Regulatory Transactions

From: RegBlog

James Rathz

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Last month, President Obama signed into law the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, also known as the SPACE Act. The law is designed to foster growth in the nascent commercial space industry in areas such as mining and tourism, as well as streamline space regulations.

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Other provisions of the SPACE Act are aimed at creating a better framework for regulating satellites. One section requires several agencies, including NASA and the Department of Transportation, to work together to study the satellite traffic control system and develop recommendations for Congress on improving the system. A different section would require the Secretary of Commerce to report on the types of commercial satellites that they license and recommend statutory changes to improve the licensing system.

Editor’s Note: For more information on TPP and regulation, see here.

From: Good Fruit Grower

Eliminating tariff rates on tree fruit is a trade policy objective of the Northwest Horticultural Council. TPP furthers this objective.

by Mark Powers, Executive Vice President of the Northwest Horticultural Council

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In addition to the United States, the Trans-Pacific Partnership includes Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. These 12 countries represent 40 percent of the global economy.

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From: The Hill

By Lydia Wheeler

President Obama is preparing to unleash a wave of new regulations in 2016 as he looks to shore up his legacy on public protection issues during his final year in office.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Labor are all expected to finalize major federal rules that critics say are long overdue. The regulations include a final rule from the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law that will force companies to compare the paychecks of their top executives with company performance, final rules for cigars and electronic cigarettes proposed well over a year ago, and a final regulation to protect constructions workers from deadly silica dust.

From: Safety+Health

Washington – OSHA has sent a draft of its final rule on silica to the Office of Management and Budget, one of the final steps in a process that will lead to the publication of the long-awaited standard.

Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez made the announcement Dec. 21 during a conference call with stakeholders. “Current standards that we have are more than 40 years old. They have been inadequate in protecting workers,” Perez said.

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Editor’s Note: Promoting and ensuring federal use of voluntary consensus standards whenever practical for regulatory and procurement purposes is a long-standing OMB responsibility. See, CRE’s white paper, Market-Driven Consortia, Implications for the FCC’s Cable Access Proceeding.

From: The White House

by J. Michael Daniel

From: Politico | Morning Shift

OSHA RULE YANKED BACK: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Monday withdrew from the White House Office of Management and Budget a final rule intended to prevent injuries from slips, trips and falls, according to Safety and Health Magazine. The regulation, in the works for twenty-five years, went to OMB on July 2. . . .

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From: Mercatus Center | George Mason University

Regulatory Reform: Lessons from Canada

By Laura Jones

Earlier this year, Canada made news when it became the first country in the world to legislate a hard cap on regulations. It’s a move that may surprise Americans who see Canada as a country that embraces, for better or worse, bigger government. The new federal law requires that for every new regulation introduced, one of equivalent burden must be removed. Remarkably, the legislation had nearly unanimous support.

From: Politico

By Brian Mahoney and Marianne LeVine

The Labor Department plans to send its long-awaited final silica rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget next week, a senior administration official told POLITICO’s Marianne LeVine. The official said the agency has not settled on an exact date. The rule, which is one of the Labor Department’s top priorities, would lower drastically workers’ exposure to crystalline silica, which is associated with lung cancer, silicosis, and other diseases. When OSHA proposed the rule in September 2013 it reduced to 50 micrograms per cubic meter the permissible exposure over an eight-hour time period. The current standard for the construction industry is 250 micrograms per cubic meter, while the standard for general industry is 100 micrograms per cubic meter.

From: CCJ

James Jaillet

Editor’s Note: The FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability ratings are subject to the Data Quality Act. Concern over CSA rankings are part of the larger issue of inaccuracies and misleading data in federal databases.  See here.

From: CCJ