Overnight Regulation: Researchers sue EPA over advisory board rules | Consumer bureau to revisit mortgage, prepaid card rules | Court denies request to halt transgender recruiting | FCC proposes record fine on Sinclair
Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the courts and beyond. It’s Thursday night, and the United Nations today voted to condemn Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. IN Washington, lawmakers are poised to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a shutdown.
THE BIG STORY:
Researchers and public health groups are suing the Trump administration to stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) policy blocking grant recipients from serving on advisory committees.
The litigants say the policy, unveiled in October by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, violates government ethics standards, the federal law governing advisory committees and laws that created the specific committees.
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The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Washington, D.C., federal court by Earthjustice and Columbia University’s Environmental Law Clinic, on behalf of Physicians for Social Responsibility, National Hispanic Medical Association, the International Society for Children’s Health and Environment, Robyn Wilson, Joseph Árvai and Edward Avol.
“EPA’s effort to purge independent scientists from its advisory committees has harmful implications for the nation’s health,” Barbara Gottlieb, director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said in a statement.
Pruitt wrote the policy in an effort to address possible conflicts of interest among the dozens of external advisory boards at the EPA. Supporters of the policy say people who receive EPA grants would push for policies at the agency that further their financial interests.
REGULATORY ROUNDUP
Finance: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said Thursday the agency will review and reconsider aspects of two rules issued by its former directer, Richard Cordray.
Under acting Director Mick Mulvaney, the CFPB announced plans to revise rules issued by Cordray regarding mortgage data collection and prepaid credit cards.
One of the revisions: The bureau will no longer assess penalties against mortgage lenders and banks for errors collected in data next year that is subject to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The bureau also won’t ask for lenders to resubmit such data if errors aren’t “material” to the information provided.
Defense: A three-judge panel on a federal appeals court ruled Thursday against the Trump administration’s efforts to delay accepting transgender recruits into the military.
A two-paragraph order said Judges Diana Gribbon Motz, Albert Diaz and Pamela Harris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia are denying the administration’s request to delay the Jan. 1 deadline, without further explanation.
The decision sets up the case for a potential appeal to the Supreme Court.
Context: The Pentagon is set to begin accepting transgender troops into the military Jan. 1 after court orders required it adhere to the date. That date was planned before President Trump announced he would ban transgender people from serving.
Rebecca Kheel and Brandon Carter report.
Technology: The Federal Communications Commission has proposed to fine the Sinclair Broadcast Group $13.4 million for airing sponsored programming without disclosing its funders — the largest such fine the agency has ever issued.
The proposed fine comes more than a year after an anonymous tipster told the FCC that Sinclair-owned stations had been airing segments about the Huntsman Cancer Institute without disclosing that the group had been paying for the programming.
The cancer research center was founded by Jon Huntsman Sr., a billionaire businessman and the father of U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr.
Finance: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged a California man and his Florida-based group of companies with running a $1.2 billion investment scheme targeting vulnerable clients.
Robert Shapiro allegedly used his Woodbridge Group of Companies to operate a scheme in which he promised customers consistent high returns on investments in small business loans, according to the SEC complaint.
The SEC alleges that Shapiro promised more than 8,400 investors 5 to 10 percent interest annually on money he claimed his company would issue as loans. Shapiro allegedly promised the investors their money would go to loans issued to commercial property owners paying 11 to 15 percent interest rates.
But the SEC alleges that Shapiro simply lent the money to other companies he owned, which paid no interest on the loans.
Energy: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said Thursday it would review its nearly two-decade-old policy for approving natural gas pipelines.
While the commission did not commit to any particular changes, the announcement is a win for environmentalists who have long complained that FERC acts as a “rubber stamp” and approves too many gas lines.
FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre, who was a lawyer representing some of the companies that have applied for pipelines at the agency, announced the major initiative at the five-person commission’s meeting, his first since being sworn in two weeks ago.
Health: More Americans are dying from opioid overdoses, according to new data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Life expectancy dipped for the second year in a row, from 78.7 years in 2015 to 78.6, according to the data, as the federal government and lawmakers work to respond to the epidemic of painkillers, heroin and synthetic drugs gripping the nation.
Deaths from opioid overdoses increased nearly 28 percent, from roughly 33,000 in 2015 to more than 42,200 in 2016.
It’s the first time since 1962-1963 that life expectancy fell two years in a row.
This story brought to you by me.
Finance: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be allowed to maintain a limited capital buffer to protect against possible losses, according to a new deal announced Thursday by the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
The mortgage giants, which were taken over by the government in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, will each get a capital cushion of $3 billion starting Dec. 31, a day ahead of when their capital was expected to fall to zero.
“Both the Treasury and the FHFA believe that a draw on the Treasury funding commitment may be required given tax reform legislation and the write-down of the deferred tax assets held on the balance sheets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” the Treasury Department said.
Defense: President Trump’s nominee to be the Pentagon’s health chief has withdrawn from consideration after a Senate panel stalled his confirmation over comments on gun control.
“I am sorry not to be able to assist Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, whom I deeply respect, in building the best and most efficient military health-care system possible,” Dean Winslow wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post announcing his withdrawal.
“I have the credentials to help, including 35 years of experience in the Air Force (including four deployments to Iraq and two to Afghanistan after 9/11), in military and academic medicine, and in private practice, public hospitals, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries and public health. But unfortunately, I do not possess one credential the committee wanted to see: I do not support the unrestricted ownership of semiautomatic assault weapons by civilians.”
Winslow, who was nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month — days after a mass shooting in Texas in which the shooter was able to buy a gun despite being convicted in the military justice system of domestic violence.
IN OTHER NEWS:
US sanctions top Myanmar general, others under Magnitsky Act (The Hill)
Greens launch ads against Trump environmental pick (The Hill)
A tiny Caribbean island looks to lead in initial-coin-offering regulation (Bloomberg Big Law Business)
Trump rail safety oversight in focus after Amtrak crash (Reuters)
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