New regs for Friday: States get control of highway reviews

{mosads}People with disabilities: 

The Federal Communications Commission is laying out new rules for a program that people who are deaf or have hearing disabilities can take advantage of to use the telephone.

The regulations cover marketing, labeling and default settings for the services, which are provided by phone companies and allow an operator to act as a go-between on the phone. 

Additionally, the Social Security Administration wants the public to weigh in on how it should revise criteria for evaluating some types of hearing loss. 

ObamaCare:

The Department of Health and Human Services has finalized rules outlining the federal government’s role overseeing insurance plans. 

The 300-page regulation gives the administration a way to ensure that plans on new state-based marketplaces comply with standards of privacy, quality and affordability. 

Visas:

The Labor Department is indefinitely delaying a new way to calculate wages for nonagricultural workers temporarily in the U.S.

Legislation has prevented the department from using money to implement the rule. In April, it issued another regulation establishing the current wage calculation method for workers on the visa, known as the H-2B program. 

Telemarketing:

The Federal Trade Commission is increasing the fee charged to companies that try to market to people on the national Do Not Call list.

The maximum amount that can be charged for accessing area codes of data will be $16,228, up from $15,962. 

Government workers:

Federal employees will have a new policy for time off from work for religious reasons under a proposal from the Office of Personnel Management.

The draft rules are meant “to help agencies more effectively manage religious compensatory time off by clarifying employee and agency responsibilities, providing timeframes for earning and using religious compensatory time off, and defining key terms,” the agency said. 

X-rays:

The Labor Department is withdrawing new standards for X-rays because it received “significant adverse comment” about the rules. 

Retirement:

The IRS is proposing new regulations for the electronic filing of some employee retirement benefit data.

Education:

The Obama administration is announcing new priorities and criteria for the early learning portion of its Race to the Top education program.

The new provisions of the program “are almost identical to the ones used in” fiscal 2011, when it first began, the administration said. 

Pesticides:

The Environmental Protection Agency is making a temporary limit on residues of the pesticide tetrachlorvinphos permanent. 

Taxes:

The IRS wants to amend user fees for people who pay their taxes through installment agreements and offers in compromise. 

Fishing:

The Commerce Department is decreasing the limit of winter flounder and Gulf of Maine haddock for commercial fishers for the rest of the 2013 fishing season.