[Federal Register: January 10, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 7)]
[Notices]
[Page 1391-1392]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10ja02-83]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
New Mail Delivery/Document Filing Information Relating to
Department of Transportation Informal Rulemaking Proceedings and
Certain Preemption Determination Proceedings
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Transportation.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation now is receiving all United
States Postal Service (USPS) deliveries. However, actions taken over
the last three months in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks
and to contain the anthrax threat have significantly delayed or
prevented our receipt of mail sent to DOT. These actions may have
caused filings related to DOT informal rulemaking and certain
preemption determination proceedings to arrive after the close of the
comment period or not at all. We are providing notice of alternative
methods for ensuring that your filings come to us. We also want to
assure you that we will do everything that we can to consider comments
that we otherwise would have received before the close of the comment
period.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gwyneth Radloff, Office of the General
Counsel, 400 Seventh St. SW., Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366-9319. If
you have questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket,
call Dorothy Beard, Chief, Dockets, Department of Transportation,
telephone 202-366-5149.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: After the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, overnight shippers, e.g., FEDEX, advised the U.S. Department
of Transportation (DOT) offices that they faced delivery delays because
the airlines had been grounded. In addition, DOT requested that,
beginning October 16, 2001, the United States Postal Service (USPS)
halt most mail deliveries until it could put in place appropriate
safety measures to address the potential threat from anthrax-
contaminated mail. Mail caught in transit between October 13 and
October 22 at DC's Brentwood Facility, where testers found traces of
anthrax, may be part of quarantined mail that we might never receive
(although we did get one delivery on October 22, 2001). Mail sent to
DOT from mid-October to November 27 has been significantly delayed. DOT
began receiving mail again on November 28. Even now, the USPS continues
to irradiate first class and express mail bound for DOT. This means
that we will receive mail after delays of a week or more. We do not
know the full extent of the impact delayed or blocked mail delivery
will have on our informal rulemaking proceedings and preemption
determination proceedings for the Research and Special Programs
Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
We wish to advise the public that we will take this interruption of
mail service into account, with respect to DOT rulemakings or
preemption determination proceedings with comment periods that closed
before mail delivery resumed on November 28, 2001. In some cases, where
feasible, our agencies are extending or reopening comment periods. In
other cases, we will do everything possible to ensure that we consider
comments that we otherwise would have received before the close of the
comment period. For example, we generally have the authority to
consider late-filed
[[Page 1392]]
comments and will do so to the extent practicable. We will also take
note of the date of the USPS postmark for late-filed comments. Please
note that Docket Office time stamps all items as they receive them.
Because we cannot be sure if we received filings sent just before
October 13 or when, if ever, we will receive filings and comments
caught in Brentwood between October 13 and November 27, please check
our Dockets Web page (http://dms.dot.gov) to see if we received and
processed your document(s). If your document is not in the electronic
docket, we may not have received it. Please bear in mind that
processing a document into the electronic system after receipt may take
up to eight business days, especially since the DOT Mail Room must x-
ray and screen all package deliveries prior to their acceptance into
the DOT Docket Management System. If you do not have the electronic
capability to check the docket, many public libraries have computers
that you can use to electronically search the DOT dockets. Also, you
can come to DOT and use the reading room computers in our Dockets
Office, which is located on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400
Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, and is open between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
If your check of the docket reveals that we have not received your
document, please fax us a copy at 202-493-2251 or resubmit your
document with a notation that you are resending it. Please send it to
the Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, room
PL-401, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Please make
sure the docket number is noted on the first page. We ask you to take
these steps as soon as possible so that we will be able to consider
your comments if we still can.
This notice addresses only preemption determination proceedings of
the Research and Special Programs Administration and the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration and informal rulemaking proceedings
conducted by any of the Department's agencies: the Bureau of
Transportation Statistics, the Federal Aviation Administration, the
Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal
Transit Administration, the Maritime Administration, the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Office of the Secretary, the
Research and Special Programs Administration, the St. Lawrence Seaway
Development Corporation, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
We currently are accepting U.S. mail delivery by the USPS and
deliveries from alternate delivery carriers. We also are accepting
hand-delivered packages in the Docket Office, which is located on the
Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington,
DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal
holidays. In addition, where possible, we encourage filers to use our
Electronic Submission System on the DOT Dockets Web page (http://
dms.dot.gov) by clicking on ES Submit and following the online
instructions.
Issued in Washington, DC, on December 31, 2001.
Kirk K. Van Tine,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 02-657 Filed 1-9-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P