New regs for Tuesday: ObamaCare birth-control rule

{mosads}As The Hill’s Healthwatch reported on Friday, the new rules require most employers to cover a wide range of birth-control methods.  

Religious nonprofit groups like hospitals and schools that object to providing the birth-control services will not have to pay or arrange for covering contraception, but must tell their plan administrators that they object. The administrators then provide birth-control coverage to employees at no additional cost. 

The administration is also proposing rules governing what the health insurance marketplaces report to the Internal Revenue Service. 

Education:

The Education Department is finalizing a 2012 rule for federal Pell grants that prevents students from receiving two grants in a single year. 

Transportation:

The Federal Aviation Administration is updating its regulations to make sure that additional planes comply with limits on noise levels. 

The comment period for new implementation procedures for state highway safety grants is being extended through September by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

Endangered species:

The Fish and Wildlife Service is protecting about 2,485 acres in California for the Buena Vista Lake shrew and correcting the map of the protected area for the fountain darter, a type of fish. 

The agency is also reopening the comment period on a 2012 proposal to designate critical habitat for three Hawaiian plant species. 

Fishing:
For the rest of the year, the National Marine Fisheries Service is prohibiting fishing for perch in a region off the coast of Alaska. 

The agency is also proposing regulations for snapper fishing in the South Atlantic and to implement a 2009 law that directs an interagency committee to develop some certification criteria. 

Finally, the fishing regulator’s information collection requirements have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget. 

Health:

The Health and Human Services Department is adding prostate cancer to the list of conditions covered by a program that provides medical monitoring and treatment for first-responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack in New York City, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. 

Agriculture:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is changing some of its rules to allow foreign mango producers to nominate themselves to serve on a national board, increasing the rate charged to California grapes and temporarily decreasing the value assigned to imported cotton as part of a calculation of fees. The department also wants to make the change to cotton assessments permanent. 

Communications:

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is publishing a rule to set up a procedure for responding to requests for its program materials. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering imposing new regulations on DVD and Blu-ray players to make sure they provide appropriate closed captioning services. 

The FCC is also making other modifications and clarifications to its closed captioning rules for video delivered over the Internet, in response to three petitions. 

Whistle-blower:

The Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that protects rights of federal employees, is amending its practice and procedure rules for whistle-blower cases.