20 CFR Chapter III - SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

We are extending the expiration dates of the following body systems in the Listing of Impairments (listings) in our regulations: Musculoskeletal System, Cardiovascular System, Digestive System, and Skin Disorders. We are making no other revisions to these body systems in this final rule. This extension ensures that we will continue to have the criteria we need to evaluate impairments in the affected body systems at step three of the sequential evaluation processes for initial claims and continuing disability reviews.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor (Department) is issuing this Interim Final Rule (IFR) revising performance accountability measures for the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). Revised measures are necessary because the Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016 (OAA) amended the measures of performance for the SCSEP program in large part to align them with the performance measures mandated for programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). This IFR revises the Performance Accountability subpart of the SCSEP regulations to reflect changes necessitated by the passage of the 2016 OAA. In addition, this rule makes minor, non-substantive amendments to other subparts of the SCSEP regulations to reflect the OAA amendments that aligned the SCSEP program statutory language with WIOA, such as updating outdated terminology and outdated references to the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), which WIOA superseded. This IFR solicits public comment on this IFR, which the Department will consider when it issues a Final Rule.

VETS published a proposed rule implementing the Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing (HIRE) American Military Veterans Act of 2017 (HIRE Vets Act or Act). The HIRE Vets Act requires the Department of Labor (DOL or Department) to establish by rule a HIRE Vets Medallion Program (Medallion Program) and annually solicit and accept voluntary information from employers for consideration of employers to receive a HIRE Vets Medallion Award (the award). Under the Program, VETS will review applications and notify recipients of their awards, and announce their names at a time that coincides with Veterans Day. This final rule sets out the criteria for the different categories and levels of HIRE Vets Medallion Awards, the award application process, and the award fees. VETS invited written comments on the proposed rule, and any specific issues related to the proposal, from members of the public.

We published final rules in the Federal Register on July 1, 2016, that revised the Listing of Impairments (Listings) for the neurological body system. That document inadvertently omitted a reference. This document amends and corrects the final rule.

VETS is publishing this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to propose regulations implementing the Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing (HIRE) American Military Veterans Act of 2017 (HIRE Vets Act of 2017 or Act). The HIRE Vets Act requires the Department of Labor (DOL, Department) to annually solicit and accept voluntary information from employers for consideration of employers to receive a HIRE Vets Medallion Award. VETS will review applications and notify recipients of their awards, and announce their names at a time that coincides with Veterans' Day. The Act establishes specific criteria at two levels, “gold” and “platinum,” for large employers (those with 500 or more employees) and allows the Department of Labor discretion in establishing additional criteria for each large employer award level and criteria for small and medium employers to qualify for similar awards. The NPRM proposes the application process and criteria that VETS intends to use to receive, review, and process applications; verify the information provided; and award the HIRE Vets Medallion Award to those employers meeting the criteria and deserving of the award. The Act establishes a fund, designated as the “HIRE Vets Medallion Award Fund” and requires the Secretary to assess a reasonable fee from the applicants to cover the costs associated with carrying out the HIRE Vets Medallion Award program. The NPRM provides the fee amount and how to submit the fee. These awards are intended to recognize employer efforts to recruit, employ, and retain our Nation's veterans.

We are extending for six months our rule authorizing attorney advisors to conduct certain prehearing proceedings and to issue fully favorable decisions. The current rule is scheduled to expire on August 4, 2017. In this final rule, we are extending the sunset date to February 5, 2018. We are making no other substantive changes.

The Secretary of Homeland Security (“Secretary”), in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, has decided to increase the numerical limitation on H-2B nonimmigrant visas to authorize the issuance of up to an additional 15,000 through the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2017. This is a one-time increase based on a time-limited statutory authority and does not affect the H-2B program in future fiscal years. The Departments are promulgating regulations to implement this determination.

We are removing from the Code of Federal Regulations the final rules, Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA), published on December 19, 2016. We are doing so because Congress passed, and the President signed, a joint resolution of disapproval of the final rules under the Congressional Review Act.

Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has passed, and the President has signed a public law disapproving the Employment and Training Administration's (ETA's) final rule establishing appropriate occupations for State drug testing of unemployment compensation claimants. ETA published the final rule on August 1, 2016, and the rule became effective on September 30, 2016. Because the public law invalidates the rule, ETA is hereby removing it from the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Railroad Retirement Board (Board) proposes to amend its regulations to update the members of the Executive Committee, update the responsibilities of the Executive Committee members, and update office titles.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is issuing a final rule to amend its Privacy Act regulation exempting portions of a system of records from certain provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, entitled Anti-Harassment & Hostile Work Environment Case Tracking and Records System. Because this system will contain some investigatory material compiled for law enforcement purposes, this rule will exempt those records within this new system of records from specific provisions of the Privacy Act.

We published a document in the Federal Register on January 18, 2017, that revises our rules. That document inadvertently contained technical errors. This document amends and corrects the final rules.

We published a document in the Federal Register revising our rules on October 17, 2016. That document inadvertently omitted a corresponding technical change to § 404.1592f(a) when § 404.1592c(a) was amended with the final rule publication. By making this technical correction we will also need to redesignate the amendatory instructions to incorporate the missing section changes to § 404.1592f(a). This document corrects the final regulation by making these technical corrections.

The departments and agencies listed in this document announce revisions to modernize, strengthen, and make more effective the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects that was originally promulgated as a Common Rule in 1991. This final rule is intended to better protect human subjects involved in research, while facilitating valuable research and reducing burden, delay, and ambiguity for investigators. These revisions are an effort to modernize, simplify, and enhance the current system of oversight.

The Department is proposing revisions to regulations under the Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA or Act) governing the payment of medical benefits. The Department is basing these rules on payment formulas that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses to determine payments under the Medicare program. The Department also intends to make the rules similar to those utilized in the other programs that the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) administers. These rules will determine the amounts payable for covered medical services and treatments provided to entitled miners, when those services or treatments are paid by the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. In addition, the proposed rule would eliminate two obsolete provisions.

These final rules implement provisions of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA) that require Federal agencies to provide relevant records to the Attorney General for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Under these final rules, we will identify, on a prospective basis, individuals who receive Disability Insurance benefits under title II of the Social Security Act (Act) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments under title XVI of the Act and who also meet certain other criteria, including an award of benefits based on a finding that the individual's mental impairment meets or medically equals the requirements of section 12.00 of the Listing of Impairments (Listings) and receipt of benefits through a representative payee. We will provide pertinent information about these individuals to the Attorney General on not less than a quarterly basis. As required by the NIAA, at the commencement of the adjudication process we will also notify individuals, both orally and in writing, of their possible Federal prohibition on possessing or receiving firearms, the consequences of such prohibition, the criminal penalties for violating the Gun Control Act, and the availability of relief from the prohibition on the receipt or possession of firearms imposed by Federal law. Finally, we also establish a program that permits individuals to request relief from the Federal firearms prohibitions based on our adjudication. These changes will allow us to fulfill responsibilities that we have under the NIAA.

We are revising our rules so that more of our procedures at the hearing and Appeals Council levels of our administrative review process are consistent nationwide. We anticipate that these nationally consistent procedures will enable us to administer our disability programs more efficiently and better serve the public.

The Railroad Retirement Board (Board) proposes to amend its regulations addressing who may receive a portion of an employee annuity due to a former spouse of a railroad annuitant under a court decree of divorce or court-approved property settlement, but which was unpaid at the time of the former spouse's death. The current regulation states that the Board will follow the priority order provided for employee annuities unpaid at death in Section 234.1 of the Board's regulations. The proper section pertaining to employee annuities due but unpaid at death is located in Section 234.31 of the Board's regulations. This amendment is necessary to insert the correct section reference.

We propose to amend our regulations regarding the submission of evidence in disability claims to require you to inform us or submit all evidence known to you that “relates to” your disability claims with exceptions for privileged communications and duplicates. This requirement would include the duty to submit all evidence obtained from any source in its entirety, subject to one of these exceptions. These modifications to our regulations would better describe your duty to submit all evidence that relates to your disability claim and will enable us to have a more complete case record which will allow us to make more accurate determinations of your disability status.

We are extending, until December 28, 2018, the expiration date of our disability examiner authority (DEA) rule, which authorizes State agency disability examiners to make fully favorable determinations without the approval of a State agency medical or psychological consultant in claims that we consider under our quick disability determination (QDD) and compassionate allowance (CAL) processes. This is our last extension of this rule because we will phase out the use of DEA during the extension period under section 832 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). This extension provides us the time necessary to take all of the administrative actions we need to take in order to reinstate uniform use of medical and psychological consultants. The current rule will expire on November 11, 2016. In this final rule, we are changing the November 11, 2016 expiration or “sunset” date to December 28, 2018, extending the authority for 2 years and 1 month. This is the final extension of our DEA rule. On December 28, 2018, at the conclusion of this extension, the authority for this test will terminate. We are making no other changes.

These rules finalize the rules we proposed in our notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), published on May 11, 2016. In these rules, we remove some of the requirements for evaluation of an unsuccessful work attempt (UWA) that lasts between 3 and 6 months, allow previously entitled beneficiaries to apply for expedited reinstatement (EXR) in the same month they stop performing substantial gainful activity (SGA), and provide that provisional benefits will begin the month after the request for EXR if the beneficiary stops performing SGA in the month of the EXR request. These changes will simplify our policies and make them easier for the public to understand.

We are revising the criteria in the Listing of Impairments (listings) that we use to evaluate claims involving mental disorders in adults and children under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (Act). The revisions reflect our program experience, advances in medical knowledge, recommendations from a commissioned report, and public comments we received in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).

In accordance with section 812 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA section 812), these rules explain how we will address evidence furnished by medical sources that meet one of BBA section 812's exclusionary categories (excluded medical sources of evidence) as described below. Under these new rules, we will not consider evidence furnished by an excluded medical source of evidence unless we find good cause to do so. We identify five circumstances in which we may find good cause. In these rules, we also require excluded medical sources of evidence to notify us of their excluded status under section 223(d)(5)(C)(i) of the Social Security Act (Act), as amended, in writing each time they furnish evidence to us that relates to a claim for initial or continuing benefits under titles II or XVI of the Act. These rules will allow us to fulfill obligations that we have under BBA section 812.

We are proposing several revisions to our medical evidence rules. The proposals include redefining several key terms related to evidence, revising our list of acceptable medical sources (AMS), revising how we consider and articulate our consideration of medical opinions and prior administrative medical findings, revising who can be a medical consultant (MC) and psychological consultant (PC), revising our rules about treating sources, and reorganizing our evidence regulations for ease of use. These proposed revisions would conform our rules with the requirements of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA), reflect changes in the national healthcare workforce and in the manner that individuals receive primary medical care, simplify and reorganize our rules to make them easier to understand and apply, allow us to continue to make accurate and consistent decisions, and emphasize the need for objective medical evidence in disability and blindness claims.

The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs is proposing rules to implement the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act's maximum and minimum compensation provisions. Some of these provisions, which cap the amounts of compensation and death benefits payable to entitled claimants and provide a floor below which compensation may not fall, have become the topic of litigation. The proposed rules would clarify how the Department interprets and applies these provisions. In addition, the proposed rules would implement the Act's annual compensation-adjustment mechanism for permanent total disability compensation and death benefits.