Week in Review

IN THE NEWS

• President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order, titled “Making America Healthy Again,” intended to enhance healthcare price transparency by providing patients clear and accurate pricing information. The order builds on prior regulations requiring hospitals and health plans to disclose negotiated rates and out-of-pocket costs, expanding enforcement to ensure full compliance. It also introduces measures to standardize pricing information so prices can be easily compared with other providers. The initiative aims to lower healthcare costs and to foster a more competitive and transparent healthcare market.
• The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear two cases challenging the constitutionality of buffer zones around abortion clinics, leaving existing laws intact. The buffer zones create distance between protesters and the entrance to the clinics, ensuring patient safety and access. The cases, originating in Illinois and New Jersey, challenged ordinances prohibiting individuals from approaching patients within eight feet of health care facilities on the grounds that these laws infringe upon protestors’ First Amendment rights. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision not to hear the cases, with Justice Thomas writing that decisions upholding these laws were an “aberration from the rest of our First Amendment jurisprudence.”
• President Trump signed an executive order announcing a plan to levy tariffs on foreign countries that impose “extortive” digital service taxes and other fines on American companies. The order aims to repair the “imbalance” resulting from “one-sided, anti-competitive policies and practices of foreign governments,” which the order alleges has “increasingly exerted extraterritorial authority over American companies, particularly in the technology sector.” The order also instructed the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, and the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate whether any policies in the European Union or the United Kingdom “undermine freedom of speech and political engagement.”
• President Trump signed an executive order, titled “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Deregulatory Initiative,” mandating directing agencies review all existing regulations and to compile lists of those that may be considered for removal. The order requires agencies to review all existing regulations and to identify several classes of regulations, including those that and eliminate those deemed unconstitutional, arise from an unlawful delegation of legislative power, or impose excessive economic burdens. The order also directs agencies to prioritize repealing regulations that exceed federal authority or hinder technological and economic progress. It also emphasizes enforcing only those regulations that align with statutory intent and constitutional limits. The initiative is part of Trump’s broader agenda to dismantle the administrative state and streamline government operations.
• The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management issued a memo outlining the implementation of the Department of Government Efficiency’s workforce optimization initiative, which mandates large-scale reductions in the federal workforce. The memo directs agencies to develop and submit reorganization plans by March 2025, outlining how they will cut non-essential functions, reduce full-time positions, consolidate offices, and limit new hiring. The initiative exempts law enforcement, national security, and certain executive positions. The memo also instructs agencies to submit a second plan in April 2025, detailing longer-term structural changes and including more extensive reports on agencies’ plans to ensure more productive, efficient operations.
• President Trump issued a national security memorandum, “America First Investment Policy,” aimed at “promoting foreign investment while protecting America’s national security interests.” The memo announces expedited “fast-track” processes for facilitating investment from “specified allied and partner sources” in U.S. businesses and for environmental reviews of investments over $1 billion in the United States. The memo also states that the Trump Administration will establish new rules to “stop United States companies and investors from investing in industries that advance” Chinese military interests and to restrict individuals affiliated with the People’s Republic of China from investing in U.S. technology, infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, and energy.
• The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) temporarily halted the termination of six probationary federal employees after the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) argued that the firings were likely illegal. The MSPB is an independent federal agency that hears appeals of disciplinary actions and protects federal employees from prohibited personnel practices. This decision follows the Trump Administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce, affecting thousands of probationary employees. The ruling could set a precedent for other terminated workers, potentially leading to broader legal challenges. If the investigation confirms violations, it could significantly impact federal workforce reduction practices nationwide by requiring the Trump Administration to reassess its approach to mass terminations and ensure compliance with rules for government workforce reductions.
• The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to dismiss its lawsuit against them. The lawsuit, initiated under the Biden Administration, accused Coinbase of being an unregistered securities exchange. The decision to drop the case reflects the Trump Administration’s more lenient stance on crypto regulation. The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, expressed relief in a post on the social media platform X, claiming that the lawsuit “could have killed the crypto industry in America.” Coinbase expects the dismissal to be formalized by the chairman of the SEC in the coming week.

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WEEK

• In a recent Brookings Institution report, Ben Harris, vice president and director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution, Neil Mehrotra, Assistant Vice President and Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and Eric So, Distinguished Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, explained the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on federal spending for aging-related entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. Harris, Mehrotra, and So predicted that AI will impact spending on entitlement programs by influencing “mortality rates and the size of the population, the price of health care services, and demands for health care services.” They urged researchers and policymakers to pay attention to the potential of AI to impact health care pricing, efficacy, and utilization, arguing that AI has “enormous potential in improving health care outcomes.”
• The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report evaluating the implementation of a relief program created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2021. The program, the Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund, provides grants to underserved communities for hazard mitigation projects. According to the GAO, since its implementation, the program has suffered from issues with incomplete, unclear, and inconsistent guidance. The GAO identified several causes of the program’s issues, including insufficient administrative funding, lack of expertise in managing the funds, and limited interest from potential recipients due to confusion. The GAO recommended improving the guidance by consolidating program information into a comprehensive policy document and urged FEMA to implement a structured assessment process to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
• In an article in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Daniel Ho, the William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, along with his coauthors, explored the growing use of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) to address workforce shortages in federal agencies, a practice they call “governing by assignment.” Ho and his coauthors explained that federal agencies increasingly rely on temporary assignments from academic and nonprofit sectors to fill crucial staffing gaps, particularly in science and technology. Ho and his coauthors recommended enhancing disclosure requirements to improve transparency and implementing conflict-of-interest safeguards to maintain ethical standards in federal decision-making. They also suggested periodic congressional oversight and evaluation to ensure that the IPA’s use remains aligned with public interest and constitutional principles.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Kevin T. Frazier, an assistant professor at the St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law, argued that artificial intelligence (AI) litigation should rely on expert juries due to the complex technical issues involved. Frazier contended that “a random selection of citizens” may not be able to “render rational verdicts” in AI cases. To address this issue, Frazier suggested reviving the historical practice of using “blue ribbon juries”—juries made up of people with specialized knowledge. Without such expertise on juries, Frazier warned, AI jurisprudence could “suffer the consequences of a decision grounded in something other than a rational and full analysis of the evidence.”