During 1994 and 1995, the years on which the exemption requests are based, the national unemployment rate was 5.9 percent.

NAB suggests that the Commission permit but not require electronic filing of exemption requests.

Universities will also be able submit an exemption request for other programs.

"I don't have particularly high hopes for our exemption requests," Soghoian tells Ars.

Metalitz has participated in the exemption process for years, so he knows the process intimately and has been quite successful at batting away wide-ranging exemption requests.

"It reflects the reality that a reliable electric supply is an essential underpinning of modern society," Mr. Wood said of the exemption requests.

Over the past few months, the authority reviewed 22 exemption requests in Manhattan and granted 21 of them, according to Mr. Silver.

Under a 1995 ruling by the state attorney general, a school may not pass judgment on a religious exemption request.

The FTZ Board ultimately rejected the exemption request.

As far as the ban on aerial spraying is concerned, a compromise solution has been found on the processing of exemption requests.