Ok, this this remains a release blocker. I'm still +1 for removing it, and I'm -0 for removing it just before the release candidate. AFAICT, there is *zero* (.000000001) chance that it actually becomes a NIST standard before the Python release is made. According to the current timeline:

 http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/hash/sha-3/timeline_fips.html

the *submission to the secretary* (of commerce) was scheduled for Q2. With the current delay, this must become Q3, so the publication as a standard might happen in Q4 (not sure how long the Secretary of Commerce needs to study the specification of a hash algorithm).

What might happen is that a draft is published by the time the RC is made. I'd then still be -1 on including something in Python that only implements a draft standard. So we could just as well remove it right away.