The Coast Guard is adjusting fines and other civil monetary penalties to reflect the impact of inflation. These adjustments are made in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement

Act of 1996.

DATES: This final rule is effective 30 days after December 23, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Comments and material received from the public, as well as documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, are part of docket USCG-2009-0891 and are available for inspection or copying at the Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. You may also find this

docket on the Internet by going to http://www.regulations.gov, inserting USCG-2009-0891 in the ``Keyword'' box, and then clicking ``Search.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this rule, call or e-mail Heather Young, CG-5232, Coast Guard; telephone 202-372-1022, e-mail Heather.l.young@uscg.mil. If you have questions on viewing the docket, call Renee V. Wright, Program Manager, Docket Operations, telephone 202-366-9826.

This final rule is published without a prior notice of proposed rulemaking or public comment period. Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for dispensing with notice and comment in this rulemaking. This rulemaking implements the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996. These statutes require certain actions with respect to adjusting CMPs for inflation and do not allow for discretion in implementation, so that prior notice and comment is unnecessary and contrary to the public interest.

III. Method of Calculation

    The method for calculating the effects of inflation on fines and penalties is very specifically prescribed by statutes, which allow no discretion. The statutes specify the inflation measure to be used, the method for the calculation of the inflation adjustment, and the method for the numerical rounding of the results.

The statutes require the use of the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) as the inflation measure for these calculations. The CPI-U is calculated and published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and uses the period of  1982 to 1984 as the base level where the CPI-U = 100.

The inflation adjustment prescribed by the statutes is calculated as the difference between the CPI-U for the month of June of the calendar year preceding the adjustment and the CPI-U for the month of June of the calendar year in which the amount of the civil monetary penalty was last set or adjusted pursuant to law. Since the last inflation adjustment was made in 2003 and the year preceding this adjustment is 2008, the current inflation adjustment equals the increase in the CPI-U (not seasonally adjusted) from June, 2003 to June, 2008:

 (CPI-U2008 - CPI-U2003) / CPI-U2003 =

(218.815 - 183.7) / (183.7) = .1912 = 19.12%

    With certain exceptions, each of the approximately 140 civil fines and penalties were adjusted by multiplying their 2003 values by 1.1912. The exceptions included: Two penalties of 19 U.S.C. 1581(d) that were enacted under the Tariff Act of 1930 and are exempt from inflation adjustments; four penalties applicable to bridge owners whose increases are defined within their respective statutes; and three penalties established in 2006 which are not eligible for inflation adjustment until 2010.

    The final step is to round the inflation-adjusted fines and penalties according to the rounding rules prescribed by the statutes. The statutes specify that numbers are rounded according to the nearest:

    1. Multiple of $10 in the case of penalties less than or equal to $100;

    2. Multiple of $100 in the case of penalties greater than $100 but less than or equal to $1,000;

    3. Multiple of $1,000 in the case of penalties greater than $1,000 but less than or equal to $10,000;

    4. Multiple of $5,000 in the case of penalties greater than $10,000 but less than or equal to $100,000;

    5. Multiple of $10,000 in the case of penalties greater than $100,000 but less than or equal to $200,000; and

    6. Multiple of $25,000 in the case of penalties greater than $200,000.

Because of the rounding rules, some fines and penalties may not increase from their 2003 values. For example, a fine of $1,000 in 2003 would increase to $1,191.20 with the 2008 adjustment. However, for fines and penalties greater than $1,000 but less than or equal to $10,000, the inflation adjusted value is rounded to the nearest $1,000; so the penalty, with rounding, remains at $1,000.

Keeping You Informed