Court upholds EPA sulfur dioxide air standards, House passes regulatory moratorium, and more.
- The House passed the Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act (H.R. 4078) that would freeze major federal regulations until the unemployment rate, now at 8.2 percent, drops to 6 percent or below.
- The House approved a bill that would bar the Department of Labor (DOL) from finalizing a proposed regulation addressing child labor on farms.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified to the Senate Banking Committee that money-market funds remain a risk to the financial system and urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has to continue to take steps to reform money market rules.
- The Department of the Interior (DOI), in partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), published a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development on public lands in six southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
- A federal appeals court ruled in favor EPA air quality standards for sulfur dioxide, stating that the agency did not act “arbitrarily.”
- The House Appropriations Committee met to discuss the much-debated Chemical Facility Anti Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which requires that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) establish security standards for facilities that produce, handle, or store potentially dangerous chemicals.
- A federal appeals court upheld a Department of Transportation rule that requires airlines operating in the U.S. to display prominently their full ticket prices, including taxes and fees, such as fuel surcharges.
- The European Union proposed making manipulation of certain financial rates a criminal offense.
- Delegates to an international meeting agreed to impose sanctions against seven countries over lax wildlife trade rules.
- The Obama administration extended the deadline for setting an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule for industrial facilities cooling water structures.
- The U.S. Senate cleared the way for a floor vote on cybersecurity legislation.
- A federal court ruled that a Colorado company does not have to comply with the Obama administration’s birth-control mandate.
