Regulatory Transactions

Editor’s Note: All federal dietary guidance must comply with the requirements of the Data Quality Act. HHS has already demonstrated that they will reject internationally-developed dietary guidelines that fail to comply with the DQA. For more information, please see CRE’s letter to HHS and USDA, CRE’s letter to WHO and FAO and HHS’s letter to WHO.

From: RegBlog | Penn Program on Regulation

Divya Chawla

A federal advisory panel tasked with recommending dietary guidelines believes that Americans should consume less meat to promote healthy and environmentally responsible eating.

From: Overdrive

James Jaillet

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Speed limiter mandate: The DOT’s April report now projects a proposed speed limiter mandate rule to be published July 27, instead of the June 22 projection in its March report. The rule was sent to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation in August and has been awaiting approval there before sending to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for its approval. The DOT does project it will send the rule to the OMB within the next week, however.

From: Politico

By Alex Byers

The Justice Department is poised to make changes to decades-old music industry regulations that could impose significant new costs on Pandora and other digital streaming services, according to five sources briefed by agency officials.

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From: Agri-Pulse

By Philip Brasher

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2015 – The Obama administration has advanced a final Clean Water Act rule with revisions that the EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy promises will address a range of objections raised since it was first proposed a year ago.

A final version of the rule was sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review on Friday. Administration officials have said they intend to release the final rule this spring.

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Editor’s Note: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a public health threat which has previously received insufficient federal attention. See here.

From:  Bangor Daily News

By Julie Steenhuysen and Sharon Begley, Reuters

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The White House on Friday told the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slash rates of infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria by 2020 as part of a plan to prevent patient deaths and curb overuse of antibiotics administered to humans and animals.

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While the CDC has no regulatory authority, the government’s Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs require all participating hospitals to develop a stewardship strategy within three years. Failure to do so would disqualify them from the health plans.

From: Truckinginfo

By David Cullen

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Phase 2 of the federal GHG/MPG rules has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget for formal review. At the moment, the NPRM is slated to be published in the Federal Register sometime in June. With that notice, a period for public comment on the rule will be announced.

Formally entitled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles — Phase 2,” the new rule is being promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and will impact new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles of “model years beyond 2018.”

From: Chemical Watch

Risk assessments found substances pose health risks

The US EPA plans to develop proposed rules to ban or restrict the use of trichloroethylene (TCE), n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and methylene chloride in certain applications. It is seeking input on the possible impact of the proposed rules on small businesses.

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The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires agencies to establish a small business advocacy review panel (SBAR) for rules that may have a “significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses,” the agency said. This panel will include federal representatives from the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the EPA.

From: ACA International

From: Association of Corporate Counsel

Elise N. Paeffgen | Alston & Bird LLP

On March 19, 2015, EPA sent its proposed rule, “Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals,” to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for pre-publication review.  This review may take up to 90 days (barring a one-time 30-day extension).  Unless OMB returns the rule to EPA for reconsideration, we expect the proposed rule to be released this summer.  This rule will have major implications for the pharmaceutical reverse distribution industry and the management of non-dispensable pharmaceuticals at health care facilities.

From: The Hill

By Timothy Cama

The White House is conducting its final review of a controversial regulation meant to protect streams from mountaintop removal mining.

The regulation from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining would change a 2008 rule issued by the Bush administration that a federal court struck down in February 2014.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said it received the rule for review Tuesday but did not provide any details of the proposal. The OMB review is the final step before the proposal, which would also cover other forms of surface coal mining, can be made public.