Week in Review

IN THE NEWS

• The United States sued the state of California and California officials over California’s immigration enforcement policies. The federal government argued that “California is intentionally obstructing the enforcement of federal law” by passing laws to protect undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called California’s laws “unjust” and “unconstitutional.” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is named in the lawsuit, tweeted in response that California will “enforce all our laws and protect all our people” regardless of “what happens in Washington.”
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft plan on how to reduce—and eventually eliminate—animal testing in evaluating certain toxic chemicals. EPA plans to identify new approach methodologies to replace animal testing. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said, “This draft strategy is a first step toward reducing the use of animals and increasing the use of cutting-edge science to ensure chemicals are reviewed for safety with the highest scientific standards.”
• The U.S. Government Accountability Office sent a letter to President Donald Trump asserting that the commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration has served too long in an acting capacity in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which sets limits on how long officials can serve in an acting capacity. Nancy A. Berryhill became acting commissioner the day after President Trump was inaugurated and, according to the letter, her tenure “was not authorized to continue” past November 16.
• The U.S. Senate voted 67-32 to open the floor to debate the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would loosen certain banking regulations. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who introduced the bill, said the “bill offers much-needed reforms that will reduce unnecessary burdens on smaller financial institutions.” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized the bill, saying that “it threatens working families and American taxpayers.”
• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released a statement calling for the resignation of Scott Lloyd, Director of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which helps new populations gain access to critical resources in the United States. In her statement, Feinstein asserted that Lloyd implemented policies at ORR which block young immigrant women in federal government custody from receiving reproductive health care to which they are legally entitled.
• The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) lifted the ban on importing certain sport-hunted elephant trophies. The FWS will deny permits to import sport-hunted elephant trophies on a “case-by-case” basis. In a statement, the Natural Resources Defense Council criticized the decision to lift the ban as “a process already shrouded in secrecy.”
• The Washington State Legislature passed a bill safeguarding net neutrality, becoming the first state to do so in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission’s December repeal of net neutrality. Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D), who signed the bill into law, described “the power of an open internet” as enabling “the free flow of information and ideas.”
• Arkansas implemented requirements that Medicaid recipients work or attend work training programs in order to continue to receive Medicaid benefits. Arkansas is the third state to have imposed “community engagement” requirements on its Medicaid recipients since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services informed states that they could impose such requirements earlier this year.
• Cigna, a health insurance company, announced it would acquire Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services company, for approximately $67 billion. PBMs have increasingly come under scrutiny for their role in rising drug prices.  Tim Wentworth, president and chief executive officer of Express Scripts stated that these two organizations “will help make the healthiest choices the easiest choices, putting health and pharmacy services within reach of everyone we serve.”

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WEEK

• In a working paper, Marcus Peacock of Business Roundtable along with Sofie Miller and Daniel Pérez, both of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, explained that the regulatory process is different than other policymaking processes and proposed an evidence-based framework for regulation. The authors noted that the evidenced-based approach will be difficult because gathering and evaluating evidence is costly and complex, but they explained that an evidence-based framework would allow agencies “to predict, evaluate, and improve regulatory outcomes.”
• Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Robert L. Glicksman, Emily Hammond, Alan B. Morrison, and Johnathan R. Siegel, all of the George Washington University Law School, filed an amicus curiae brief in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case, Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission. The case centers around whether an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is an “inferior officer”—someone who is appointed solely by the agency head. Writing in favor of neither party, the scholars argued that no matter how the Court decides the case, “the result must continue to protect the independence of” ALJs and work to reduce any “pro-agency bias” of ALJs.
• In an article for The Nigerian Juridical Review, Ukwueze Festus Okechukwu of the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria evaluated the regulation of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. Okechukwu found that although a “fairly adequate” regulatory framework exists for consumer protection, consumer enjoyment of that protection is impeded by the level of enforcement and their lack of awareness of their rights provided by the regulation.