New regs for Thursday: assisted living, shorebirds and man-made gases

Thursday’s edition of the Federal Register contains a new deadline for public comment on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposal to streamline housing programs for elderly and disable people, new protections from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for shorebirds and new reporting requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency on global warming potentials. 

Here’s what’s happening: 

Living assistance: The Department of Housing and Urban Development is reopening the public comment period for its proposed rule to streamline programs that provide elderly people and people with disabilities housing and services. 

The new rules would allow HUD to reserve a certain number of apartments for elderly people with functional limitations, establish requirements and procedures in reporting new rental assistance programs for people with disabilities and change how certain loans for supportive housing for the elderly are paid. 

The proposed rule would also allow HUD to give grant assistance to elderly and disabled people who struggle financially and regulate how service coordinators function in multifamily housing and assisted living programs. 

The public comment period ended on Dec. 8, but HUD said it did not get the response it expected. The public now has until Jan. 15 to comment. 

Shorebirds: The Fish and Wildlife Service is adding a migratory shorebird to the threatened species list. 

Rufa red knots migrates annually between breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic and several wintering regions, including the Southeast United States, the Northeast Gulf of Mexico, northern Brazil, and Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. They stop in areas off the Atlantic coast in the fall and spring seasons to rest and feed. 

The bird’s population, however, is on the decline due to an increase in predators and lack of food in its breeding and nonbreeding habitats.

The rule will take effect in 30 days. 

Global warming potentials: The Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with a rule that would add man-made gases and industrial heat transfer fluids to the list of global warming potentials that need to be reported. 

The agency said the additions would make the reporting of carbon dioxide pollution more accurate. Electronics manufactures, industrial gas manufacturing facilities and companies that export pre-charged equipment like air conditioners and household appliances will be impacted.  

The rule will take effect Jan 1.