Week in Review

EVENTS

• In order to gain a deeper understanding of how people perceive and make use of federal programs, President Barack Obama issued an executive order directing executive departments and federal agencies to conduct and make use of behavioral science research.

• In a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy testified and was questioned about the events that caused the Gold King Mine spill, and the agency’s actions afterwards to improve water quality.

• U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer reportedly announced that he planned to introduce an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill that would mandate the use of geo-fencing technology on drones in order to restrict them from flying into certain prohibited areas.

• The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation heard testimony from Acting Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Sarah Feinberg, as part of the Senate confirmation hearing about Ms. Feinberg’s nomination for Administrator of the FRA.

• The Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL) and the Board on Higher Education and Workforce (BHEW) announced the upcoming publication of a subcommittee’s report supported by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which proposes a regulatory framework based on a review and analysis of the regulations that apply to research universities.

• After bringing an action against Ukrainian investment banking firm Jaspen Capital Partners and its chief executive officer for allegedly trading on information from hacked news sources, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that the traders had agreed to pay a $30 million settlement.

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued orders to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in which it mandated that the company halt the distribution and sale of four of its cigarette products because of its alleged failure to show that its current products are “substantially equivalent” to their corresponding “predicate” products (those products that were marketed as of February 2007) under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began accepting comments about license transfers between Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Advance/Newhouse that the companies requested as part of their proposal to merge.