The ATF submitted yet another status report to the court just before the
15 December 2005 status hearing. You can read it here:"V. How This Document Complies With the Federal Administrative Requirements for Rulemaking
A. Executive Order 12866
We have determined that this proposed rule is not a significant regulatory action as defined in E.O.
12866. Therefore, a Regulatory Assessment is not required."The new and improved definition of a Propellant Actuated Device (PAD) was apparently finished on 26 January 2005 but it was held up pending review of the model rocket rule.
So according to this status report, both the final model rocket motor rule and the proposed PAD rule should hit the Federal Register soon. I noticed that the status report made no mention of the proposed change to federal law that would give the ATF authority (which they apparently now lack) to add exemptions: