Federal Register, Volume 76, Number 38, February 25, 2011, Pages 10471-10754 Page: 10,513
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Federal Register/Vol. 76, No. 38/Friday, February 25, 2011/Rules and Regulations
Clarification of Travel Expenses Fee.
The fee schedule states that OSHA will
charge for time on travel following
government travel rules. Those rules
permit a traveler to earn a special type
of leave called "compensatory time for
travel," or simply "travel comp time."
The traveler generally earns this time
when in transit for a duration of time
that exceeds the traveler's regular work
schedule. Travel comp time is earned
time off, as opposed to receiving
overtime pay. The amount of travel
comp time varies depending on the
specific circumstances of the travel. In
general, it is greater for trips outside the
contiguous 48 U.S. states and the
District of Columbia than for trips
within the U.S. Travel comp time is for
travel time that exceeds an employee's
regular work hours, i.e., the total
available work hours (TAW) discussed
under section III above. Because this
time is specific to a particular trip,
OSHA will include it in the travel fee
that OSHA charges for a trip. OSHA
does not include travel comp time in the
total time used to develop the ECR, i.e.,
the TAS. Instead, OSHA will charge
travel comp time at the average rate for
direct OSHA staff time, which will be
$56.40 under the revised fee schedule.
Although this discussion focuses on
travel comp time, OSHA also will
charge this rate for any other OSHA staff
travel time in excess of the staff's
regular work hours.
IX. Changes to 29 CFR 1910.7(f)
As noted earlier, 29 CFR 1910.7(f)
specifies the conditions for assessing
and determining fees. This rule states
that OSHA will assess fees for
processing applications for initial
recognition, expansion of recognition, or
renewal of recognition, review and
evaluation of the applications, and
preparation of reports, evaluations,
publishing Federal Register notices, and
audits of sites. It further states that
OSHA will calculate the fees based on
either the average or actual time
required to perform the work necessary,
the staff costs per hour, and the average
or actual costs for travel for on-site
reviews. 29 CFR 1910.7(f)(1) and (2). In
addition, this rule states that OSHA will
review costs annually, and will propose
a revised fee schedule if warranted. In
this final rule, OSHA is replacing the
reference to an "annual review" with a
"periodic review" to allow it more
flexibility in adjusting fees as
appropriate. OSHA does not expect to
review the fee schedule more than once
annually, but anticipates situations in
which it may not complete the costreview within a single-year period.
OSHA also is revising the language in
paragraph (f) to clarify the basis used for
calculating fees, consistent with OMB
Circular A-25. Specifically, this
revision makes clear that the term
"costs" means the full costs of
performing the activities that benefit the
NRTLs. Thus, as revised, paragraph
(f)(2) reads: "The fee schedule
established by OSHA reflects the full
cost of performing the activities for each
service listed in paragraph (f)(1) of this
section." (Emphasis added.) Similarly,
OSHA is revising paragraph (f)(3)(i) to
clarify that the two references to the cost
of the program mean the full cost of the
program.
OSHA also is revising the language in
paragraphs 29 CFR 1910.7(f)(1) and
(f)(4) to require advance payment of the
fees. In this regard, OSHA is revising the
first sentence of 29 CFR 1910.7(f)(1) to
specify that NRTLs and applicants must
pay all applicable fees in advance. In
addition, OSHA is revising the table in
29 CFR 1910.7(f)(4), which establishes
important billing periods and related
actions, to provide information on the
new advanced-billing process. One of
the revisions to this table reduces the
amount of time OSHA must wait before
publishing its plan to revoke recognition
of NRTLs that do pay audit fees.
Accordingly, OSHA revised the current
provision of "60 days after the bill date"
to "30 days after due date." OSHA
requested comment on this revision in
the proposal, but received none.
X. Final Economic Analysis and Final
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
Executive Order 12866 and the
Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), as
amended in 1996, require each Federal
agency to analyze the costs, and other
consequences and impacts, including
small business impacts, of its rules.
Consistent with these requirements,
OSHA analyzed the costs of this final
rule and the impacts of this rule on
affected laboratories and small
businesses.
The Agency received one comment on
the proposal (Ex. OSHA 2007-0031-
0002). The commenter suggested
revisions to the unit costs used to
determine NRTLs' fees. As noted above
in this preamble, OSHA revised the unit
costs in response to this comment;
however, the average cost of NRTLs'
fees remains unchanged from the
proposal. The Agency updated
information on revenue for the affected
industry and laboratories; otherwise,
this final economic analysis changed
little from the preliminary economic
analysis (PEA) accompanying theproposed regulation.
Affected Industries
When the Agency established its
NRTL fee schedule in 2000, there were
17 NRTLs with 42 operational sites.
Today, there are 15 NRTLs (including
two foreign-owned and -operated
NRTLs) with 49 sites (see the following
table for a list of current NRTLs).
Number
NRTL name of sites
Canadian Standards Association
(C S A ) .......................................6
Communication Certification Lab-
oratory, Inc. (CCL) .................... 1
Curtis-Straus LLC (CSL).............. 1
FM Global Technologies LLC
(FM ) .......................................... 2
Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc.
(ITS N A ) ..................................... 13
MET Laboratories, Inc. (MET) ...... 1
National Technical Systems, Inc.
(NTS) ........................ .. 1
NSF International (NSF) ............... 1
SGS U.S. Testing Co., Inc.
(SGSUS) ............................... .. 1
Southwest Research Institute
(Sw R I) ............................ .. 1
TUV America, Inc. (TUVAM) ........ 3
TUV Product Services GmbH
(TUVPSG ) ...............................1
TUV Rheinland of North America,
Inc. (TU V ) ..................................1
Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
(UL) ........................................ . .. 15
Wyle Laboratories, Inc. (WL) ........ 1
Total (15 NRTLs) ................... 49
Source: OSHA Directorate of Technical
Support and Emergency Management.
Costs
The Agency estimated in 2000 that it
would collect approximately $239,000
in fees annually (65 FR 46815). OSHA
updated its fee schedule in February,
2007, and showed total estimated
program costs of approximately
$755,000 (72 FR 7469), estimating that
these updated fees would enable it to
collect only about half of these costs
(i.e., $380,000). As Table 1 above shows,
the revisions made in this final rule,
including revisions to calculating OSHA
costs and updating Federal employee
salary levels, could increase the fees
collected to about $1,096,000. In
comparison, if OSHA updated costs
using the original calculation method
(without adjustment for ancillary
activities and leave), and included the
increase in staff resources, the total fees
collected would only increase to about
$583,000. The impact of the increase,
when fully implemented, will be
$513,000 ($1,096,000 minus $583,000).
Because OSHA's analysis evaluates the
impact of the final rule as if the fullincrease during the third year was in
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United States. Office of the Federal Register. Federal Register, Volume 76, Number 38, February 25, 2011, Pages 10471-10754, periodical, February 25, 2011; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52213/m1/50/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.