From: FederalNewsRadio.com 1500 AM
By Jason Miller
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The National Archives and Records Administration’s Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) has been tackling this problem of over-classification since 2010.
John Fitzpatrick, the director of ISOO, said a group of experts have been working on a new rule to create governmentwide standards for labeling unclassified data, called controlled unclassified information (CUI).
Editor’s Note: It seems like the midnight regulations are starting early.
From: The Hill
By Ben Goad and Timothy Cama
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are racing to churn out new regulations before the clock runs out on President Obama’s term.
White House records show there have been a flurry of meetings in recent weeks between administration officials and outside groups trying to influence the final language of EPA rules under construction.
The activity is evidence that Obama’s push to combat global warming with regulation has entered a critical phase, with officials hammering out the details of rules that carry major implications for the environment and the economy.
From: IP Watchdog
Written by Gene Quinn
Earlier today the Federal Trade Commission issued a second Federal Register Notice containing the revised information requests for its study on patent assertion entities (PAEs). The Commission vote approving the second Federal Register Notice was 5-0. The Notice is styled as a submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) because under federal law federal agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor.
From: Affirmative Action and OFCCP Law Advisor
As we’ve been sharing, OFCCP is working to develop a pay data collection tool for federal contractors in response to President Obama’s recent Presidential Memorandum on Pay Discrimination. We have learned OFCCP sent its proposed regulation for this tool to OMB yesterday for review; it is not yet, however, available to the public. Once we obtain more details we will provide an update so make sure to stay tuned.
Editor’s Note: The governmentwide financial data standards disussed below will need to be consistent with OMB’s other data quality standards.
From: Government Executive
By John Kamensky | IBM Center for the Business of Government
Legislation recently passed by Congress will have far-reaching effects on federal agencies and hundreds of thousands of recipient of federal funds – grantees, contractors, universities, nonprofits, states and localities.
From: International Business Times
By Meagan Clark
Energy companies and the firms that make the rail cars carrying the flow of crude oil and other products from America’s shale boom are separated by a mere 1/8 of an inch.
That’s the added thickness in the walls of the steel rail cars that the manufacturers say is needed to achieve safe standards. The oil and gas industry argues that the current 7/16 of an inch thickness is adequate.
The debate is important because the U.S. is currently hammering out guidelines that will eventually set the new national standards for transporting hazardous cargo by rail.
From: The CLS Blue Sky Blog
By Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider
The following post comes to us from Omri Ben-Shahar, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Carl E. Schneider, Professor at the University of Michigan Law School. It is based on their recent paper entitled “The Futility of Cost Benefit Analysis in Financial Disclosure Regulation” and is available here.
A fascinating debate is emerging: should financial regulations be subject to Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) just as, say, environmental regulations are? In a recent article for the Journal of Legal Studies (here), we examined financial regulation’s crown jewel—mandated disclosure—and asked what would happen if CBA were applied to it.
From: CTOvision.com
CTOvision Editor’s note: Hudson Hollister is the executive director of the data transparency coalition. His insightful update below covers issues of interests to technologists in and out of government. -bg
Sweeping change and open data are dawning for U.S. federal spending.
On Thursday 10 April 2014 the U.S. Senate passed the DATA Act — unanimously. In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor has signaled that he intends to bring the Senate bill through to final passage without changes. The House has passed the DATA Act twice already, so it seems likely that this bill will soon be on President Obama’s desk for his approval or veto.
From: Reuters
U.S. transportation regulators will propose a “comprehensive rulemaking package” next week to address standards for tank cars that carry volatile crude oil on the nation’s railroads.
“The proposal will include options for enhancing tank car standards,” a Department of Transportation official said in an email to Reuters.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with OIRA on the Administration’s proposal and initiating the formal comment process as soon as possible,” the official said.
Editor’s Note: For more information on anti-money laundering regulatory policy, please see the CRE paper, “Unwarrented Deputization: Increased Delegation of Law Enforcement Duties to Financial Institutions” available here.
From: BuckleySandler LLP