This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

11698 

Vol. 74, No. 52 

Thursday, March 19, 2009 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

14 CFR Part 193 

[Docket No. FAA–2009–0245] 

Voluntary Disclosure Reporting 

Program 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of Proposed Order 

Designating Information as Protected 

from Disclosure. 

SUMMARY: The FAA is proposing that 

information provided to the Agency to 

populate its Wildlife Hazard Database 

be designated by an FAA order as 

protected from public disclosure in 

accordance with the provisions of 14 

CFR part 193. Under 49 U.S.C. 40123, 

the FAA is required to protect the 

information from disclosure to the 

public, including disclosure under the 

Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 

552) or other laws, following the 

issuance of such order. The designation 

is intended to encourage continued 

voluntary reporting of wildlife hazard 

data. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before April 20, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments 

identified by docket number FAA– 

2009–0245 using any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Fax: 202–493–2251. 

• Mail: U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Docket Operations, M– 

30, West Building Ground Floor, Room 

W12–140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., 

Washington, DC 20590. 

• Hand Delivery: U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Docket Operations, M– 

30, West Building Ground Floor, Room 

W12–140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., 

Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. 

and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

except Federal holidays. 

For more information on the rulemaking 

process, see the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section of this document. 

Privacy: We will post all comments 

we receive, without change, to http:// 

dms.dot.gov, including any personal 

information you provide. For more 

information, see the Privacy Act 

discussion in the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section of this document. 

Docket: To read background 

documents or comments received, go to 

http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to 

Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, 

between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John 

Weller, Airport Safety and Operations 

Division, AAS–300, Federal Aviation 

Administration, 800 Independence 

Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20591, 

telephone (202) 267–3778. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Comments Invited 

The FAA invites interested persons to 

participate in this rulemaking by 

submitting written comments, data, or 

views. We also invite comments about 

the economic, environmental, energy, or 

federalism impacts that might result 

from adopting the proposals in this 

document. The most helpful comments 

reference a specific portion of the 

proposal, explain the reason for any 

recommended change, and include 

supporting data. We ask that you send 

us two copies of written comments. We 

will file in the docket all comments we 

receive, as well as a report summarizing 

each substantive public contact with 

FAA personnel about this proposed 

rulemaking. The docket is available for 

public inspection before and after the 

comment closing date. If you wish to 

review the docket in person, go to the 

address in the ADDRESSES section of this 

preamble between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 

Monday though Friday, except Federal 

holidays. You may also review the 

docket using the Internet at the Web 

address in the ADDRESSES section. 

Privacy Act: Using the search function 

of our docket Web site, anyone can find 

and read the comments received into 

any of our dockets, including the name 

of the individual sending the comment 

(or signing the comment on behalf of an 

association, business, labor union, etc.). 

You may review DOT’s complete 

Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 

Register published on April 11, 2000 

(65 FR 19477–78) or you may visit 

http://dms.dot.gov. 

Before acting on this proposal, we 

will consider all comments we receive 

on or before the closing date for 

comments. We will consider comments 

filed late if it is possible to do so 

without incurring expense or delay. We 

may change this proposal in light of the 

comments we receive. 

If you want the FAA to acknowledge 

receipt of your comments on this 

proposal, include with your comments 

a preaddressed stamped postcard on 

which the docket number appears. We 

will stamp the date on the postcard and 

mail it to you. 

Availability of This Proposed 

Designation 

You can get an electronic copy using 

the Internet by: 

1. Searching the Department of 

Transportation’s electronic Docket 

Management System (DMS) Web page 

(http://dms.dot.gov/search); 

2. Visiting the FAA’s Regulations and 

Polices Web page at http://www.faa.gov/ 

regulations—policies/; or 

3. Accessing the Government Printing 

Office’s Web page at http:// 

www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html. 

Background 

Under 49 U.S.C. 40123, certain 

voluntarily provided safety and security 

information is protected from disclosure 

to encourage persons to provide the 

information to the FAA. The FAA must 

issue an order to make certain findings 

before the information is protected from 

disclosure. The FAA’s rules 

implementing that section are in 14 CFR 

part 193. If the Administrator issues an 

order designating information as 

protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123, that 

information will not be disclosed under 

the Freedom of Information Act (5 

U.S.C. 552) or other laws except as 

provided in 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR 

part 193. This proposed order is issued 

under 14 CFR 193.111, which sets out 

the notice procedure for designating 

information as protected. 

The FAA designates information as 

protected under this part when the FAA 

finds that: 

1. The information is provided 

voluntarily; 

2. The information is safety or 

security related; 


pwalker on PROD1PC71 with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 52 / Thursday, March 19, 2009 / Proposed Rules 11699 

3. The disclosure of the information 

would inhibit the voluntary provision of 

that type of information; 

4. The receipt of that type of 

information aids in fulfilling the FAA’s 

safety and security responsibilities; and 

5. Withholding such information from 

disclosure, under the circumstances 

provided in this part, will be consistent 

with the FAA’s safety and security 

responsibilities. 

Description of the Proposed 

Information Sharing Program 

In an effort to monitor and analyze the 

hazards presented by wildlife to aircraft 

operations, the FAA actively solicits 

voluntary wildlife strike reports from a 

variety of sources such as pilots, air 

traffic controllers, air carrier personnel, 

and airport operations personnel. With 

this data, the FAA is able to analyze 

trends in order to develop better 

wildlife management strategies for 

individual airports and all civil/military 

aviation communities. These trends 

include seasonal strike fluctuations, 

diurnal/nocturnal strike comparisons, 

species identification, frequency, 

geographical distribution, effect on 

flight and damage incurred. Monitoring 

strikes also provides useful data 

regarding their frequency of occurrence 

during a specific phase of flight, 

altitude, and distance from airport. The 

information may also be used by the 

FAA to develop aircraft certification 

standards that take into account the 

unique hazard posed by wildlife threats. 

The FAA has been collecting 

voluntarily submitted data from the 

public since 1990. During this time, the 

number of strikes annually reported 

more than quadrupled from 1,759 in 

1990 to a record 7,666 in 2007. The 

increase in reports from 1990 to 2007 

was likely the result of several factors: 

1. An increased awareness of the 

wildlife strike issue, an increase in 

aircraft operations; 

2. An increase in populations of 

hazardous wildlife species; and 

3. An increase in the number of 

strikes. 

Overall, there are over 100,000 

wildlife strikes that have been 

submitted from civil and military 

aircraft strikes. As a result of these 

collection efforts, the FAA has a wildlife 

strike database that is unparalleled. 

When the FAA began collecting this 

data, it assured the entities submitting 

the data that the submissions would not 

be made available to the public. At that 

time, the FAA did not have the 

authority to provide part 193 protection. 

However, the FAA has relied upon other 

voluntary disclosure programs to obtain 

needed safety data prior to the 

enactment of 49 U.S.C. 40123 and these 

other programs are presently covered by 

part 193. The FAA believes that it is 

appropriate to extend this formal 

protection to the bird strike database as 

well. The Agency is concerned that 

there is a serious potential that 

information related to bird strikes will 

not be submitted because of fear that the 

disclosure of raw data could unfairly 

cast unfounded aspersions on the 

submitter. 

The collection of this safety 

information has been successful not 

only in part due to an increase in 

awareness and improved strikereporting technology but due to the fact 

that the reporting of strikes is 

nonpunitive to airports and airlines. 

There are almost 100 separate data 

fields in the strike database that allows 

the FAA to understand wildlife strike 

hazards to aviation better. Cooperative 

analyses between the FAA, the United 

States Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) and USDA’s Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service Branch 

summarized this data into an annual 

report made available to the public. 

Such analyses are critical to 

determining: 

1. The economic cost of wildlife 

strikes; 

2. The magnitude of safety issues; and 

most important; and 

3. The nature of the problems (e.g., 

wildlife species involved, types of 

damage, height and phase of flight 

during which strikes occur, and 

seasonal patterns). 

The information obtained from these 

analyses provides the foundation for 

refinements in the development, 

implementation, and justification of 

integrated research and management 

efforts to reduce wildlife strikes. The 

FAA redacts certain information from 

the data that is available to the public 

based on relevance or its sensitivity. 

For example, while the FAA collects 

wildlife strike data for specific airports, 

which it uses in its regulatory and 

oversight activities for that individual 

airport, the FAA does not release data 

regarding the submitter of the report. 

Here again, the FAA seeks to encourage 

the open provision of data for use in its 

regulatory activities. Drawing 

comparisons between airports is 

difficult because of the unevenness of 

reporting. Other factors that must be 

considered between airports and strike 

reporting are their different geographies, 

operations, structures, onsite/offsite 

habitats, and personnel to name a few. 

The complexity of the information 

warrants care with its interpretation; 

releasing this information without 

benefit of proper analysis would not 

only produce an inaccurate perception 

of the individual airports and airlines 

but also inaccurate and inappropriate 

comparisons between airports/airlines. 

Requests for data within the FAA 

National Wildlife Strike Database have 

typically been for specific data fields, 

individual airports or detailed portions 

of the database. Responses from the 

FAA have addressed each request 

individually and adequately. Airports 

voluntarily report bird strike data to 

understand their wildlife hazards better 

and to streamline allocating wildlife 

mitigation funding. Inaccurate 

portrayals of airports and airlines could 

have a negative impact on their 

participation in reporting bird strikes. It 

is the willingness of airports to 

participate, to better understand, and to 

better address their unique set of 

wildlife hazards that highlights why 

voluntary reporting works. 

In short, the FAA sees a direct 

correlation between the protection and 

provision of voluntary safety data. There 

is no question that the data collected 

over the last 19 years has improved 

safety throughout the world. It is 

imperative we do nothing to stifle this 

flow of information. Protecting this data 

under 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR part 

193 will ensure this continued input. 

Proposed Designation 

Accordingly, the FAA proposes to 

designate the data in its Wildlife Strike 

Database to be protected under 49 

U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR part 193. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on March 12, 

2009. 

Catherine M. Lang, 

Acting Associate Administrator for Airports. 

[FR Doc. E9–5868 Filed 3–18–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Internal Revenue Service 

26 CFR Part 31 

[REG–158747–06] 

RIN 1545–BG45 

Withholding Under Internal Revenue 

Code Section 3402(t); Hearing 

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 

Treasury. 

ACTION: Notice of public hearing on 

proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: This document provides 

notice of public hearing on a notice of 

proposed rulemaking relating to 

withholding under section 3402(t) of the 

Internal Revenue Code. The proposed 


pwalker on PROD1PC71 with PROPOSALS