implemented. It

will require licensed migratory game

bird hunters to identify themselves and

to supply their names, addresses, and

birth dates to the State licensing

authority. Additional information will

be requested in order that they can be

efficiently sampled for a voluntary

national harvest survey. Hunters will be

required to have evidence of current

participation in the Program on their

person while hunting migratory game

birds.

In total, the Service estimates that the

Program information collection will

impose costs on society on the order of

$4.1 million per year. The Service

estimates that hunters will require about

112,000 hours to complete Program

forms. At the wage rate, this time is

estimated to be valued at $1.5 million

(the average estimated cost of time to an

individual is less than $0.50). The cost

to the States to process and forward the

Program information is estimated to be

$2.6 million. Service payments of $0.10

per hunter name will mitigate the

impact of this requirement on State

wildlife budgets to some extent. Several

States are imposing additional fees on

migratory bird hunter registrations to

cover their additional costs. However,

the Service notes that the Program costs

less than two tenths of one percent of

the $3.1 billion migratory bird hunters

spent in 1996 for travel, equipment, and

hunting rights.

Collection of Information: Migratory

Bird Harvest Information Program

As required by the Paperwork

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3507

(d)), the Service has received approval

for this collection of information, with

approval number 1018–0015, with the

expiration date of August 31, 1998. The

information to be collected includes: the

name, address, and date of birth of each

licensed migratory bird hunter in each

participating State. Each licensed

migratory bird hunter will also be asked

to provide a brief summary of his or her

migratory bird hunting activity for the

previous year. Hunters’ names,

addresses, and other information will be

used to provide a sample frame for

voluntary hunter surveys to improve

harvest estimates for all migratory game

birds. The Service needs and uses the

information to improve the quality and

extent of information about harvests of

migratory game birds in order to better

manage these populations.

All information is to be collected once

annually from licensed migratory bird

hunters in participating States by the

State license authority. Participating

States are required to forward the hunter

information to the Service within 30

calendar days of issuance of the

migratory bird hunting authorization.

Recent information from participating

States indicates that the annual

reporting and record-keeping burden for

this collection of information averages 2

minutes per response for 3,300,000

respondents, including the time for

reviewing instructions, searching

existing data sources, gathering and

maintaining the data needed, and

completing and reviewing the collection

of information. Thus, the total annual

reporting and record-keeping burden for

this collection is estimated to be

112,000 hours.

Comments are invited from the public

on: (1) Whether the proposed collection

of information is necessary for the

proper performance of the functions of

the Department, including whether the

information will have practical utility;

(2) the accuracy of the Department’s

estimate of the burden of the proposed

collection of information, including the

validity of the methodology and

assumptions used; (3) the quality,

usefulness, and clarity of the

information to be collected; and (4)

ways to minimize the burden or the

collection of information on

respondents, including through the use

of appropriate automated, electronic,

mechanical, or other technological

collection techniques. Comments and

suggestions on the information

collection requirements should be sent

to the Office of Information and

Regulatory Affairs; OMB, Attention:

Interior Desk Officer, Washington, DC

20503; and a courtesy copy to the

Service Information Collection

Clearance Officer, ms-224 ARLSQ, Fish

and Wildlife Service, 1849 C Street,

NW., Washington, DC 20240.

OMB is required to make a decision

concerning the collection of information

contained in these proposed regulations

between 30 and 60 days after

publication of this document in the

Federal Register. Therefore, a comment

to OMB is best assured of having its full

effect if OMB receives it within 30 days

of publication. This does not affect the

deadline for the public comment on the

proposed regulations.

Executive Order 12866

This proposed rule was not subject to

OMB review under Executive Order

12866.

Unfunded Mandates

The Service has determined and

certifies pursuant to the Unfunded

Mandates Act, 2 U.S.C. 1502 et seq., that

this rulemaking will not impose a cost

of $100 million or more in any given

year on local or state governments or

private entities.

Civil Justice Reform

The Department has determined that

these proposed regulations meet the

applicable standards provided in

Sections 3(a) and 3(b)(2) of Executive

Order 12988.
27550 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 96 /Tuesday, May 19, 1998 / Proposed Rules

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 20

Exports, Hunting, Imports, Reporting

and Recordkeeping requirements,

Transportation, Wildlife.

For the reasons set out in the

preamble, the Service proposes to

amend 50 CFR part 20 as set forth

below.

PART 20—MIGRATORY BIRD

HUNTING

1. The authority citation for part 20

continues to read as follows:

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 703–711, 16 U.S.C.

712, and 16 U.S.C. 742 a–j.

2. Amend § 20.20 by revising

paragraphs (a), (b), and (e) to read as

follows:

§ 20.20 Migratory Bird Harvest Information

Program.

(a) Information collection

requirements. The collections of

information contained in § 20.20 have

been approved by the Office of

Management and Budget under 44

U.S.C. 3501 et seq. and assigned

clearance number 1018–0015. The

information will be used to provide a

sampling frame for the national

Migratory Bird Harvest Survey.

Response is required from licensed

hunters to obtain the benefit of hunting

migratory game birds. Public reporting

burden for this information is estimated

to average 2 minutes per response for

3,300,000 respondents, including the

time for reviewing instructions,

searching existing data sources,

gathering and maintaining the data

needed, and completing and reviewing

the collection of information. Thus the

total annual reporting and recordkeeping burden for this collection is

estimated to be 112,000 hours. Send

comments regarding this burden

estimate or any other aspect of this

collection of information, including

suggestions for reducing the burden, to

the Service Information Collection

Clearance Officer, ms-224 ARLSQ, Fish

and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC

20240, or the Office of Management and

Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project

1018–0015, Washington, DC 20503. (b)

General provisions. Each person

hunting migratory game birds in any

State except Hawaii must have

identified himself or herself as a

migratory bird hunter and given his or

her name, address, and date of birth to

the respective State hunting licensing

authority and must have on his or her

person evidence, provided by that State,

of compliance with this requirement.

* * * * *

(e) State responsibilities. The State

hunting licensing authority will ask

each licensed migratory bird hunter in

the respective State to report

approximately how many ducks, geese,

doves, and woodcock he or she bagged

the previous year, whether he or she

hunted coots, snipe, rails, and/or

gallinules the previous year, and, in

States that have band-tailed pigeon

hunting seasons, whether he or she

intends to hunt band-tailed pigeons

during the current year.

Dated: April 7, 1998.

Donald J. Barry,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Fish and

Wildlife and Parks.

[FR Doc. 98–13209 Filed 5–18–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 980414095–8095–01; I.D.

040798C]

RIN 0648–AJ37

Fisheries of the Northeastern United

States; Dealer Reporting Requirements

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),

Commerce.

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for

comments.

SUMMARY: NMFS proposes to amend the

regulations which require dealers of

summer flounder, scup, black sea bass,

Atlantic sea scallops, Northeast (NE)

multispecies, Atlantic mackerel, squid,

and butterfish to report their fish

purchases to NMFS. This action would

improve weekly monitoring of landings,

by species, by requiring dealers to use

a call-in Interactive Voice Response

(IVR) system to report their purchases to

NMFS. The rule would also modify the

schedule for the submission by federally

permitted dealers of comprehensive

written reports. Reporting requirements

for party and charter vessels holding a

federal summer flounder or scup permit,

other than a moratorium permit, would

be modified to make them consistent

with reporting requirements in other

fisheries.

DATES: Comments must be received on

or before June 18, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the proposed

rule or proposed IVR system should be

sent to Andrew A. Rosenberg, Ph.D.,

Administrator, Northeast Region,

NMFS, One Blackburn Drive,

Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside

of the envelope, ‘‘Comments on

Proposed Rule for Dealer Reporting.’’

Comments on the burden hour

estimates for collection-of- information

requirements contained in this proposed

rule should be sent to Andrew A.

Rosenberg, Ph.D., and to the Office of

Information and Regulatory Affairs,

Attention: NOAA Desk Officer, Office of

Management and Budget, Washington,

DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kelley McGrath, (978) 281-9307 or

Gregory Power, (978) 281-9304.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Regulations implementing the fishery

management plans for the summer

flounder, scup, black sea bass, Atlantic

sea scallops, NE multispecies, and

Atlantic mackerel, squid, and butterfish

fisheries are found at 50 CFR part 648.

These fishery management plans were

prepared under the authority of the

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery

Conservation and Management Act. All

dealers of summer founder, scup, black

sea bass, Atlantic sea scallops, NE

multispecies, Atlantic mackerel, Illex or

Loligo squid or butterfish must have

been issued and have in their

possession a Federal dealer permit in

order to purchase such species from

fishing vessels. All dealers issued a

Federal dealer permit are required to

submit weekly reports of all fish

purchases to the Administrator,

Northeast Region, NMFS (Regional

Administrator). To make it easier for

federally permitted dealers to comply

with weekly reporting requirements and

to improve the monitoring of

commercial landings, NMFS proposes to

modify the dealer reporting

requirements.

Several species are now being

managed using domestic annual harvest

limits, such as annual or seasonal

quotas and target or actual total

allowable catch (TAC) limits. For

example, summer flounder and scup are

managed through annual commercial

quotas, while the regulated NE

multispecies are managed through

annual target TACs. Regulated

multispecies are defined as a subset of

the NE multispecies that includes cod,

haddock, pollock, redfish, white hake,

yellowtail flounder, witch flounder,

windowpane flounder, winter flounder,

and American plaice. In order to

manage these fisheries effectively,

accurate and timely monitoring of

landings is required. For the purposes of

this proposed rule, species managed by

quotas or TACs are referred to as

‘‘quota-managed species.’’