[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 36 (Thursday, February 22, 1996)] [Notices] [Pages 6892-6893] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 96-3903] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Customs Service [T.D. 96-19] Request for Public Comments Concerning Dissemination of Existing Information Product and Elimination of Microfiche AGENCY: U.S. Customs Service, Department of the Treasury. ACTION: General notice, request for public comments. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The U.S. Customs Service provides rulings and publications on a variety of subjects for the guidance of the importing public. The rulings have been available in the past in a variety of formats, including printed media, diskette and microfiche. The Customs Service would like to provide these rulings, future publications and additional information in two new formats (CD-ROM and the Internet) with built-in search capabilities and ``hypertext'' links. In addition, the Customs Service would like to receive public comments on the elimination of one format used to supply rulings to the public by subscription (microfiche). This document invites public comment on the various proposals. DATES: Comments must be submitted by March 25, 1996. ADDRESSES: Written comments (preferably in triplicate) may be addressed to the Regulations Branch, U.S. Customs, Franklin Court, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20229. Comments submitted may be inspected at the Regulations Branch, Office of Regulations & Rulings, Franklin Court, 1099 14th Street NW., Suite 4000W, Washington, DC. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For contents and technical aspects of the CD-ROM: Howard Plofker, 202- 482-7077 For the Internet: Kathy Davis, 202-927-0255 For the microfiche: Thomas Budnik, 202-482-6909 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with OMB Circular A-130 and Section 2 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub.L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(d)), Customs is soliciting comments from the public on the dissemination of Customs information by CD-ROM (Compact Disc-read only memory) and the Internet and the elimination of microfiche rulings. In the past, the U.S. Customs Service has, pursuant to section 103.4, Customs Regulations (19 CFR 103.4), made its rulings available to the importing community. These rulings have been available in microfiche format, and in ASCII text format on 3.5and 5.25 diskettes, on an annual subscription basis. They have also been available through a variety of private subscription services, which obtain the rulings from Customs. CD-ROM The New York and Headquarters rulings available in an electronic format now number approximately 23,000 rulings and take up a considerable amount of hard disk drive space when loaded on a PC or network. Over the past two years, Customs Office of Regulations & Rulings converted its internal electronic rulings (which had been distributed to the public on diskette, by subscription) into the Folio VIEWS Infobase format. This format compresses the file size and indexes the records in a file. It has extensive search and query capabilities and is frequently used to disseminate legal and government publications. Customs has also converted the Harmonized Tariff Schedules, Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 19 of the U.S. Code, the Valuation Encyclopedia and other documents into this format for internal use. Last July, the Office of Finance, in partnership with the Offices of Regulations & Rulings and Strategic Trade, began producing an in- house CD-ROM for Customs officers which contained those infobases together with other material. Since that time, material from other Customs offices has been added. This CD-ROM is prepared monthly for dissemination to Customs field offices. The internal CD-ROM utilizes the Windows version of Folio VIEWS 3.1. Each CD-ROM disk can hold approximately 650 MB of material. The infobases contain ``hypertext'' jump links so that a researcher who sees a reference to another ruling, a regulation or statute cited within a ruling may ``double-click'' on the reference and bring up the referenced document, if it is on the CD-ROM. Documents or portions of documents may be cut, copied and pasted to other Windows applications, such as word processors, or printed. Many members of the public who have seen the system in use have recommended that it be made available to the public. Because some of the material on the Customs internal CD-ROM is copyrighted, proprietary or for internal use, that material cannot be distributed to the public. The Customs Service agrees that in accordance with the ``informed compliance'' mandate contained in the legislative history of the Customs Modernization Act (Title VI, Public Law 103-182) the broadest dissemination possible should be made of this material. Customs seeks public comment on dissemination of the rulings and related material in a CD-ROM format. Customs would like to offer the CD-ROM in the Folio Views format, since that format is being used for internal dissemination and minimal additional costs would be incurred in preparing a public version. Customs would include the licensing fee for the program in the price of the CD-ROM. It is expected that CD-ROMs would be offered on an annual subscription basis with an estimated cost of approximately $240-300 per year for 10-12 CD-ROMs. It is anticipated that the initial CD-ROMs would contain all the rulings available in electronic format (including all Headquarters Rulings and New York Rulings previously available on diskette). The rulings on CD-ROMs will be cumulative, unlike the current diskette services. In addition the initial CD-ROM will contain 19 CFR, 19 U.S.C., the Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the U.S., and the Valuation Encyclopedia. It is hoped that future CD-ROMs will contain various [[Page 6893]] Informed Compliance publications and other material of interest to the importing and exporting community. The CD-ROMs would contain a small ``Infobase Manager'' program which would be installed on the PC's hard drive. The infobases themselves would remain on the CD-ROM, thereby conserving hard drive space. When a new CD-ROM is issued, the old one could be removed, since the CD-ROMs are cumulative. If this proposal is adopted, the first CD-ROMs would be available for the public in the Spring. An alternative to the above would be to provide the infobases on the CD-ROM without a program to run them. This would require the subscriber to purchase Folio Views 3.1 from the Folio Corporation or an authorized reseller. A second alternative would be to put the ASCII (plain, un-indexed text) files containing the rulings and some other material or WordPerfect files on a CD-ROM without any indexing or hypertext program. Customs does not believe that this alternative will be as useful to the vast majority of users since the files will be uncompressed and unindexed and a search program will have to be purchased from another supplier. Customs would encourage the broadest possible dissemination of the material contained on the CD-ROM infobases and would invite electronic publishers to add material on any commercial redistribution of the infobases. Customs also invites the public to identify the type of materials it would like to see on the CD-ROM. Internet Customs also proposes placing publications and other information of interest to the public on the Internet. Customs is considering including the CD-ROM infobases described above on the Internet where users could access, and search the material without charge. The public is invited to comment on these proposals and identify other documents and material which the public believes should be made available on the Internet. Public accessibility to the Customs material on the Internet is anticipated for late Spring, 1996. Microfiche For many years, Customs made microfiche copies of rulings available to the public by annual subscription. The production of microfiche is an expensive and time consuming process compared to the preparation and production of electronic rulings, which is a by-product of writing the ruling itself. The number of microfiche subscribers has been declining since the diskette subscription services were introduced. Customs expects to eliminate the microfiche service effective October, 1996, the beginning of the fiscal year. However, if sufficient public interest exists in continuing the microfiche rulings, Customs may reconsider this decision. However, it is anticipated that subscription prices will have to be increased dramatically to continue the microfiche. Comments Customs requests comments on implementation of the CD-ROM project and the Internet project and elimination of the microfiche rulings. Persons wishing to comment on any of these projects should send their comments to the Regulations Branch, Office of Regulations & Rulings, U.S. Customs Service, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20229. Comments may be reviewed at the Regulations Branch, Office of Regulations and Rulings, Suite 4000W, 1099 14th Street, Washington, DC 20005 during the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Dated: February 14, 1996. Stuart P. Seidel, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Regulations and Rulings. [FR Doc. 96-3903 Filed 2-21-96; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4820-02-P