45 CFR Chapter VII - COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS

This proposed rule would revise the Legal Services Corporation's (LSC or Corporation) regulation about bonding requirements for LSC recipients. It would require recipients to bond all their employees and to ensure that third parties who handle recipients' funds have bond coverage, allow recipients to use other forms of insurance similar to fidelity bonds, raise the minimum level of coverage, and allow recipients to use LSC funds to pay for bonding costs. This proposed rule will update part 1629 to reflect current insurance practices and simplify the language in the rule to reduce confusion.

This final rule revises the Legal Services Corporation (LSC or Corporation) regulation regarding fee-generating cases. This rule clarifies the definition of “fee-generating case,” clarifies that brief advice is permitted by the regulation, and revises how a recipient accounts for attorneys' fees awards.

This rule finalizes changes that will help stabilize the individual and small group markets and affirm the traditional role of State regulators. This final rule amends standards relating to special enrollment periods, guaranteed availability, and the timing of the annual open enrollment period in the individual market for the 2018 plan year; standards related to network adequacy and essential community providers for qualified health plans; and the rules around actuarial value requirements.

The Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act authorizes the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States to adjudicate claims and determine the eligibility of individuals for payment for harms suffered by residents of Guam resulting from the occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II. This rule establishes procedures for the filing and adjudication of claims brought under the Guam Loyalty Recognition Act. The rule also provides definitions for the statutory terms “severe personal injury” and “personal injury,” and amends regulations concerning the payment of attorney's fees.

This rule proposes changes that would help stabilize the individual and small group markets. This proposed rule would amend standards relating to special enrollment periods, guaranteed availability, and the timing of the annual open enrollment period in the individual market for the 2018 plan year; standards related to network adequacy and essential community providers for qualified health plans; and the rules around actuarial value requirements.

This final rule revises the Legal Services Corporation's (LSC or Corporation) regulations governing subgrants. LSC published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on April 20, 2015, and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) on April 26, 2016. This final rule identifies the factors to consider in determining whether an award from an LSC recipient to another organization is a subgrant, establishes a dollar threshold at which recipients must seek LSC's approval to award a subgrant, authorizes recipients to use property or services funded in whole or in part with LSC funds to support a subgrant, and establishes new processes for seeking prior approval of subgrants.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is updating its regulations to reflect required annual inflation-related increases to the civil monetary penalties in its regulations, pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvement Act of 2015.

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 of Health and Human Services published a final rule in the Federal Register on September 30, 2016 that revised regulations for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program. The final rule inadvertently included incorrect numbering of two paragraphs. This document corrects the numbering of those two paragraphs.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is updating its regulations to reflect required annual inflation-related increases to the civil monetary penalties in its regulations, pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.

On June 30, 2016, President Obama signed the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) Improvement Act of 2016 (the “FOIA Improvement Act”). Section 3 of the FOIA Improvement Act requires, that not later than 180 days after the date of its enactment, the head of each agency review and revise the agency's regulations to implement the FOIA Improvement Act's amendments. The FOIA Improvement Act specifically requires that the regulations of each agency include procedures for engaging in dispute resolution through the FOIA Public Liaison and the Office of Government Information Services. After undertaking a review of its FOIA regulations in accordance with Section 3 of the FOIA Improvement Act, NEH is revising its FOIA regulations to incorporate the statutory mandates.

This final rule sets forth payment parameters and provisions related to the risk adjustment program; cost-sharing parameters and cost-sharing reductions; and user fees for Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-based Exchanges on the Federal platform. It also provides additional guidance relating to standardized options; qualified health plans; consumer assistance tools; network adequacy; ... and guaranteed renewability; the medical loss ratio program; eligibility and enrollment; appeals; consumer-operated and oriented plans; special enrollment periods; and other related topics.

The Legal Services Corporation (“LSC”) issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register of October 28, 2016 [FR Doc. 2016-25831], concerning proposed amendments to its regulations governing definitions, cost standards and procedures, and purchasing and property management. This notice extends the comment period for 30 days to January 26, 2017.

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is revising its regulation on procedures for disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act to implement the statutorily required amendments in the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. LSC is also making technical changes to improve the structure and clarity of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations.

The Social Security Act (the Act) requires that ACF regulate a national data collection system that provides comprehensive demographic and case-specific information on children who are in foster care and adopted. This final rule replaces existing Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations and the appendices to require title IV-E agencies to collect and report data to ACF on children in out-of-home care, and who exit out-of-home care to adoption or legal guardianship, children in out-of-home care who are covered by the Indian Child Welfare Act, and children who are covered by a title IV-E adoption or guardianship assistance agreement.

This final rule makes changes to the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) adoption of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) (“Uniform Administrative Requirements”) published on December 19, 2014 and the technical amendments published by HHS on January 20, 2016. HHS codified the OMB language, with noted modifications as explained in the preamble to the December promulgation. The HHS-specific modifications to the Uniform Administrative Requirements adopted prior regulatory language that was not in conflict with OMB's language, and provided additional guidance to the regulated community. Unlike all of the other modifications to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, these additional changes, although based on existing law or HHS policy, were not previously codified in regulation. HHS sought comment on these proposed changes in a notice of proposed rulemaking published on July 13, 2016. This final rule implements these regulatory changes. It also corrects one typographical error that was recently discovered in the most recent promulgation of the Uniform Administrative Requirements.