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Open for Comment: Joint Employer Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act

Labor Department — Since 2021, the Department has not provided any regulatory guidance addressing joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or Act) for the benefit of workers, employers, or its enforcement personnel. In this rulemaking, the Department proposes to clarify how to determine joint employer status under the FLSA in Part 791 of Title 29, where its joint employer regulations were located prior to 2021. Additionally, the Department is also proposing to amend provisions in its regulations implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) to provide that joint employer status under those laws be determined using the Department's FLSA analysis, as the FMLA and MSPA both incorporate the FLSA's employment definitions. This rulemaking is intended to provide clarity and a measure of uniformity for employers and employees in an area of the law where components of legislative, executive, and judicial branches--at both the federal and state levels--have presented widely varying tests and standards. In addition, the proposed rule offers a nationwide standard for use by the Department's investigators and law enforcement personnel that would not only ensure the evenhanded application of the Act in matters that often cross state and circuit lines but also preserve core consistency with the wide variety of potentially relevant judicial frameworks. The proposed rule intends to marshal the commonality between those approaches closest to the statute as construed by the courts and, in so doing, simplify the Department's enforcement of the law, reduce litigation, and provide a reliable and uniform analysis for workers and employers that ultimately applies and complements the core commonality between the various tests applied by the federal courts. (56 days remaining)

Open for Comment: Utah; Uinta Basin; 2015 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard; Reconsideration and Repeal of Finding of Failure To Attain and Reclassification to a Moderate Nonattainment Area; Extension of the Attainment Date and Determination of Attainment by the Marginal Attainment Date

Environmental Protection Agency — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is proposing to repeal the December 16, 2024 final rule in which we denied a request by the State of Utah (State) and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation (Ute Indian Tribe or Tribe) for an extension of the attainment date for the Uinta Basin (UB), Utah Marginal nonattainment area (NAA) under the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), determined that the area failed to attain the Clean Air Act (CAA) 2015 ozone NAAQS by the applicable Marginal attainment date of August 3, 2022, and reclassified the area by operation of law to a Moderate ozone NAA. The EPA is also reproposing to grant the second 1-year extension of the Marginal attainment date from August 3, 2022 to August 3, 2023 and to determine that the area attained the 2015 ozone NAAQS based on certified ozone monitoring data from 2020-2022. If we finalize this proposed action, the UB area would no longer be subject to the CAA requirements pertaining to reclassification upon failure to attain and therefore would remain classified as a Marginal NAA for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. (33 days remaining)

Open for Comment: National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production Facilities and Natural Gas Transmission and Storage Facilities; Technology Review and Reconsideration

Environmental Protection Agency — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing an action related to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) from Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production Facilities and from Natural Gas Transmission and Storage Facilities (Oil and Gas NESHAP) in connection with a technology review pursuant to Clean Air Act (CAA) section 112. Based on the EPA's review the Agency is not proposing any revision to the current standards in the NESHAP. With respect to unregulated pollutants, the EPA is proposing standards for methanol from regulated emission points at crude oil and natural gas production facilities that will result in no additional control requirements. The EPA is further proposing two alternative approaches to emission points not currently regulated in these NESHAP. Under the first approach, we are proposing that the Agency does not have an obligation to regulate previously unregulated emission points when conducting a CAA section 112(d)(6) review and to defer action on that basis. Under the second approach, we are proposing new control standards for previously unregulated emission points, which include: acid gas removal units, transport vessel loading operations, and storage vessels without flash emissions at crude oil and natural gas production facilities, as well as storage vessels, transport vessel loading and natural gas-driven process controllers and pumps at natural gas transmission and storage facilities. The EPA is also concurrently proposing changes to the definition of "associated equipment" with respect to a major source to align with the CAA that, if finalized, would reduce burdens on industry. Finally, the EPA is proposing minor technical corrections to the existing regulations. (60 days remaining)

Open for Comment: Airworthiness Directives; Various Helicopters

Transportation Department — The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2015-20-12, which applies to certain Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Model S-61A, D, E, L, N, NM serial number (S/N) 61454, R, and V; Croman Corporation Model SH-3H; Carson Helicopters, Inc., Model S-61L and SH- 3H; Glacier Helicopter, Inc., Model CH-3E; Robinson Air Crane, Inc., Model CH-3E, CH-3C, HH-3C and HH-3E; and Siller Helicopters Model CH-3E and SH-3A helicopters. AD 2015-20-12 requires calculating or recalculating the hours time-in-service (TIS) of the main rotor shaft (MRS), determining whether the MRS is repetitive external lift (REL) or non-REL, performing a nondestructive inspection (NDI) for cracks, replacing any MRS that has cracks, replacing parts before their life limits and removing from service any parts that have exceeded their life limits. This proposed AD would also require establishing retirement lives for each REL MRS, including reducing life limits and allowing for modification of life limits based on service information, and removing any MRS with oversized dowel pin bores. Since the FAA issued AD 2015-20-12, a design re-evaluation shows that the MRS on certain helicopter models requires a lower life limit. This proposed AD would retain some of the requirements of AD 2015-20-12, and would also lower the retirement life for a certain MRS installed on certain helicopters and would update the type certificate holder name for some of the affected helicopter models. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. (44 days remaining)