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

37545 

Vol. 82, No. 154 

Friday, August 11, 2017 

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY 

OFFICE 

4 CFR Part 81 

Public Availability of Government 

Accountability Office Records 

AGENCY: Government Accountability 

Office. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: These proposed revisions 

would clarify procedures to obtain 

Government Accountability Office 

(GAO) records. Specifically, the 

proposed revisions would add 

procedures for requesting records of 

GAO’s Office of Inspector General. The 

proposed revisions would also clarify 

that documents prepared by GAO or 

GAO’s Office of Inspector General for 

referral to another agency for law 

enforcement purposes are not subject to 

the regulations in this Part. The existing 

regulatory language on this point is 

imprecise. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before September 25, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: Comments may be 

submitted by any of the following 

methods: 

Email: bielecj@gao.gov. 

Mail: Government Accountability 

Office, Office of the General Counsel, 

Attn: Legal Services, Room 7838, 441 G 

Street NW., Washington, DC 20548. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John 

A. Bielec, Assistant General Counsel, 

202–512–2846. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: GAO is 

not subject to the Administrative 

Procedure Act and accordingly is not 

required by law to seek comments 

before issuing a final rule. However, 

GAO has decided to invite interested 

persons to participate in this rulemaking 

by submitting written comments 

regarding the proposed revisions. 

Application of the Administrative 

Procedure Act to GAO is not to be 

inferred from this invitation for 

comments. 

GAO will consider all comments 

received on or before the closing date 

for comments. GAO may change the 

proposed revisions based on the 

comments received. 

GAO proposes to amend section 81.2 

by specifically providing that GAO’s 

Office of Inspector General (OIG) will 

process any requests under this Part for 

OIG records. The OIG, which was 

established by statute in 2008, audits 

and investigates matters related to 

GAO’s operations. The OIG executes its 

responsibilities independently of and 

free from interference or control by any 

other office or body within GAO. In 

keeping with and to best preserve this 

independence, the OIG itself should 

process requests for its records. In doing 

so, consistent with its independent role 

and section 81.5(a), when the OIG 

receives a request for records that 

originated in GAO, the OIG will refer 

the requester to GAO. These revisions 

would provide that with respect to any 

request for OIG records, throughout this 

Part the term ‘‘Counsel to the Inspector 

General’’ would be substituted for 

‘‘Chief Quality Officer’’ and the term 

‘‘Inspector General’’ would be 

substituted for ‘‘Comptroller General’’. 

In addition, paragraph 81.6(g) would 

be amended to clarify that documents 

prepared by GAO for referral to another 

agency for law enforcement purposes 

are exempt from the procedures in this 

Part. Paragraph 81.6(g) currently 

provides that records that GAO has 

already provided to another agency for 

law enforcement purposes are exempt. 

However, paragraph 81.6(g) does not 

specifically address requests for records 

that GAO, including the OIG, created for 

referral to another agency for law 

enforcement purposes, but has not yet 

provided to another agency. For 

instance, during an investigation into 

possible criminal activity, the GAO OIG 

creates documents that may be 

forwarded to another agency for law 

enforcement purposes at the conclusion 

of the OIG’s investigation. The current 

regulations are unclear as to whether 

such records, which have not yet been 

forwarded to another agency, would be 

subject to this Part if requested before 

the conclusion of the investigation. The 

proposed changes would clarify that 

records compiled for referral to another 

agency for law enforcement purposes 

are exempt from this Part. 

List of Subjects in 4 CFR Part 81 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Archives and records, 

Freedom of information, Requests for 

records. 

For the reasons stated in the 

preamble, the Government 

Accountability Office proposes to 

amend 4 CFR part 81 as follows: 

PART 81—PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF 

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY 

OFFICE RECORDS 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 81 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 31 U.S.C. 711. 

■ 2. Amend § 81.2 as follows: 

■ a. redesignate the existing text as 

paragraph (a); 

■ b. add paragraph (b) to read as 

follows: 

§ 81.2 Administration. 

* * * * * 

(b) Requests for records of GAO’s 

Office of Inspector General (OIG) shall 

be processed by the Counsel to the 

Inspector General in accordance with 

this Part. The Inspector General will 

decide any administrative appeals of 

decisions of the Counsel to the Inspector 

General concerning such requests. 

Accordingly, with regard to any public 

request to inspect or copy records of the 

OIG, in this Part the term ‘‘Counsel to 

the Inspector General’’ is to be 

substituted for ‘‘Chief Quality Officer’’ 

and the term ‘‘Inspector General’’ is to 

be substituted for ‘‘Comptroller 

General’’. All requests to inspect or 

obtain a copy of an identifiable record 

of the OIG must be submitted in writing 

to the Counsel to the Inspector General, 

U.S. Government Accountability Office, 

Suite 1808, 441 G Street NW., 

Washington, DC 20548 or emailed to 

oighotline@.gov. 

■ 3. Amend § 81.6 by revising paragraph 

(g) to read as follows: 

§ 81.6 Records which may be exempt from 

disclosure. 

* * * * * 

(g) Records compiled for law 

enforcement purposes that originate in 

another agency, or records prepared for 

referral to and/or provided by GAO or 

the OIG to another agency for law 

enforcement purposes. 

* * * * * 


asabaliauskas on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with PROPOSALS
37546 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 154 / Friday, August 11, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

1To view the proposed rule, supporting 

documents, and the comments we received, go to 

http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2013-0061. 

Dated July 27, 2017. 

Susan A. Poling, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2017–16986 Filed 8–10–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1610–02–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

9 CFR Part 94 

[Docket No. APHIS–2013–0061] 

RIN 0579–AD96 

Restrictions on the Importation of 

Fresh Pork and Pork Products From a 

Region in Mexico 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; withdrawal. 

SUMMARY: We are withdrawing a 

proposed rule that would have defined 

a low-risk classical swine fever region in 

Mexico from which we would have 

allowed the importation of fresh pork 

and pork products into the United 

States under certain conditions. We are 

taking this action after reopening our 

risk evaluation of the classical swine 

fever status of Mexico using updated 

information. 

DATES: As of August 11, 2017, the 

proposed rule published on July 29, 

2014, at 79 FR 43974, is withdrawn. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Chip Wells, Senior Staff Veterinarian, 

Regionalization Evaluation Services, 

National Import Export Services, VS, 

APHIS, USDA, 4700 River Road Unit 38, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1231; 

Chip.J.Wells@aphis.usda.gov; (301) 851– 

3317. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 

29, 2014, we published in the Federal 

Register (79 FR 43974–43980, Docket 

No. APHIS–2013–0061) a proposal 1 to 

amend the regulations by recognizing a 

new Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS)-defined 

low-risk classical swine fever (CSF) 

region that would consist of all Mexican 

States except the nine States we 

currently recognize as CSF-free and the 

State of Chiapas, which we did not 

propose to recognize as CSF-free or low 

risk. We proposed to allow imports of 

pork and pork products from the 

APHIS-defined Mexican CSF region into 

the United States under certain 

conditions. The proposed requirements 

were intended to ensure that the pork 

and pork products were derived from 

swine housed on farms that met strict 

biosanitary standards and were not 

subject to contamination by means of 

commingling with animals or animal 

products that did not meet our 

requirements. 

We solicited comments concerning 

our proposal for 60 days ending 

September 29, 2014. We received 10 

comments by that date. They were from 

producers’ associations, the Government 

of Mexico, and individuals. The 

commenters addressed a number of 

issues, including the possible CSF risk 

posed by allowing such imports, our 

plans for implementing and enforcing 

the provisions of the proposed rule, and 

whether our requirements for imports 

from the proposed CSF low-risk region 

in Mexico were equivalent to those in 

place for the existing CSF low-risk 

region in the European Union. 

In 2015, the World Organization for 

Animal Health recognized Mexico as 

CSF-free. The Government of Mexico 

then requested that APHIS suspend its 

rulemaking and instead continue 

evaluating Mexico for CSF status. 

In response to that request, APHIS 

reopened its evaluation of the CSF 

status of Mexico, conducting a site visit 

in 2015. Findings from the resulting 

2015 site visit report, along with 

updated surveillance data and 

information submitted by the 

Government of Mexico, led APHIS to 

determine that concerns identified in 

the earlier risk assessment that 

supported the July 2014 proposed rule 

had been addressed and that current 

conditions would support CSF-free 

recognition for all of Mexico. 

Therefore, we are withdrawing the 

July 29, 2014, proposed rule referenced 

above. 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, 7781– 

7786, and 8301–8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 

136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 

371.4. 

Done in Washington, DC, August 7, 2017. 

Michael C. Gregoire, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2017–16980 Filed 8–10–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

14 CFR Part 39 

[Docket No. FAA–2017–0766; Product 

Identifier 2017–NM–046–AD] 

RIN 2120–AA64 

Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing 

Company Airplanes 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM). 

SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new 

airworthiness directive (AD) for all The 

Boeing Company Model 737–100, –200, 

–200C, –300, –400, and –500 series 

airplanes. This proposed AD was 

prompted by an evaluation by the 

design approval holder (DAH) 

indicating that the gore web lap splices 

of the aft pressure bulkhead are subject 

to widespread fatigue damage (WFD). 

This proposed AD would require 

repetitive inspections of the gore webs, 

gore web lap splices, and repair webs, 

as applicable, of the aft pressure 

bulkhead, and applicable on-condition 

actions. We are proposing this AD to 

address the unsafe condition on these 

products. 

DATES: We must receive comments on 

this proposed AD by September 25, 

2017. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments, 

using the procedures found in 14 CFR 

11.43 and 11.45, by 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: Deliver to Mail 

address above between 9 a.m. and 5 

p.m., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. 

For service information identified in 

this NPRM, contact Boeing Commercial 

Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data 

Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster 

Blvd., MC 110–SK57, Seal Beach, CA 

90740–5600; telephone 562–797–1717; 

Internet https://

www.myboeingfleet.com. You may view 

this referenced service information at 

the FAA, Transport Standards Branch, 

1601 Lind Avenue SW., Renton, WA. 

For information on the availability of 

this material at the FAA, call 425–227– 


asabaliauskas on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with PROPOSALS