According to a posting on the Web site of the House Committee on Homeland Security, on May 4, 2006, the House of Representatives passed the Security and Accountability For Every "SAFE" Port Act, a comprehensive port security bill that will enhance security at U.S. ports, track and protect containers en route to the U.S., and prevent threats from reaching U.S. soil. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/04/06 news, 06050405 for BP summary highlighting bill before floor action.) (Committee posting at http://hsc.house.gov/.)
The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a notice requesting comments on the possible development of the U.S. Standards for Grades of Peppers (Other than Sweet Peppers). Comments were due by April 25, 2006. (D/N FV-06-306, FR Pub 02/24/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-2652.pdf )
The International Trade Administration's (ITA's) Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee (ETTAC) will hold a plenary meeting on May 12, 2006 in which it will discuss, among other things, the Chinese market for environmental technologies, updated negotiations on the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) environmental goods and services trade liberalization, etc. (FR Pub 04/26/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-6271.pdf)
The April 24, 2006 Federal Register contains the semi-annual regulatory agendas for numerous federal government agencies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule which amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's December 2005 agreement to revise the formula for calculating computer performance from Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP) measured in Millions of Theoretical Operations Per Second (MTOPS) to Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) measured in Weighted TeraFLOPS (Trillion Floating point Operations Per Second) (WT).
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule which amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's December 2005 agreement to revise the formula for calculating computer performance from Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP) measured in Millions of Theoretical Operations Per Second (MTOPS) to Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) measured in Weighted TeraFLOPS (Trillion Floating point Operations Per Second) (WT).
According to the Congressional Record, on April 26, 2006, the House Homeland Security Committee amended and ordered reported H.R. 4954, the Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act. The Journal of Commerce reports that during the mark-up, the Committee rejected a proposal that would require scanning of all containers at foreign ports before loading on U.S.-bound ships. However, the Committee did adopt an alternative proposal that would require DHS to evaluate "emerging technology" to determine if it is effective for supply-chain security. (Congressional Record, dated 04/26/06, available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r109:@FIELD(FLD003d)@FIELD(DDATE20060426); JoC Online, dated 04/27/06, www.joc.com.)
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule which amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's December 2005 agreement to revise the formula for calculating computer performance from Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP) measured in Millions of Theoretical Operations Per Second (MTOPS) to Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) measured in Weighted TeraFLOPS (Trillion Floating point Operations Per Second) (WT).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted a summary of changes to the Automated Export System (AES) Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) on its Web site, indicating that Version 1.0 was changed on April 12, 2006 and April 24, 2006 as follows:
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule which amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's December 2005 agreement to revise the formula for calculating computer performance from Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP) measured in Millions of Theoretical Operations Per Second (MTOPS) to Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) measured in Weighted TeraFLOPS (Trillion Floating point Operations Per Second) (WT).