Week in Review

IN THE NEWS

• The Endangered Species Committee granted oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico an exemption from the Endangered Species Act. The committee, chaired by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, consists of the heads of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Army, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It has met only four times in its entire history, issuing a total of three exemptions. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requested the exemption due to an alleged national security need for increased oil production. Following the decision, federal agencies are no longer required to ensure that they do not jeopardize the existence of threatened and endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has identified 20 such species, including the Rice’s whale, of which about 50 individuals remain.
• President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration to create state-by-state lists of verified eligible voters, seeking to restrict the delivery of absentee ballots to voters not on those lists. The order also calls for ballots to be sent in secure envelopes with unique tracking barcodes and threatens to withhold federal funding from states and localities that do not comply. State election officials in Arizona, Maine, and Nevada quickly threatened lawsuits or vowed noncompliance, arguing that the order unlawfully intruded on states’ constitutional authority to administer elections. David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, questioned whether the President can direct the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency governed by a board, to limit ballot delivery.
• In an 8–1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Colorado law prohibiting conversion therapy for minors was unconstitutional as applied to talk therapy. Conversion therapy attempts “to alter same-sex attractions or an individual’s gender expression with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality.” In Chiles v. Salazar the Court ruled that Colorado’s prohibition violated a Christian therapist’s freedom of speech under the First Amendment. The majority held that talk therapy was more similar to speech than to professional medical conduct, and differentiated speech from physical interventions, such as electric shock conversion therapy. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—the sole dissenter—argued that because the speech in question was part of a regulated medical practice, Colorado could “restrict the dangerous therapy modality” to protect public health.
• A federal judge blocked DHS from terminating the legal status of migrants who entered the United States using the CBP One app. The app allows migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry to request parole into the United States. DHS sought to end the app’s parole pathway as part of a broader shift in immigration policy, asserting that the large-scale use of parole for migrants entering through scheduled appointments was no longer in the public interest. The court ruled that DHS acted unlawfully when it issued mass termination notices without showing that an authorized official had determined that the purposes of parole had been served, as required by statute and regulation. The decision applies to a class of migrants who received April 2025 emails informing them that their parole would be revoked.
• The EPA issued a new rule finalizing Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volumes and percentage standards for 2026 and 2027. Congress created the RFS to require transportation fuel sold in the United States to include specified amounts of renewable fuel. EPA’s rule increased total renewable fuel obligations from 22.33 billion renewable fuel credits in 2025 to 26.81 billion credits in 2026 and 27.02 billion credits in 2027. The rule also reallocated some exemptions granted to small refineries, lowered the 2025 cellulose-based biofuel requirement because production fell short, and removed renewable electricity as a qualifying renewable fuel under the program.
• A federal appeals court refused to let the Trump Administration impose new restrictions on billions of dollars in federal grants used to provide housing and services to people experiencing homelessness. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit left in place a lower court order blocking the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from changing the criteria for the federal grants while the litigation continues. The dispute centers on HUD’s effort to move away from the program’s long-standing practice of prioritizing stable housing first and instead shift funding toward temporary programs with stricter participation requirements. Plaintiffs argue that the new criteria conflict with federal law, which prioritizes stable and permanent housing for veterans, families, and people with disabilities.
• The Trump Administration filed a revised plan with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reduce the workforce of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by roughly two-thirds. The proposed plan would reduce the agency to about 556 employees and scale back its supervision and enforcement functions. The Trump Administration argued that the revised plan does not eliminate the CFPB entirely and asked the court to allow further consideration of the proposal by lifting an existing stay. Critics argued that such cuts would impair the CFPB’s ability to carry out its statutory consumer protection responsibilities, while supporters contended the agency has imposed excessive regulatory burdens on financial institutions.
• A coalition of health and environmental organizations filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging the EPA’s repeal of updated mercury emissions standards for coal and oil-fired power plants. The petition identified a February 2026 rule from the agency—which rescinded emission standards for particulate matter and mercury as well as related compliance requirements. The agency stated that the repeal was intended to align the standards with the statutory framework governing hazardous air pollutant regulations under the Clean Air Act. The groups reportedly warned that the rescission would allow increased emissions of hazardous pollutants and reduce oversight of power plant pollution.

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WEEK

• In a recent report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) studied the potential for offshore wind energy projects to stimulate investment in the domestic shipbuilding industry. In its survey of ongoing wind projects, GAO found that approximately 80 percent of all ships used were U.S.-flagged vessels, with the remaining 20 percent consisting of specialized foreign-flagged construction ships for which no comparable U.S.-flagged vessels exist. GAO also identified 50 new vessels that were under construction or were recently delivered, which were built across 20 shipyards in 12 states. GAO provided evidence that if all ongoing wind projects were completed, total investment in domestic shipbuilding could reach $2 billion, although some investors who were interviewed also expressed hesitation given ongoing regulatory uncertainty.
• In a recent Urban Institute report, Matthew Buettgens, a senior fellow in the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Division, and colleagues projected that the Medicaid work requirements and six-month eligibility redeterminations of President Trump’s mega tax and spending law could reduce Medicaid expansion enrollment in 2028. Using the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Simulation Model, the authors estimated that the two policies together would leave 4.9 million to 10.1 million fewer people enrolled in Medicaid expansion coverage in an average month, depending on how states implement the law. The authors warned that people at greater risk of losing Medicaid include those who are self-employed, between ages 50 and 64, students, have health conditions that affect their ability to work, or care for disabled family members.
• In a recent report, GAO examined federal efforts to address veteran homelessness. GAO focused on joint initiatives by the HUD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to collect data and evaluate programs’ effectiveness. GAO found that staffing shortages—driven by high turnover and burnout among case managers—have limited the programs’ ability to serve veterans and delayed access to housing assistance. GAO also noted significant gaps in data collection, including a failure by the VA to document the reasons why many eligible veterans were not referred to housing programs, which hindered effective resource allocation. GAO recommended that agencies improve data tracking and develop clearer evaluation plans to better assess program performance and expand access to services.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Ellen Holtmaat of the University of Oregon, William McGuire of the University of Washington Tacoma, and Aseem Prakash of the University of Washington, argued that stock markets may create less than adequate incentives for offshore oil and gas producers to comply with environmental and safety regulations. Holtmaat, McGuire, and Prakash found that following the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico—which released over 200 million gallons of crude oil in 2010—BP’s stock prices were largely unaffected in the medium and long-term, despite the reputational harms the company suffered. Holtmaat, McGuire, and Prakash concluded that regulators of offshore drilling activities should consider the effectiveness of stock markets in creating incentives for regulatory compliance.