Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 241 / Friday, December 15, 1995 / Notices 64437

1Not published in the Federal Register.

Rebating Agents’ Commissions, issued

on October 4, 1995, and requests public

comments on rebating of insurance

agents’ commissions to consumers

under the National Flood Insurance

Program (NFIP).

DATES: We invite your comments which

should be submitted within March 14,

1996.

ADDRESSES: Please submit your

comments to the Rules Docket Clerk,

Office of the General Counsel, Federal

Emergency Management Agency, 500 C

Street SW., Washington, DC 20472,

(facsimile) (202) 646–4536.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Charles M. Plaxico, Jr., Chief, Claims

and Underwriting Division, the Federal

Insurance Administration, 500 C Street

SW., Washington, DC 20472, (202) 646–

3422.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Where the

practice is permitted by State law,

licensed insurance agents may rebate a

portion of the commission they earn for

the sale of a given policy to the insured.

This practice typically is used as a sales

incentive and marketing tool. While the

practice is prohibited in most States, a

few States permit the practice. With

more insurance producers and agents

beginning to sell flood insurance

policies, FIA wants the comments of as

large a number of interested parties as

possible in order to set policy on this

issue.

During the past year, FIA received a

number of inquiries from producers and

Write Your Own (WYO) Companies

concerning the rebating of insurance

agents’ commissions on NFIP policies.

FIA consulted with the following three

committees that advise the FIA on

insurance-related issues: the Flood

Insurance Producers National

Committee; the Insurance Institute for

Property Loss Reduction Flood

Insurance Committee; and the Write

Your Own Marketing Committee. The

Insurance Institute for Property Loss

Reduction Flood Insurance Committee

did not comment as a committee, but

two member companies on that

committee responded as individual

companies.

On October 4, 1995, FIA issued

National Flood Insurance Program

(NFIP) Policy Issuance 5–95 which

prohibited, under the NFIP, the practice

of agents’ rebating commissions to

consumers. We now rescind Policy

Issuance 5–95. Since October 4

interested parties from within and

outside the insurance industry have

expressed divergent views on how FIA

should treat the issue of rebating agents’

commissions. In light of the diversity of

opinion on this issue, FIA has decided

to increase the circle of its advisers and

to solicit comments and

recommendations from a wider

audience than before on the most

appropriate policy on the rebating

issue.1

Dated: December 12, 1995.

Elaine A. McReynolds,

Federal Insurance Administrator.

[FR Doc. 95–30612 Filed 12–14–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6718–03–P

FEDERAL MARITIME COMMISSION

Notice of Agreement(s) Filed

The Federal Maritime Commission

hereby gives notice of the filing of the

following agreement(s) pursuant to

section 5 of the Shipping Act of 1984.

Interested parties may inspect and

obtain a copy of each agreement at the

Washington, D.C. Office of the Federal

Maritime Commission, 800 North

Capitol Street, NW., 9th Floor.

Interested parties may submit comments

on each agreement to the Secretary,

Federal Maritime Commission,

Washington, D.C. 20573, within 10 days

after the date of the Federal Register in

which this notice appears. The

requirements for comments are found in

§ 572.603 of Title 46 of the Code of

Federal Regulations. Interested persons

should consult this section before

communicating with the Commission

regarding a pending agreement.

Agreement No.: 202–010776–095.

Title: Asia North America Eastbound

Rate Agreement.

Parties: American President Lines,

Ltd., Hapag-Lloyd Aktiengesellschaft,

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd., A.P.

Moller-Maersk Line, Mitsui O.S.K.

Lines, Ltd., Nedlloyd Lijnen B.V.,

Neptune Orient Lines, Ltd., Nippon

Yusen Kaisha Line, Orient Overseas

Container Line, Inc., Sea-land Service,

Inc.

Synopsis: The proposed amendment

modifies Article 8.5—Voting and

Quorum Requirements to provide that

service contracts entered into on or after

January 5, 1996, may be amended by

majority vote, rather than by unanimous

less one vote as currently required for

service contract amendments.

Agreement No.: 232–011321–003.

Title: Maersk/Sea-Land Pacific

Agreement.

Parties: A.P. Moller-Maersk Line, SeaLand Service, Inc.

Synopsis: The proposed amendment

expands the foreign geographic scope of

the Agreement to include all of Asia,

excluding Asia Mediterranean ports. It

also increases the maximum number of

line-haul vessels, and revises Articles

9.2 and 9.3 respectively—Duration and

Termination by (1) redefining the

‘‘initial period’’ of the Agreement to a

time which will expire four years after

the effective date of this amendment

and (2) increases the notice period

required for withdrawal from 9 months

to 12 months.

Agreement No.: 224–200133–004.

Title: Port Authority of New York &

New Jersey/Sea-Land Service, Inc.

Terminal Agreement.

Parties: Port Authority of New York &

New Jersey, Sea-Land Service, Inc.

(‘‘Sea-Land’’).

Synopsis: The proposed amendment

provides for the incorporation of a subsurface environmental baseline at Sealand’s Elizabeth, New Jersey Container

Terminal.

Agreement No.: 224–200963.

Title: Alabama State Docks

Department/Middle Gulf Stevedoring,

Inc. Terminal Agreement.

Parties: Alabama State Docks

Department (‘‘Port’’), Middle gulf

Stevedoring, Inc. (‘‘Middle Gulf’’).

Synopsis: The proposed Agreement

permits Middle Gulf to provide freight

handling services at the Port.

Dated: December 12, 1995.

By order of the Federal Maritime

Commission.

Joseph C. Polking,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 95–30582 Filed 12–14–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6730–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention

Change in Marriage and Divorce Data

Available From the National Center for

Health Statistics

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC), Department of Health

and Human Services (DHHS).

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: Beginning January 1, 1996,

the availability of marriage and divorce

data collected by the National Center for

Health Statistics (NCHS), CDC, will

change. NCHS will continue to collect

marital status in all of its population

surveys, will continue to obtain detailed

information on out-of-wedlock births,

and will work with States to obtain

summary counts of marriages and

divorces. However, detailed data from
64438 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 241 / Friday, December 15, 1995 / Notices

States participating in the marriage and

divorce components of the Vital

Statistics Cooperative Program (VSCP)

will no longer be obtained. This change

is being made to prioritize programs in

a period of tightened resource

constraints.

DATES: Written comments regarding

these changes in the collection of

marriage and divorce data must be

received on or before January 15, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Written comments can be

sent to the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention (CDC), National Center

for Health Statistics, Attention: FR

Response, Division of Vital Statistics,

Room 840, 6525 Belcrest Road,

Hyattsville, MD 20782.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mary Anne Freedman, Director,

Division of Vital Statistics, NCHS, CDC,

telephone (301) 436–8951, ext. 112.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Viewed at

either the individual level or the

population level, marital status is a key

variable in health, demographic, and

policy research. As a result, data on

current marital status and on change in

marital status have been collected

through a variety of Federal surveys and

data systems. Among these systems are

health surveys conducted by NCHS, the

Current Population Survey conducted

by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and

the records-based vital registration

system conducted as a cooperative

venture (the VSCP) between NCHS and

the States. Within the VSCP, current

marital status data are collected from

birth certificates in the birth registration

system, resulting, for example, in data

on out-of-wedlock births. Marital status

is also collected from death certificates

in the death registration system. Data on

change in marital status are obtained

from marriage and divorce certificates.

NCHS plans to discontinue payments

to the States and other vital registration

areas for the collection of detailed data

from marriage and divorce certificates,

but will continue to request counts of

marriages performed and divorces

granted from all vital registration areas

of the U.S. All other NCHS efforts to

collect marital status information,

including marital status for mothers on

birth certificates, will continue.

NCHS data systems are continually

being reviewed in light of resource

constraints to assure that efforts are

focused on the highest priority data

needs. At a time when policy issues

related to families are of great interest,

NCHS has exercised caution to assure

that data systems will be available to

support monitoring and research

interests in key priority areas. Over the

last year, NCHS has systematically

reviewed the availability and uses of

detailed data on marriages and divorces.

This review has led to the conclusion

that the data most needed for setting

policy (e.g., information on family

formation, out-of-wedlock births,

children living in single parent families)

can be obtained through other sources,

such as the birth registration system,

other NCHS surveys, and the Current

Population Survey.

The discontinuation of collection of

detailed data from marriage and divorce

certificates will result in a loss of data

to researchers who currently rely on this

data source for information on annual

changes in the collective marriage and

divorce behavior of the population,

including trends and differentials in the

propensity to marry, to divorce, and to

remarry after divorce or widowhood.

However, much of this information is

available on a five year cycle from the

June Marital History Supplement of the

Current Population Survey.

Long-standing concerns about the

completeness and quality of detailed

marriage and divorce data from the

VSCP were an important consideration

in reaching the conclusion to

discontinue payments to the States.

Although the United States Government

has collected marriage and divorce data

through various methods since 1867, it

was not until 1957 that a formal

Registration Area was created for

reporting detailed marriage data to

NCHS; a similar Registration Area was

created for divorces in 1958. These

Registration Areas include States with

adequate programs for collecting

marriage and divorce statistics and

which meet specific registration and

reporting criteria for participation. More

recently, NCHS has included marriage

and divorce statistics in the VSCP, a

contractual arrangement by which

NCHS provides support to the State

vital statistics programs and through

which NCHS receives vital statistics

data for analysis and dissemination at

the national level.

Working with State vital registration

offices and with various users of

marriage and divorce data, NCHS has

established standard certificates of

marriage and divorce. These certificates

contain selected data items about

marriages and divorces, and certain of

these items are required for admission

to the registration areas. Due to variation

in State laws on registration of marriage

and divorce, not all States obtain these

basic required items, and not all States

have central registration facilities for

marriages or divorces or both. At

present, 41 States, the District of

Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin

Islands participate in the Marriage

Registration Area and 31 States, the

District of Columbia, and the Virgin

Islands participate in the Divorce

Registration Area. Detailed data are

currently obtained from relatively small

systematic samples of marriage and

divorce records for these Areas.

Although this system has been in place

for many years, it has never been

completed. Detailed data represent

approximately 77 percent of marriages

in the nation and 49 percent of divorces.

For this reason, in addition to the

detailed data, NCHS obtains counts of

the number of marriages performed and

the number of divorces granted from all

States, the District of Columbia, Puerto

Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Fiscal constraints on State vital

statistics programs have put stress on

state-level quality assurance programs.

As a result, in addition to the problem

of coverage completeness, the quality of

detailed marriage and divorce data has

deteriorated. This deterioration is

reflected mostly by the fact that, in some

States, the response rates for certain key

variables have fallen well below the

minimum level acceptable to NCHS.

These coverage and quality concerns,

the lack of identified resources to

upgrade the system, and the availability

of marital status data for high-priority

needs from other sources have led

NCHS, in consultation with data users,

to conclude that resources currently

devoted to the marriage and divorce

component of the VSCP should be

redirected to other priority uses.

Dated: December 8, 1995.

Claire V. Broome,

Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention (CDC).

[FR Doc. 95–30566 Filed 12–14–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. 95M–0394]

Datascope Corp.; Premarket Approval

of the VasoSeal Vascular Hemostasis

Device

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration,

HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) is announcing its

approval of the application by

Datascope Corp., Montvale, NJ, for

premarket approval, under the Federal

Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the act),

of the VasoSeal Vascular Hemostasis

Device (VHD). FDA’s Center for Devices

and Radiological Health (CDRH)

notified the applicant, by letter of