The town, it is said, is consumed by Monica Madness and partisan jousting over impeachment proceedings. The president is distracted, nothing is getting done, and the nation is ill-served.
It’s why a cruise through the Federal Register provides a certain, eye-wearying relief. In ways even most savvy journalists and lobbyists might not appreciate, your government is very much alive and affecting your life.
The Federal Register is a softbound, gray, small-print booklet published daily, Monday through Friday, by the National Archives and Records Administration. It is where the government places new public regulations and legal notices issued by federal agencies, as well as presidential executive orders and other federal documents of public interest.
It is too boring, too filled with bureaucratese and too replete with parenthetical references to arcane statutes for a normal human being with a real life to even scan each day. Stuck in bed with the flu one evening last week, I read four days’ worth, or about 1,100 pages, and was taken aback.
My prone-position perusal served as a primer on the breadth of the federal impact, especially regulatory agencies, on American citizens. What follows is a sampler of actions and proposals issued on four days last week:
– The Department of Agriculture is proposing to alter the geographic balance on the board that oversees the hefty $80 million a year spent to promote milk consumption. That’s the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, whose members are surely among the few to comprehend the comically complex system by which we get our milk. That system of so-called milk marketing orders creates regional boundaries around milk-producing areas, aims to ensure that local producers supply local markets and protects farmers from the vagaries of seasonal consumption patterns.
The fine print indicates that while milk production in Region 2 (California) rose to 27,628 million pounds in 1997, up from 22,084 in 1992, production in Region 7 (Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska) dropped to 9,699 million pounds from 11,168 million pounds in 1992. It has proposed that Region 2’s board membership rise to six people from five and Region 7’s drop to two from three to “best reflect the geographic distribution of milk production volume throughout the United States.”
– The U.S. Coast Guard adopted special local regulations to assist the 2nd annual Hobbs Island Regatta, which was held Saturday by the Rocket City Rowing Club at the riverfront in Huntsville, Ala. “No spectators shall anchor, block, loiter in, or impede the through transit of participants or official patrol vessels in the regulated area,” according to the temporary regulation.
More Top Picks Tablets
– The Defense Security Assistance Agency notified House Speaker Newt Gingrich that it had approved a proposed $200 million arms sale to Egypt. It “will provide the Egyptian Air Force an initial F-16 depot level maintenance capability and will allow them to be self-sufficient in performing their own maintenance. The proposed sale of this program will not affect the military balance in the region.”
– The Federal Aviation Administration proposes runway-safety improvements at Jackson Hole Airport in posh Jackson Hole, Wyo. The proposal notes an “alarming number of runway excursions,” which means planes unable to stop on the paved portion of the runway. Between 1985 and 1998, there were 15 such excursions, or more than at any other commercial airport. This proposes making the runway longer and installing identifier lights at its end.
– The Environmental Protection Agency approved the application of the Engelhard Corp. of Iselin, N.J., for a new system to retrofit or rebuild the Detroit Diesel Corp.’s petroleum-fueled 6V92TA model engines with electronically controlled fuel injection from the model years 1988 through 1993. They are used in big-city buses. “Engelhard indicates that the coated engine components utilize unique properties to improve the combustion efficiency of the engine to reduce the engine-out emissions of particulate matter (PM),” according to the notice of approval.
– The Fish and Wildlife Service announced the draft of a recovery plan for Junglans jamaicensis, or the West Indian walnut or nogal, a large tree found in Puerto Rico. There are apparently only 14 of them, all near the town of Adjuntas, and “the species is threatened by land-clearing for agriculture and rural development.”
– The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Coordinating Committee will meet Oct. 13 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. “The meeting room will accommodate approximately 145 people.” The panel is seeking to coordinate interagency research.
– The Federal Aviation Administration released an “airworthiness directive” involving the Rolls-Royce, plc RB211 Trent 800 series turbofan engines. “This amendment is prompted by reports of multiple fan blade root cracks in several factory test engines. The actions specified are intended to prevent fan blade failure, which could result in multiple fan blade release, uncontained engine failure and possible damage to the aircraft.”
– The Federal Trade Commission announced a consent decree involving deceptive practices against 13 dentists in Juana Diaz, Coamo and Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico. The FTC contended that they conspired to fix prices and the terms under which they would deal with the nation’s program to provide services to the poor. The result was to deny services to thousands and to raise their own level of reimbursement.
– The United States Information Service approved as “culturally significant objects” those included in the exhibit “Love and War: A Manual for Life in the Middle Ages.” This allows their temporary, non-profit use in this country for exhibits at the National Gallery of Art in Washington from Nov. 8 to Jan. 31 and the Frick Collection in New York from May 11 through July 5.
– The Federal Communications Commission allotted Channel 280A to Arcadia, Mo., as the town’s first local radio service in response to a request from Iron County Broadcasting Co. According to the so-called final rule, the coordinates at Arcadia are 37-32-30 and 90-43-00. In response to a counterproposal from Lyle Broadcasting Corp., the FCC will substitute Channel 268C1 for Channel 268B at Carbondale, Ill., at coordinates 37-37-00 and 89-38-30 and modify the license for Station WCIL accordingly.
– The Air Force issued a Fourth Revised Supplemental Record of Decision (FRSROD) involving the disposal of the government property at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois, which closed Sept. 30, 1993. The Air Force has decided to “modify the method of disposal for Parcel O and clarify the disposal of the phone system, roads and rights of way.” This will all proceed with “minimal adverse impact on the environment.”
– The Federal Aviation Administration, admittedly spurred by terrorist bombings in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center in New York, amended the regulations that require an access investigation, including a fingerprint-based criminal record check on certain occasions for unescorted access privileges to security areas at airports. “This final rule extends the requirement for an access investigation (which is renamed `employment history investigation’) to persons who perform checkpoint screening functions at airports and their supervisors.”
– The Food and Drug Administration issued an amended economic analysis involving a proposal to require labels on medical devices that contain natural rubber latex. The new rule was issued “in response to numerous reports of severe allergic reactions and deaths related to a wide range of medical devices containing natural rubber.” Manufacturers and the government are feuding over how many devices would have to be relabeled and what the cost would be.
The FDA cites 16 deaths after barium enemas, all linked to anaphylactic reactions to the natural rubber latex cuff on the tip of barium enema catheters.
After that cheeriness, sure you don’t want more about Monica?