Week in Review

IN THE NEWS

• The Trump Administration announced six new “interagency agreements” that transfer programs and activities from the U.S. Department of Education to four other agencies. Under these agreements, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education will be housed under the U.S. Department of Labor, the Office of Indian Education will move to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the International Foreign Language Education program will now be run by the U.S. Department of State. In addition, accreditation programs for foreign medical schools and on-campus child care support for college-age parents will be overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated that these agreements, which follow an executive order signed by President Donald J. Trump to close the Education Department, will “return education to the states.”
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be proposing a new rule redefining which waters count as “waters of the United States” and are eligible for protection under the Clean Water Act. The new rule would remove federal protections from groundwater, ephemeral streams, and most wetlands. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated that this rule both safeguards waters and sets clear guidelines that promote economic activity. Environmental groups such as the League of Conservation Voters, however, cautioned that this rule would “jeopardize” drinking and recreational waters. This rule follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA, which limited EPA’s authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed 16 new initiatives for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including expanded hepatitis B screening for pregnant women to curb mother-to-child transmission. The plans, developed with senior advisers and CDC leadership over recent months, aim to enhance public health responses amid debates on vaccine timing, with details to be finalized before a January rollout. Sam Beyda, CDC deputy chief of staff, leads five of the initiatives, building on a September CDC advisory vote for universal prenatal testing. Supporters praised the proactive measures for addressing liver inflammation risks, while critics warned they could face delays from ongoing vaccine policy reviews, potentially impacting maternal and infant health outcomes.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed four rules that would roll back Endangered Species Act expansions enacted under the Biden Administration. The proposed rules would narrow federal oversight over endangered species by reinstating several provisions from the first Trump Administration, including eliminating the current “blanket rule,” which automatically applies the same protections to all threatened species. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said these revisions “end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach,” delivering certainty to states and businesses while also “ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense.”
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rewrote its website—which once reportedly said that vaccines do not cause autism—to state that the claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim, despite consensus in the scientific community that there is no credible link between autism and vaccines. The website also announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a “comprehensive assessment” of the causes of autism. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon reportedly said the update reflects “gold standard, evidence-based science.”
• The U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew a proposed rule that would have required airlines to provide automatic compensation to passengers who had faced significant flight disruptions. Under the rule proposed by the Biden Administration, passengers could have received up to $300 for domestic flight delays longer than three hours and up to $775 for delays over nine hours, along with additional compensation for meals and lodging. The Transportation Department noted that several U.S. airlines have already voluntarily committed to compensating passengers for delays, and emphasized that “additional regulatory requirements” are not needed. Airlines for America, a trade group that represents major airlines, voiced their support for the Transportation Department’s actions.
• President Trump urged Congress to include a ban on state artificial intelligence (AI) regulations in the upcoming required defense spending or another bill. In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said that without a federal standard, a “patchwork of 50 state regulatory regimes” would allow China to “easily catch us in the AI race.” President Trump also warned against states that are trying to insert “DEI ideology into AI models.” Although a 10-year ban on state AI regulations was included in Trump’s recent megalaw earlier this year, it was removed by a 99-1 vote in the U.S. Senate and garnered bipartisan opposition from senators.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted fast-track designation to Denmark-based Novo Nordisk’s phase 3 trials testing oral semaglutide (Rybelsus) for slowing cognitive decline in mild Alzheimer’s disease, with topline results expected in early December 2025. The trials seek to show at least a 20 percent reduction in cognitive decline, building on observational data linking GLP-1 drugs (medicines that mimic a natural gut hormone, first created to treat type 2 diabetes and help people lose weight) to lower dementia risk in diabetic patients. Supporters praised the potential for an oral, safer alternative to current practices, while critics warned of mechanistic uncertainties and high failure risks, urging rigorous post-approval monitoring. Positive results could expand GLP-1 labeling and shape regulatory pathways for repurposed drugs in neurodegenerative diseases.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to Bayer’s sevabertinib (Hyrnuo), a drug treatment for adults with locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. The drug demonstrated a 71 percent objective response rate in treatment-naive patients, with a median duration of response of 9.2 months. The approval requires confirmatory trials to verify clinical benefit and includes warnings for severe diarrhea, rash, and hepatotoxicity. Supporters praised the milestone for addressing unmet needs, while critics warned of reliance on surrogate endpoints and potential access barriers in a competitive landscape with Boehringer Ingelheim’s Hernexeos.

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WEEK

• In a Brookings Institution article, Timothy G. Massad, a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings’ Center on Regulation and Markets, argued that the best way to regulate digital assets is to merge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Massad explained that a combined SEC and CFTC would be able to clarify the classification of digital assets, ensure that regulations work for blockchain assets in addition to traditional financial instruments, and strengthen tools to combat illicit financial activity. Massad stressed that merging the two agencies would enable coordinated regulation on crypto markets, especially if those markets become significant in coming years compared to the securities and commodity derivatives markets. Massad acknowledged, however, that the politics behind merging the SEC and CFTC are “challenging” because different committees in Congress oversee both agencies.
• In a Brookings Institution article, David Brody, a board member of Code for Science & Society, argued that an underrecognized big-tech case may provide a foundation for protecting civil rights under state law in the “era of artificial intelligence.” Brody highlighted the recent case of Equal Rights Center v. Meta, in which the plaintiffs allege that Meta’s “AI-driven ad system” delivers ads for colleges and universities based on race. In that decision, the judge denied Meta’s motion to dismiss, and ruled that if proven, Meta’s actions would be unlawful under Washington D.C.’s Human Rights Act and Consumer Protection Procedures Act. Brody argued that this case shows that state attorneys general and civil rights advocates can use state law to investigate algorithmic discrimination, especially when federal agencies—such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—have “walked away” from civil rights enforcement.
• In a working paper from the Brookings Institution, Konrad Kording, a senior fellow, and Ioana Marinescu, a fellow, examined the economic impact of AI through “intelligence saturation,” where rapid automation of cognitive tasks hits diminishing returns due to physical sector bottlenecks. They argued that a constant elasticity of substitution production function framework, which separates physical and intelligence sectors, predicts wages will first rise from higher output but later fall as workers are pushed into lower-paying jobs. Kording and Marinescu highlighted the need for paced automation and subsidies to physical capital. They recommended wage insurance and taxes on AI labor substitutes to ease transitions and promote equitable growth.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Timothy D. Lytton, the Regents’ Professor at Georgia State University College of Law, argued that new regulatory approaches are necessary to clean up contaminated agricultural water and prevent foodborne illnesses. Lytton explained that the most recent rule on this matter by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only required farmers to assess conditions that are “reasonably likely to introduce known or reasonably foreseeable hazards” instead of implementing quantitative agricultural water quality standards required by a previous FDA rule. Lytton urged regulators to implement technological innovations that reduce foodborne illnesses, issue earlier consumer warnings to pull contaminated products off shelves, and consider strategies to prevent cattle feces from contaminating agricultural water. Lytton also noted that recent Supreme Court decisions constraining agency authority may hamper FDA’s ability to implement science-based agricultural water quality standards.