Regulatory Transactions

From: EPA via Stanley News and Press

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (***EPA) is inviting small businesses, governments and not-for-profit organizations to participate as Small Entity Representatives (SERs) on a Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) Panel for the federal plan that EPA is developing as part of the Clean Power Plan. This panel is part of a standard federal government process and will focus on the agency’s development of a proposed Federal Plan for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Electric Generating Units that will cut carbon pollution from existing power plants, the largest source of this pollution in the country.

From: Association of Corporate Counsel

Chip Yorkgitis and Dawn Damschen | Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

The new FCC rules adopted in October 2014 promoting more rapid wireless infrastructure deployments will begin taking effect next month, but not all key provisions will be following the same schedule. In the Report and Order we blogged on last fall, the Commission took steps to streamline the review process and reduce the regulatory burdens associated with wireless deployments, particularly distributed antenna system (DAS) networks and other small-cell systems. Further, the new rules clarify the statutory requirements related to State and local government review of new infrastructure requests.

From: BenefitsPro

By Nick Thornton

If the Department of Labor releases a conflict of interest rule that is an echo of its original proposed expansion of the fiduciary standard, it will be met with “swift and strong legislative action.”

That was the prediction Tuesday — made just hours before President Obama’s State of the Union — from Lee Covington, VP and general counsel for the Insured Retirement Institute, based on his reading of lawmakers’ views in recent weeks.

The long-awaited ruling has yet to be sent to the Office of Management and Budget, according to Covington. When it finally is — at any moment, according to the latest speculation — a 90-day review period will begin.

From: Association of Corporate Counsel

Jennifer K. Shanley | Cooley LLP

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently submitted a proposed collection of information on disclosing risks in direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug television (TV) advertisements to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance.

From: The National Law Review

Article By: Kenneth S. Komoroski, Timothy P. Lynch, John D. McGrane, Ted B. Bosquez, IV, Daniel Carmeli

The U.S. government recently announced plans for a number of regulatory initiatives in 2015 that will affect the oil and gas industry.

Planned Federal Regulations Target the Oil and Gas Industry

Twice per year, the U.S. government lists its regulatory plans. At the end of 2014, it announced its plans for the following regulatory initiatives affecting the oil and gas industry.

From: Center for Effective Government

by Katie Weatherford

UPDATE (1/8/2015): The White House has announced that EPA will not meet today’s deadline for issuing a final rule to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. Instead, the agency will not finalize the rule until mid-summer, skirting a statutory deadline that requires EPA to finalize the rule within one year of its proposal. On a press call Jan. 7, EPA officials told reporters it plans to finalize the rule at the same time it completes its related rules limiting carbon emissions from existing and modified power plants.

From: HealthcareDIVE

By Anne Zieger

Dive Brief:

• The White House has received the soon-to-be proposed rules for the third stage of the Meaningful Use EHR incentive program, according to the Office of Management and Budget website.
• The Stage 3 rules the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs​​ is reviewing should relax the all-or-nothing tone of the Stage 2 rules, which have proven to be particularly difficult for small medical practices to meet. The proposed Stage 3 guidelines would also make changes to the reporting period, timelines and structure of the program.

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Editor’s Note: Although regulating regulators is not is a great way to make friends, it is “essential to presidents being able to achieve their goals;” the NGO lawsuit is a badge of honor for OIRA’s career civil servants. 

From: ChemicalWatch

Agency asked to remove unregulated products from shelves 

A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit, pressuring the US EPA to regulate nanosilver as a new antimicrobial pesticide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (Fifra).

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From: Agri-Pulse

By Philip Brasher

Special safety labels won’t be required for mechanically tenderized meat until at least 2018 after the Obama administration failed to finalize the regulation in time for it to take effect earlier.

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However, the meat industry strongly opposes the labeling requirement and USDA officials did not send the final rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review until Nov. 21. The regulation remains pending at OMB. Under FSIS labeling regulations, the labeling rule could have taken effect as soon as 2016 only if it had been cleared by OMB and approved by USDA by Dec. 31.

From: Inside Higher Ed

By Michael Stratford

WASHINGTON — Several dozen higher education groups said Friday that the U.S. Department of Education was lowballing an estimate of how much its proposal to tighten regulation of teacher preparation programs would cost colleges and states.

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