New regs for Friday: Prison phone calls, guide dogs, banks

Friday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new rules for guide dogs in VA hospitals, phone companies that service prisons, solar and wind energy development companies, and stress testing requirements for large banks.

Here’s what is happening:

Dogs: The Department of Veterans Affairs is considering new rules that would allow guide dogs who assist people with disabilities to come inside VA hospitals and facilities.

Current regulations bar some guide dogs from working inside VA facilities, the agency noted.

The public has 60 days to comment.

Prison: The Federal Communications Commission is looking to lower the price of making calls to and from prison to make it “easier for inmates to stay connected to their families and friends” while they are locked up.

The FCC proposed Thursday making prison phone service more competitive by soliciting multiple providers rather than selling the exclusive rights to one company. 

The agency also floated the idea of rate caps on prison phone calls.

The public has 45 days to comment.

Fish: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is considering new protections for the fish known as the Nassau grouper.

The NMFS will hold a hearing on Dec. 9 to take comments from the public on its September proposal to list the Nassau grouper as a threatened species. The hearing will take place in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“While the species still occupies its historical range, spawning aggregations have been reduced in size and number due to fishing pressure,” the agency wrote. “The lack of adequate management measures to protect these aggregations increases the extinction risk of Nassau grouper.”

Energy development: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is delaying new rules for companies that lease public lands to develop clean energy.

The BLM proposed rules in September intended to encourage development of solar and wind energy on public lands. But the agency said Thursday it is extending the comment period through Dec. 16.

“The proposed rule would promote the use of preferred areas for solar and wind energy development and establish competitive processes, terms, and conditions for solar and wind energy development,” the agency wrote.

Banks: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is moving forward with new stress testing requirements for large banks that come from the Dodd-Frank financial reform laws.

The new rules include annual stress testing requirements for state savings associations and state nonmember banks that have assets of more than $10 billion.

These banks will also be required to report and publicly disclose the results.

The new rules go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.