Regulatory Transactions

From: Mondaq

J. Michael Cavanaugh, Eric Lee, Christopher DeLacy and Daniel L. Burkard | Holland & Knight

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is soliciting public comment on ways to reduce regulatory costs and restrictions on the U.S. maritime industry.
• For maritime industry stakeholders, the government’s interest in harmonizing the numerous regulatory schemes impacting the industry is long overdue, and the announcement appears to be a positive sign for maritime industry members intending to leverage technology to improve service.
• Comments from maritime industry stakeholders are due on or before July 16, 2018.

From: Weekly Standard

HALEY BYRD

The policy directive calls on the Transportation and Commerce departments to make reforms that would encourage commercial space innovation.

The directive follows four recommendations of the National Space Council and gives Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao until February 2019 to review space launch and re-entry licensing process and make changes where the regulatory regime is inefficient, costly, and burdensome to private enterprise. It specifies areas of the licensing process that should receive specific attention during the reform process, including the possibility of requiring just one license for all forms of commercial space launch and re-entry.

From: Business Insider | India

MARK MATOUSEK

• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is creating new regulations for supersonic aircraft.
• The first regulation would “accommodate noise certification of new supersonic aircraft,” the agency said on the website for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
• The second would make it easier to get approval to test supersonic aircraft, Bloombergreports.
• Supersonic flight is not allowed over land in the US due to the disruptive sonic boom the aircraft produces.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is creating new regulations for supersonic aircraft that could help give the industry a boost. 

From: The Maritime Executive 

BY PAUL BENECKI

The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is soliciting public input on ways to reduce regulatory costs and restrictions on the American maritime industry. In particular, it is asking for recommendations regarding merchant ships and opportunities for “increased regulatory cooperation between the United States and foreign partners, especially Canada and Mexico.”

Consistent with President Donald Trump’s focus on deregulation, OIRA is gathering comments on how “agency requirements affecting the maritime sector can be modified or repealed to increase efficiency, reduce or eliminate unnecessary or unjustified regulatory burdens, or simplify regulatory requirements,” subject to statutory limitations. The request for information will be used to inform other agencies’ reform proposals.

Editor’s Note: Additional information about the rulemaking is available here.

From: Chemical Watch

The US EPA is working on a proposal to address how it weighs costs and benefits in its regulations.

According to its website, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is conducting a standard interagency review of the proposal, “Increasing consistency and transparency in considering costs and benefits in the rulemaking process”. Its status is listed as “prerule stage”.

Read Complete Article

Editor’s Note: See also OMB Review of IRS Regulations.

From: EY Tax News Update

Two recent releases provide an update on the timing for guidance on the international provisions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). The OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Spring Agenda lists numerous planned Treasury regulations, including several on international TCJA provisions, and also includes anticipated timelines for the projects.

Regulatory projects listed in the OIRA Spring Agenda include:

Read Complete Article

From: FDA Week

Nicholas Florko

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Bruce Levinson, senior vice president of regulatory intervention at the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, was hesitant to criticize FDA’s practices — adding that, “as a regulatory reform advocate, my first take is to be pleased,” given a number of recent changes to the unified agenda under Trump.

He noted that OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which oversees the unified agenda, sent a memo to federal agencies in March 2017 directing them to remove any items on the agenda that realistically will not be completed within 12 months.

Editor’s Note: For the future of entrepreneurship-based immigration, see CRE Petitions DHS for Rulemaking to Reform the EB-5 Program to Create Jobs in Rural America & Areas of High Unemployment.

From: Ogletree Deakins

Authors: Melissa Manna (Raleigh), Rebecca L. Sigmund (Greenville)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken the first step on its path to rescinding the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), a program that allows qualifying foreign entrepreneurs an opportunity to stay in the United States while building start-up businesses. The proposed rescission cleared the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on May 2, 2018. DHS is expected to publish a formal notice of the rule in the Federal Register in the coming weeks.

From: Inverse

Bureaucracy + Divided Congress = Nothing Happens

By Grace Lisa Scott

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Technically, We Still Have “Net Neutrality” — For Now

As Democrats and activists rally the troops, it’s important to point out that the “Restore Internet Freedom” plan, as it’s been inaccurately titled, has not actually happened yet. The plan, which opens the door for internet service providers to conduct blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization of internet content, was slated to be a done deal on April 23; two months after it was published in the Federal Register. But Pai has left large portions of the plan in need of approval of the Office of Budget Management before it can take effect. Because the Pai is asking for transparency from ISPs about their business practices under the new plan, the changes need to be reviewed by the OMB before they can move forward. And we don’t know when that will be.