51276 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 170 / Tuesday, September 2, 2008 / Notices 

and for other general information 

concerning antidumping and 

countervailing duty proceedings at the 

Department. 

This notice of initiation is being 

published in accordance with section 

751(c) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.218 

(c). 

Dated: August 20, 2008. 

Edward C. Yang, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. E8–20306 Filed 8–29–08; 8:45 am] 

Billing Code: 3510–DS–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology 

[Docket No.: 080506635–8697–01] 

Announcing Approval of the 

Withdrawal of Ten Federal Information 

Processing Standards (FIPS) 

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards 

and Technology (NIST), Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces that 

the Secretary of Commerce has 

approved the withdrawal of ten Federal 

Information Processing Standards 

(FIPS). 

These FIPS are being withdrawn 

because they are obsolete, or have not 

been updated to adopt current voluntary 

industry standards, federal 

specifications, federal data standards, or 

current good practices for information 

security. Some of these FIPS adopt 

voluntary industry standards. Federal 

agencies and departments are directed 

by the National Technology Transfer 

and Advancement Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 

104–113) to use technical standards that 

are developed in voluntary consensus 

standards bodies. Consequently, FIPS 

that duplicate voluntary industry 

standards are no longer needed. 

Some of these FIPS adopt data 

standards that are developed and used 

by other Federal government agencies. 

These FIPS have not been updated to 

reflect changes and modifications that 

have been made to the data standards. 

The remaining FIPS adopt obsolete 

Federal specifications for information 

access and for information security. 

More recent advisory guidance has been 

issued concerning access to publicly 

available government information and 

computer data authentication. Federal 

agencies are responsible for using 

current voluntary industry standards 

and current federal specifications and 

data standards in their acquisition and 

management activities. 

DATES: This withdrawal is effective 

September 2, 2008. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Shirley M. Radack, (301) 975–2833, 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, STOP 

8930, Gaithersburg, MD 20899–8930, email: shirley.radack@nist.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A notice 

was published in the Federal Register 

(70 FR 40984–85) on July 15, 2005, 

announcing the proposed withdrawal of 

the ten Federal Information Processing 

Standards (FIPS). The Federal Register 

notice solicited comments on the 

proposed withdrawal of the FIPS from 

the public, research communities, 

manufacturers, voluntary standards 

organizations, and Federal, State, and 

local government organizations. In 

addition to being published in the 

Federal Register, the notice was posted 

on the NIST Web pages. Information 

was provided about the submission of 

electronic comments. 

Comments were received from one 

federal government organization. No 

comments were received from industry 

organizations or individuals. 

Following is a summary of the 

comments received. 

Comments were received from the 

Department of Energy (DOE) Office of 

Scientific and Technical Information. 

The DOE comments supported the 

withdrawal of FIPS 192, Application 

Profile for the Government Information 

Locator Service (GILS), and FIPS 192–1 

(a)&(b), Application Profile for the 

Government Information Locator 

Service (GILS). DOE agreed that the 

withdrawal of these standards was 

appropriate since technology advances 

have made the standards obsolete. 

DOE stated that the GILS standard 

was created in 1994 to provide a 

mechanism for users to identify, locate, 

and access or acquire publicly available 

federal information resources. However, 

in the years since GILS was issued, 

advances in technology have made the 

standard obsolete. Today there are many 

tools available for finding information 

on the Internet, including Google, 

FirstGov, Meta Search Engines, and the 

Open Archives Initiative. These newer 

techniques enable agencies to avoid the 

ongoing, resource intensive cataloging 

efforts mandated by the GILS. 

No comments were received 

concerning the other standards that had 

been proposed for withdrawal. 

The FIPS number, title, and technical 

specifications for each of the ten FIPS 

being withdrawn are: 

FIPS 4–2, Representation of Calendar 

Date to Facilitate Interchange of Data 

Among Information Systems; adopts 

American National Standard ANSI 

X3.30–1997: Representation of Date for 

Information Interchange (revision of 

ANSI X3.30–1985 (R1991)). 

FIPS 5–2, Codes for the Identification 

of the States, the District of Columbia 

and the Outlying Areas of the United 

States, and Associated Areas. 

FIPS 6–4, Counties and Equivalent 

Entities of the U.S., Its Possessions, and 

Associated Areas. 

FIPS 10–4, Countries, Dependencies, 

Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their 

Principal Administrative Divisions. 

FIPS 113, Computer Data 

Authentication. 

FIPS 161–2, Electronic Data 

Interchange (EDI) (adopts families of 

EDI standards known as X12, UN/ 

EDIFACT and HL7). 

FIPS 183, Integration Definition for 

Function Modeling (IDEF0). 

FIPS 184, Integration Definition for 

Information Modeling (IDEFIX). 

FIPS 192, Application Profile for the 

Government Information Locator 

Service (GILS). 

FIPS 192–1 (a)&(b), Application 

Profile for the Government Information 

Locator Service (GILS). 

Once the FIPS are withdrawn, 

information on them may be found at: 

http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/ 

withdraw.htm. Withdrawal means that 

these FIPS will no longer be part of a 

subscription service that is provided by 

the National Technical Information 

Service. NIST will continue to provide 

relevant information on standards and 

guidelines by means of electronic 

dissemination methods. 

Current versions of the data standards 

and specifications are available through 

the Web pages of the Federal agencies 

that develop and maintain the data 

codes. NIST will keep references to 

these withdrawn FIPS on its FIPS Web 

pages, and will link to current versions 

of these standards and specifications 

where appropriate. 

Authority: Federal Information Processing 

Standards (FIPS) are issued by the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology after 

approval by the Secretary of Commerce 

pursuant to Section 5131 of the Information 

Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 

(Pub. L. 104–106), the Federal Information 

Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 

(Pub. L. 107–347), and Appendix III to Office 

of Management and Budget Circular A–130. 

E.O. 12866: This notice has been 

determined to be not significant for the 

purposes of E.O. 12866. 

Dated: August 22, 2008. 

James M. Turner, 

Deputy Director. 

[FR Doc. E8–20138 Filed 8–29–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–13–P 


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