New regs for Friday: Respiratory, pollution, campaign

Friday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new respiratory protections for workers, pollution standards for military ships, and campaign rules.

Here’s what is happening:

Workers: The Department of Labor is proposing new respiratory protections.

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed Thursday changes to the respiratory protection standard that would affect construction and shipyard workers.

The public has 60 days to comment.

Ships: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Defense (DOD) are proposing new pollution standards for military ships.

The pollution standards would affect discharges from Navy and Coast Guard ships operating in U.S. waters.

“The 11 discharges addressed by the proposed rule are the following: catapult water brake tank and postlaunch retraction exhaust, controllable pitch propeller hydraulic fluid, deck runoff, firemain systems, graywater, hull coating leachate, motor gasoline and compensating discharge, sonar dome discharge, submarine bilgewater, surface vessel bilgewater/oil-water separator effluent, and underwater ship husbandry,” the agencies wrote.

The public has 60 days to comment.

Politics: The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is looking at new rules for political parties.

In response to a petition, the FEC is considering whether to “revise existing rules regarding the use of federal funds to pay for certain activities of state, district, or local committees of a political party,” the agency said Thursday.

The public has until Jan. 30, 2017 to comment.