Week in Review

IN THE NEWS

• The Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) published the fall 2015 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions—a publication outlining the regulations that federal agencies will prioritize and anticipate issuing next year, and which has been criticized for reportedly deferring key deadlines for several rules, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) electronic cigarettes final rule and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rule that would prohibit trichloroethylene.

• Ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, announced a host of security measures that France plans on implementing to keep the conference’s attendees safe, including mobilizing an additional 3,000 police officers, deploying anti-riot squads, and banning private vehicles from certain roads.

• In response to mounting calls for tightened enforcement measures over drones, a Federal Aviation Administration-chartered task force released its final report detailing its recommendations for a mandatory registration process, which would govern both recreational and commercial drone operators.

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started accepting comments on its draft guidance, which provides labeling recommendations for companies interested in indicating if their food is made with or without genetically engineered salmon—recommendations that the FDA created after approving salmon as the first genetically engineered animal found safe for eating.

• The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System introduced changes to its large bank supervision processes, including new standards that outline what documents must be furnished after a supervision and policies to address employee disagreement on supervision decisions, in response to Senate hearings that reportedly revealed “that the agency has been captured by the Wall Street firms it supervises.”

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a 30-day extension for comments on its proposed revisions to its policy governing federal agencies’ research of human subjects, after receiving numerous requests for additional time to review what some critics have called “vague” and “complex” revisions.

• Ninety members of Congress requested that the House Appropriations Committee exclude funding in the 2016 spending bill for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Rule, on the basis that the rule is what they call a “federal power grab” that exceeds the EPA’s jurisdiction.

• In an effort to offer consumers clarity on the ingredients in certain food products, a group of U.S. House and Senate Democrats introduced the Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2015, which would impose a slew of requirements on the presentation and content of manufacturers’ front-of-package food labels.

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WEEK

• The Regulatory Review published an essay on the history of Black Friday, examining its increasing popularity as states roll back laws that had once banned this post-Thanksgiving day tradition. The essay explains that these laws–known as blue laws–were once widely used to prohibit activities on major holidays, but many of them have been repealed “in light of changed modern values and the loss of economic earnings caused by the laws.”

• Stateline writer Sophie Quinton examined the various methods that states and cities use to regulate ride-hailing companies, such as Uber and Lyft. In the article, Quinton argued that the ride-hailing companies’ frequent changes to their services are one factor that makes it more difficult for cities and states to regulate the industry.

• Jean Eaglesham published an article in The Wall Street Journal discussing claims that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administrative law judges allegedly favor the SEC in their decisions, causing unfair hearings for defendants.