Regulatory Transactions

From: HME News

by: Liz Beaulieu

WASHINGTON – The website of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Office of Management and Budget now shows an interim final rule pending review titled “Durable Medical Equipment Fee Schedule, Adjustments to Resume the Transitional 50/50 Blended Rates to Provider Relief in Non-Competitive Bidding Areas.”

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“If you just look at the title, it sounds like a good thing, but we just don’t know what’s in it,” said John Gallagher, vice president of government relations for VGM & Associates. “We’re waiting on hands and knees.”

From: Lexology

David J. Goldstein and Ilyse W. Schuman | Littler Mendelson PC

To the relief of employers steeling themselves for compliance with the revised EEO-1 Report, the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has suspended indefinitely the new report’s compliance date. The revised report would have required private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and covered federal contractors to provide information on employee compensation and hours worked in addition to demographic information. The new requirements would have applied to EEO-1 Reports for 2017, which would have been due by March 31, 2018.

From: Investment News

One observer says agency is trying to give certainty to markets; another asserts it is executing pre-determined course to water down regulation

By Mark Schoeff Jr.

The Office of Management and Budget has approved a proposal to delay for 18 months implementation of the remaining provisions in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule.

The OMB made its determination on Monday and posted the decision on its website on Tuesday, taking only a fraction of the 90 days that it could have had to review the proposal, which was submitted by DOL on Aug. 9.

From: Federal News Radio

By Jason Miller

The Defense Department has 15 different regulations for the Freedom of Information Act. It has 21 assorted rules for privacy.

This is a small sample of why the White House ordered agencies in February to reduce and reform regulations with a goal of getting rid of two for every new one they write.

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From: Inside Health Policy | Special Report

Nicholas Florko

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Bruce Levinson, senior vice president of regulatory intervention at the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, told IHP he expects a lot of FDA’s important policy decisions will be occurring under the surface and outside of the formal rulemaking process — particularly given Trump’s Executive Order that mandates two regulations be scrapped for each new regulation.

From: Engineering News-Record

Directive sets two-year target for completing federal approvals

Tom Ichniowski

President Trump has signed an executive order that directs federal agencies to accelerate environmental permitting for major infrastructure projects, setting a goal to complete federal environmental reviews, permits or other approvals within two years.

The directive, which Trump signed on Aug. 15, also revokes a January 2015 executive order signed by President Obama establishing a federal flood-risk standard to promote projects’ resiliency.

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From: Bloomberg/BNA

PUNCHING IN: LABOR DEPT PERSONNEL MOVES AND MORE

By Chris Opfer and Ben Penn

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But wait, before more bodies arrive at what’s been a short-handed political operation, two of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s existing advisers are playing musical chairs. Effective this morning, Wayne Palmer exited as Acosta’s chief of staff to become acting head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Nicholas Geale, DOL’s acting solicitor since February, replaces Palmer as chief of staff, while concurrently running the solicitor’s office.  

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From: Chemical Facility Security News

Patrick Coyle

Yesterday the DOT’s National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent their Voluntary Guidance on Automated Driving Systems document to the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. Guidance documents are not normally described in the Unified Agenda, so there is no public indication about what DOT will be including in this guidance document.

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From: Groom Law Group

On August 9, 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service sent the final mortality table regulations to the Office of Management and Budget for review. The regulations were reclassified as “economically significant”, making them subject to additional review processes under Executive Order 12866 (and potentially the “2 for 1” regulation rule and “net incremental cost of zero” provisions under Executive Order 13771).

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From: McKinght’s

Emily Mongan, Staff Writer

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is planning to pull the plug on its recently released — and frequently delayed — bundled payment models for cardiac and orthopedic care.

That’s according to a proposed rule sent to the Office of Management and Budget that is currently pending regulatory review, according to the office’s reginfo.gov website. The rule is titled “Cancellation of Advancing Care Coordination through Episode Payment and Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Models; Changes to Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Payment Model.”

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