Week in Review

IN THE NEWS

• The Biden Administration announced a final rule strengthening the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), which requires health insurers to cover mental health and addiction services at the same level as physical health care. The rule requires health plans to make changes if their provider networks offer inadequate access to mental health care and closes existing loopholes in the MHPAEA by expanding requirements to non-federal government health plans. President Joseph R. Biden stated that these changes “will dramatically expand access to mental health care in America.”
• The FCC issued a proposed rule to protect consumers from the abuse of “robocalls” powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The rule would require callers using AI-generated messages to obtain consent from consumers prior to calling and to notify consumers at the beginning of each call that the caller is using AI-generated technology. The FCC noted that this proposal is not intended to interfere with existing, positive uses of AI, such as improved access to the telephone network for people with disabilities.
• A federal judge has preliminarily enjoined the head of a state agency from enforcing a New Hampshire law that requires transgender students to compete on school sports teams based on the gender listed on their birth certificates. The court held that the law violates Title IX, which prohibits discrimination by federally funded educational institutions. Because the injunction is only specific to two students, schools in New Hampshire must make a determination about whether to follow the court’s interpretation of Title IX. The ruling highlights broader debates over the rights of transgender athletes, with ongoing legal battles and state measures affecting participation in school sports across the United States.
• The U.S. Department of Commerce proposed a rule placing export controls on several emerging technologies such as semiconductor components. The Commerce Department stated that the rule aims to further national security and foreign policy objectives. Alan Estevez, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, explained that the controls would hinder the ability of adversaries to stay competitive with the United States in emerging technologies.
• Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors Michael S. Barr announced changes to proposed U.S. banking regulations, increasing capital requirements for large banks by 9 percent rather than the previously proposed 19 percent. The plan, a response to the 2008 financial crisis, seeks to align U.S. banking standards with international norms and tighten oversight of activities such as lending and trading. Critics have argued that the bill caved to Wall Street interests by increasing risks of future financial fallouts and shifting the burden onto taxpayers. The revisions aim to balance financial safety with concerns about higher costs for loans and other economic impacts.
• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a final rule amending its emergency alert system to include a new event code, MEP, for missing and endangered persons over the age of 17. The MEP code can deliver critical messages to the public over television and radio about missing and endangered adults, who do not qualify for AMBER Alerts, which are focused on children under the age of 18. The FCC expects the rule to increase public attention to missing persons cases and to help law enforcement agencies issue timely alerts in accordance with the Ashanti Alert Act, a federal law addressing missing adults from states, territories, and Tribal communities.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a final rule updating the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard to better protect pedestrians against fatal injuries in motor vehicle crashes. The rule would require vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of ten thousand pounds or less to “simulate head-to-hood impact and performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury.” The requirements are based on the Global Technical Regulations on pedestrian protection. The proposed rule would advance the Department of Transportation’s larger goal of increasing roadway safety for drivers and pedestrians.
• The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to address the dangers associated with water beads, small balls of absorbent polymer that are often sold as toys or crafts for children. Water beads grow up to 100 times their original size when exposed to water and can cause serious injuries if ingested. The proposed rule would establish performance and labeling requirements for water beads to provide “the highest level of safety feasible for such products.” The rule would require a warning label for water bead toys explaining that ingestion can be fatal and urging immediate medical attention if water beads are ingested or inserted into the body.

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WEEK

• In a report published by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Margot Crandall-Hollick and Nikhita Airi, research associates at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, and Richard C. Auxier, a policy associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, discuss how the American Rescue Plan’s temporary expansion of the earned income tax credit (EITC) impacted workers without children. According to the Crandall-Hollick team, the EITC benefits people who work by providing a refundable tax credit, but recipients with children earn up to 10 times the amount as childless workers. The Crandall-Hollick team reported that, in 2021, the American Rescue Plan nearly tripled the amount of credit available to childless workers. They argue that this expansion increased the average credit amount afforded, the number of childless recipients, and the total credit dollars sent to them. Although the expansion has since expired, there have been “numerous proposals to reinstate it,” state the Crandall-Hollick team.
• In an article in the Administrative Law Review, Marie Boyd, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law, advocated an increased focus on children’s health in food and drug law. Boyd contended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tends to address issues surrounding children’s health “in a piecemeal fashion” that varies by product category, with a more comprehensive approach for the regulation of drugs and medical devices than for food, cosmetics, and tobacco products. Boyd argued that FDA should create an office specifically dedicated to children’s health to identify, monitor, and address issues impacting children across all FDA-regulated product categories.
• In an article published in the Northwestern Law Review, Anu Bradford, the Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization at Columbia Law School, challenges the common assumption that stricter regulation of the digital economy stifles innovation, a view widely accepted in the United States where free-market policies dominate. Bradford examines the European Union’s approach to digital regulation, which focuses on data privacy and fairness to highlight that both innovation and stringent regulation can coexist. Bradford argues that the differences between U.S. and EU tech industries is due to foundational legal and institutional differences, not regulatory stringency. Bradford concludes that there should be a balanced discussion on regulation and innovation, emphasizing that they are not mutually exclusive but can coexist with broader reforms.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Robert M. Kaplan, a Distinguished Emeritus Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and an adjunct professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, explored the potential downsides of the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides funding for both physical and mental health care. In addition to funding, Kaplan argued the act allowed for drug development processes that are problematic. Kaplan claimed that by allowing “pharmaceutical companies to use surrogate markers” as evidence of their products’ success and allowing “for the consideration of real world evidence” rather than “randomized clinical trials,” there is the potential for unknown, dangerous outcomes.