Regulatory Transactions

From: CBS News

By JACQUELINE ALEMANY

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The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities was started by President Jimmy Carter, but the Trump administration says the office has “lost track because they didn’t have the full force of the White House behind it.”

Mr. Trump, who is expected to list campaign promises he has fulfilled and executive orders he has signed during his first Presidential address, will also sign an executive order that will instruct a review of the Waters of the U.S. Rule (WOTUS) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

From: Portland Press Herald

There’s some dispute about how routine rules would be affected, but larger actions would be all but undoable under the presidential executive order.

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However, on Feb. 2 the acting head of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs issued an advisory memo that clarified that the president’s order applied only to “significant regulatory actions” as defined under a 1993 executive order issued by President Bill Clinton. The memo is posted at the White House’s website, suggesting it has presidential approval.

From: Investment News

Putting together a new cost-benefit analysis could be tricky for DOL staff, who spent the last six years working on a regulation that already was assessed and has been upheld by three court decisions so far

By Mark Schoeff Jr.

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While the new administration tries to find its footing, the April 10 implementation date for the DOL rule, which raises investment advice standards in retirement accounts, is bearing down. A DOL proposal to delay the applicablity of the rule, likely for 180 days, has been filed at the Office of Management and Budget, whose new director, former Rep. Mick Mulvaney, was just confirmed by the Senate on Thursday. That delay proposal, not yet approved, will probably come with its own two-week comment period.

From: LifeHealthPro

Whatever is in there is ‘economically significant’

By Allison Bell

Federal regulation reviewers have stopped working on a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposal for saving the major medical insurance market.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget, says it concluded its review of the proposal, a draft of an executive order, on Friday.

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From: Americans for Safe Access

Anna Zuccaro

Americans for Safe Access Says Not Good Enough, Still in Violation of IQA

After months of public pressure, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has removed factually inaccurate information from its website. The change comes after Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, filed a legal request with the Department of Justice last year demanding that the DEA immediately update and remove factually inaccurate information about cannabis from their website and materials.

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From: Lexology

Richard P. Church and Ryan J. Severson | K&L Gates