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Regulatory Guidance: Clarification of Reissuance Dates

Publication: Federal Register
Agency: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Byline: Robin Hutcheson
Date: 20 June 2023
Subject: American Government 
[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39904-39906]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-13033]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration


Regulatory Guidance: Clarification of Reissuance Dates

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Department 
of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Regulatory guidance; notice of reissuance dates.

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SUMMARY: On March 3, 2020, the Department announced the availability of 
a regulatory guidance portal to provide public access to the 
Department's guidance documents. This notice clarifies the reissuance 
date of FMCSA guidance published in FMCSA's guidance portal (``Guidance 
Portal'' or ``Portal'') as of March 3, 2020. This notice also clarifies 
the reissuance dates for guidance posted between March 4 and June 27, 
2020, during the ``grace period.''

DATES: This clarification of prior reissuance dates is applicable on 
June 20, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Anna Winkle, Attorney-Advisor, 
Office of Chief Counsel, FMCSA, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 
20590-0001; 202-366-5257; anna.winkle@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Executive Order (E.O.) 13891 and the Announcement of the DOT and FMCSA 
Guidance Portals

    On March 3, 2020, the Department announced the availability of a 
portal for regulatory guidance (85 FR 12663). As explained in the 
introductory text on the DOT Guidance Portal, each operating 
administration maintains a guidance portal available through a link on 
the DOT Guidance Portal website.\1\ The guidance portals were 
originally established to comply with section 3(a) of E.O. 13891,\2\ 
which required each Federal agency to establish or maintain on its 
website a single, searchable, indexed database that contains or links 
to all guidance documents in effect from that agency or its components. 
While E.O. 13891 has since been revoked,\3\ it provides context, along 
with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum \4\ 
implementing the Order, for the efforts FMCSA undertook to 
comprehensively review its existing guidance in establishing its 
Guidance Portal.
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    \1\ https://www.transportation.gov/guidance/operating-administration-guidance-portals. FMCSA's Guidance Portal may also be 
accessed through a direct link: www.fmcsa.dot.gov/guidance.
    \2\ See ``Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency 
Guidance Documents.'' 84 FR 55235 (Oct. 15, 2019), available at: 
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/15/2019-22623/promoting-the-rule-of-law-through-improved-agency-guidance-documents.
    \3\ See E.O. 13992, ``Revocation of Certain Executive Orders 
Concerning Federal Regulation.'' 86 FR 7049 (Jan. 25, 2021), 
available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01767/revocation-of-certain-executive-orders-concerning-federal-regulation.
    \4\ See M-20-02, ``Guidance Implementing Executive Order 13891, 
Titled `Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance 
Documents,' '' (Oct. 31, 2019) available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/M-20-02-Guidance-Memo.pdf.
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    The E.O. and implementing memorandum required in part that Federal 
agencies establish the database mandated by the E.O. no later than 
February 28, 2020, and permitted agencies a grace period, through June 
27, 2020, to reinstate any existing guidance documents not posted by 
the initial deadline without the need to conduct a formal good faith 
cost estimate or otherwise review the guidance in accordance with 
newly-required approval procedures prior to posting it to the relevant 
database (e.g., the FMCSA Guidance Portal). The E.O. also required each 
agency to comprehensively review its guidance documents, rescind those 
it determined should no longer be in effect, and prohibited agencies 
from either retaining in effect any guidance document not posted to the 
database or issuing a guidance document without including it in the 
database. See 84 FR 55236.

FMCSA's Reissuance of Existing Guidance

    FMCSA conducted an extensive review of its guidance in response to 
the requirement in E.O. 13891 to post current guidance and rescind 
outdated guidance. When FMCSA published current guidance to FMCSA's 
Portal, including guidance with a specific expiration date identified 
in the Federal Register notices,\5\ FMCSA effectively

[[Page 39905]]

reissued the guidance. The date the Department announced the 
availability of the regulatory guidance portals, March 3, 2020, is 
therefore the reissuance date for all guidance FMCSA published in the 
Portal as of that date. Guidance documents with previously identified 
expiration dates are identified as follows:
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    \5\ In both Federal Register notices, FMCSA referenced section 
5203 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. 
L. 114-94, 129 Stat. 1312, 1535, Dec. 4, 2015). This section does 
not require that an expiration date be added to guidance but rather 
instructs, in part, that not later than 5 years after the date on 
which a guidance document is published or during a regular review, 
FMCSA reissue an updated version of any guidance document for which 
it was not practicable to incorporate into its regulations. Sec. 
5203(a)(3)-(4).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        Applicability/
  FMCSA Guidance Portal unique     Federal Register    expiration dates
          identifier(s)           notice issuing the      in Federal
                                       guidance         Register notice
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FMCSA-HOS-AG-395.1-Q34, FMCSA-    83 FR 26374 (June   Applicable June 7,
 HOS-AG-395.1-Q35, FMCSA-HOS-AG-   7, 2018).           2018; Expires
 395.1-Q36, and FMCSA-HOS-AG-                          June 7, 2023.
 395.1-Q37.
FMCSA-HOS-395.8-Q26.............  83 FR 26377 (June   Applicable on June
                                   7, 2018).           7, 2018; Expires
                                                       June 7, 2023.
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    Guidance documents that were posted to the Portal by the initial 
OMB deadline (February 28, 2020) were publicly reissued on March 3, 
2020; however, FMCSA's Guidance Portal will continue to provide the 
original ``issued date'' unless substantive updates were subsequently 
made to the existing guidance. FMCSA believes this approach provides 
continuity and minimizes risk of confusion as compared with adding new 
issuance dates each time a guidance document is reissued.

Reissuance Dates of Grace Period Guidance

    This notice also clarifies the reissuance dates of the 53 ``grace 
period'' guidance documents, which are the existing guidance documents 
FMCSA posted to the Guidance Portal between March 4 and June 27, 2020--
the grace period established by the OMB implementing memorandum. As 
with the guidance posted to the Portal by February 28, 2020, the 
original ``issued date'' of all grace period guidance documents remains 
the same unless substantive updates were made to the existing guidance. 
However, since the guidance was not in fact posted to the Portal by 
February 28, 2020, the reissuance dates are the dates they were posted 
to the Portal, as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Unique identifier             Issued date      Reissuance date
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FMCSA-CDL-383.133-Q001............           3/1/2019          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.600-Q007...........           3/1/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.603-Q001...........           3/1/2019          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.603-Q002...........           3/1/2019          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.603-Q004...........           3/1/2019          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.605-Q005...........           3/1/2019          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.605-Q010...........           3/1/2019          6/25/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.605-Q015...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.605-Q017...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.605-Q018...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.605-Q023...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.703-Q009...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.707-Q008...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.707-Q022...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.719-Q011...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.719-Q012...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.719-Q013...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.721-Q014...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380.721-Q016...........           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Appendix-Q003......           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Appendix-Q019......           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Appendix-Q020......           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Appendix-Q021......           3/1/2019          6/26/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Appendix-Q024......           3/1/2019          6/27/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Appendix-Q025......           3/1/2019          6/27/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-380-Q026...............           2/4/2020          6/27/2020
FMCSA-ELDT-383.73-Q006............           3/1/2019          6/27/2020
FMCSA-FR-78FR25782.2013.05.02.....           5/2/2012          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ001............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ002............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ003............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ004............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ005............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ006............          4/18/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ007............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ008............          4/15/2018          6/23/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ009............          4/15/2018          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ010............          4/15/2018          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ011............          4/15/2018          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ012............          4/15/2018          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ013............          4/15/2018          6/29/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ014............          4/15/2018          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ015............          4/15/2018          6/24/2020

[[Page 39906]]

 
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ016............          3/19/2020          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ017............          3/19/2020          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ018............          3/19/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ019............          3/19/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ020............          3/19/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ021............          3/19/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ022............          3/19/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ023............          3/25/2020          6/25/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-FAQ024............           3/5/2020          6/24/2020
FMCSA-RG-390.23-Q004..............          2/28/2020          6/23/2020
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Robin Hutcheson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2023-13033 Filed 6-16-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P




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