[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 12 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2715-2717]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00819]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee--New Task (Part 145
Working Group)
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of a new task assignment for the Aviation Rulemaking
Advisory Committee (ARAC) and solicitation of membership applicants.
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SUMMARY: The FAA has assigned the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory
Committee (ARAC) a new task to provide recommendations regarding the
agency's guidance on the certification and oversight of all part 145
repair stations. This notice informs the public of the new ARAC
activity and solicits membership for the new Part 145 Working Group.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul M. Cloutier, Federal Aviation
Administration, AFS-300, 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC
20591, [email protected], (858) 999-7671, (202) 267-1812.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
ARAC Acceptance of Task
As a result of its December 14, 2017, ARAC meeting, the ARAC
accepted this tasking to establish a Part 145 Working Group. The Part
145 Working Group will serve as staff to the ARAC and provide advice
and recommendations on the assigned task. The ARAC will review and
accept the initial and final recommendation reports and will submit
them to the FAA.
Background
The FAA established the ARAC to provide information, advice, and
recommendations on aviation-related issues to the FAA Administrator,
through the Associate Administrator of Aviation Safety.
The FAA recognizes the critical role that guidance documents play.
Well-designed guidance documents serve many important functions both
within an organization and externally to the regulatory programs they
support. While guidance documents do not have the
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force of law in the way regulations do, they are often heavily relied
on internally to establish, issue, and describe agency policy,
responsibilities, methods, and procedures. When guidance documents do
not reflect current regulatory requirements and FAA, AVS, and AFS
policies, the outcome is an uneven and inconsistent application of
agency guidance and standards. The Part 145 Working Group will provide
recommendations to the FAA to support the goal of consistent and clear
guidance documents.
Additionally, the agency's policies advocate performance-based
oversight. However, guidance documents, particularly those directed at
the agency's workforce are often prescription based. The Part 145
Working Group is asked to provide recommendations that will support the
applicant's performance-based decision making and the agency's
evaluation of those decisions.
The Tasks
The Working Group is tasked to:
(1) Perform a comprehensive review of internal and external
guidance material, in relation to the current laws and regulations,
that pertain to certificating and overseeing all part 145 repair
stations. This review will include pertinent--
(a) FAA Orders, Notices, Advisory Circulars, Job Aids and Safety
Assurance System (SAS) Data Collection Tools.
(b) Laws and executive orders, particularly those associated with
inclusion of small business and paperwork reduction act requirements in
agency policy and guidance.
(2) Develop recommendations on improvements to--
(a) Internal and external guidance material to ensure it is:
(i) Aligned and compliant with the aviation safety regulations,
other laws and executive orders reviewed in (1)(b).
(ii) Annotated to the applicable rule, other law or executive
order; and,
(iii) Consistently numbered to ensure a comprehensive relationship
between the guidance document and the annotated rule, law or executive
order.
(iv) Developed to communicate the agency's expectations for
compliance to the public and the FAA workforce in a comprehensive and
consistent manner, including the tools necessary to ensure the
application and evaluation of compliance includes performance-based
oversight.
(b) Oversight by the FAA's domestic and foreign workforce vis-
[agrave]-vis the amount, type, scope, and complexity of work being
performed and the certificate holders' size.
(3) Develop a preliminary and final report containing
recommendations based on the analysis and findings. The reports should
document both majority and dissenting positions on the recommendations
and the rationale for each position. Disagreements should be
documented, including the reason and rationale for each position.
The working group may be reinstated to assist the ARAC in
responding to the FAA's questions or concerns after the recommendation
report has been submitted.
Schedule
The preliminary and final recommendation reports will be submitted
to the ARAC for review, acceptance, and submission to the FAA. The
preliminary report is to be submitted no later than 24 months from the
first meeting of the Part 145 Working Group. The final report will be
submitted no later than 12 months after the preliminary report is
forwarded to the FAA by ARAC.
Working Group Activity
The Part 145 Working Group must comply with the procedures adopted
by the ARAC, which are as follows:
1. Conduct a review and analysis of the assigned tasks and any
other related materials or documents.
2. Draft and submit a work plan for completion of each task,
including the rationale supporting such a plan, for consideration by
the ARAC.
3. Provide a status report at each ARAC meeting.
4. Draft and submit the preliminary and final recommendation
reports based on the review and analysis of the assigned tasks.
5. Present the preliminary and final recommendation reports to the
ARAC at a scheduled meeting for public discussion.
Participation in the Working Group
The Working Group will be comprised of technical and regulatory
experts having an interest in the assigned task. A working group member
need not be a member representative of the ARAC. The FAA would like a
wide range of stakeholders to ensure all aspects of the tasks are
considered in development of the recommendations.
The provisions of the August 13, 2014, Office of Management and
Budget guidance, ``Revised Guidance on Appointment of Lobbyists to
Federal Advisory Committees, Boards, and Commissions'' (79 FR 47482),
continues the ban on registered lobbyists participating on Agency
Boards and Commissions if participating in their ``individual
capacity.'' The revised guidance now allows registered lobbyists to
participate on Agency Boards and Commissions in a ``representative
capacity'' for the ``express purpose of providing a committee with the
views of a nongovernmental entity, a recognizable group of persons or
nongovernmental entities (an industry, sector, labor unions, or
environmental groups, etc.) or state or local government.'' (For
further information see Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 as amended, 2
U.S.C. 1603, 1604, and 1605.)
If you wish to become a member of the Part 145 Working Group,
contact the person listed under the caption FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT expressing that desire. Describe your interest in the task and
state the expertise you would bring to the deliberations.
The FAA must receive all requests by February 20, 2018. The ARAC
and the FAA will review the requests and advise you whether or not your
request is approved.
If you are chosen for membership on the working group, you must
actively participate by attending all meetings, and providing written
information when requested. You must devote the resources necessary to
support the working group in meeting assigned deadlines. You must keep
your management and those you may represent advised of working group
activities and decisions to ensure the proposed solutions do not
conflict with the position of those you represent. Once the working
group has begun deliberations, members will not be added or substituted
without the approval of the ARAC Chair, the FAA, including the
Designated Federal Officer, and the Working Group Chair.
The Secretary of Transportation determined the formation and use of
the ARAC is necessary and in the public interest in connection with the
performance of duties imposed on the FAA by law.
Confidential Information
All final work products submitted to ARAC are public documents.
Therefore, it should not contain any non-public proprietary,
privileged, business, commercial, and other sensitive information
(collectively, Confidential Information) that the working group members
would not want to be publicly available. With respect to working
groups, there may be instances where members will share Commercial
Information within the working group
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for purposes of completing an assigned tasked. Members must not
disclose to any third party, or use for any purposes other than the
assigned task, any and all Confidential Information disclosed to one
party by the other party, without the prior written consent of the
party whose Confidential Information is being disclosed. All parties
must treat the Confidential Information of the disclosing party as it
would treat its own Confidential Information, but in no event shall it
use less than a reasonable degree of care. If any Confidential
Information is shared with the FAA representative on a working group,
it must be properly marked in accordance with the Office of Rulemaking
Committee Manual, ARM-001-15.
Issued in Washington, DC, on January 11, 2018.
Lirio Liu,
Designated Federal Officer, Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee.
[FR Doc. 2018-00819 Filed 1-17-18; 8:45 am]
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