Week In Review

IN THE NEWS:

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first ever mRNA based flu vaccine. Moderna, the manufacturer of the vaccine, found that the new vaccine was 27 percent more effective than standard flu shots during a study last year. The decision comes after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled 22 recent projects focused on mRNA vaccine development. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., supported the decision to cancel funding for the projects, stating that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits” for respiratory viruses. According to public health experts, mRNA vaccines will be more effective in combatting the flu because they will be manufactured faster and will better match strains of the virus.
• The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a rule eliminating references to the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures from federal hiring regulations. Since 1978, the Guidelines required federal agencies to assess the potential disparate impact of hiring decisions on protected classes. OPM Director Scott Kupor said that the change is designed to ensure agencies preserve rigorous, job-related standards and “help agencies recruit and hire the most qualified workforce in service to the American people.”
• U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a national call to action to university presidents and governing boards, calling for universities to publish public statements outlining their commitments to implement university reforms. The call to action includes seven questions that universities should address in their public statements. The questions focus on topics related to free speech on campus, affordability of higher education, and how institutions intend to encourage intellectual pluralism. Universities are instructed to post their statements on individual university websites by the end of 2026.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from rescinding $20 billion in climate grants disbursed under the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, finding that EPA likely acted unlawfully because it terminated the program based solely on a policy disagreement. Six of the court’s 10 judges reinstated a temporary stop order protecting funds already disbursed to nonprofits for clean energy, affordable housing, and pollution reduction projects. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin had terminated the program, citing concerns about self-dealing and conflicts of interest. After the court’s decision, EPA said it was reviewing the ruling and considering next steps.
• A federal judge preliminarily blocked the enforcement of a New York law that bans Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from wearing masks that cover their faces. The Trump Administration argued that the face masks protect ICE officers from harassment, while the New York attorney general argued that the law allowed for better transparency and oversight of ICE officers. The judge found that the law conflicts with federal law because the law would allow New York to regulate federal law enforcement activity. A similar mask banning law was blocked in California, and the Trump administration has challenged similar laws in five other states.
• UBS Financial Services, a subsidiary of the Swiss bank UBS Group AG, agreed to pay a $125 million civil penalty to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. The penalty is the largest ever imposed against a broker-dealer for such violations. FinCEN previously fined UBS Financial Services $14.5 million for similar violations in 2018. The agency found that, despite promising to address those deficiencies, UBS failed to monitor approximately 60,000 foreign currency wire transactions valued at $10 billion between 2019 and 2023. FinCEN found that UBS Financial Services failed to conduct adequate customer due diligence for high-risk clients and did not timely file hundreds of suspicious activity reports. UBS Financial Services admitted that it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to undergo an independent review of its anti-money laundering program.
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a moratorium on new data center connections to the state’s electric grid, directing the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas , the state’s primary grid operator, to audit proposed projects. The review would assess projected power and water use, facility ownership, and community impacts. The Council tracked more than 1,800 data center projects seeking grid connection, with projected demand exceeding five times the state’s record peak electricity use. Texas operates an isolated and deregulated grid, making it uniquely vulnerable to surges in industrial power demand, particularly from data centers that require continuous power and do not help stabilize the grid during peak periods. Critics argued that the directive fell short of a true moratorium and called on Governor Abbott to convene a special legislative session to pass binding regulations on the industry.
• [Jamie] California implemented a new statute that requires online content creators to publicly disclose where they have used generative artificial intelligence (AI). The California AI Transparency Act requires companies that use generative AI to provide a digital disclosure to consumers that is free and easy to access. State Senator Josh Becker, who co-authored the legislation, likened the requirement to providing a “nutrition list” of the ingredients that “went into making the content.” Proponents of the measure argue that it will increase transparency in the online content people consume and help the burgeoning AI sector gain stability.

WHAT WE’RE READING:

• In a Center for American Progress report, Casey Doherty and Mia Ives-Rublee both of the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress, created an agenda of five priorities to protect the reproductive rights of disabled people. Doherty and Ives-Rublee argued that government agencies should collect data about how effective sex education targeted to students with disabilities is and that advocates should push for federal funding to allow for accessible sex education for students with disabilities. The report included recommendations for both state and federal actions that can protect the reproductive freedom of people with disabilities, such as expanding Medicaid to better support positive outcomes for people with disabilities in the reproductive health space. Doherty and Ives-Rublee explained that this list provides an overview of next steps for agencies and nonprofits to take to improve reproductive freedom for people with disabilities.
• In a recent report for the Urban Institute, Eva H. Allen, Jennifer M. Haley, and Stephen Zuckerman argued that changes to publicly funded health insurance eligibility under last year’s major tax and spending law will have detrimental effects on hospitals. Allen and her coauthors emphasized the impacts of the law both on Medicaid eligibility—including new work requirements and semiannual redeterminations of eligibility—and on the ability of consumers to use the Affordable Care Act marketplace to find care. Allen and her coauthors argued that these policy changes will burden hospitals with a drastic increase in uncompensated care costs that could exacerbate existing financial difficulties and workforce shortages already straining the healthcare industry.
• In a recent comment, Mary Sullivan, a visiting scholar at The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, argued that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposed rule weakening the Full Fare Rule would harm consumers by allowing airlines to advertise prices that exclude mandatory fees. Sullivan explained that, since 2012, the rule has required airlines and ticket agents to advertise the total price of airfare. She contended that weakening the rule could cost consumers an estimated $343 million in increased search costs, based on Sullivan’s analysis of more than 545 million tickets sold. Sullivan argued that the Transportation Department failed to quantify the harms to consumers from modifying the rule before proposing the rule. Sullivan recommended that the Transportation Department leave the rule and its implementing guidance unchanged.

EDITOR’S CHOICE:

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Richard J. Pierce, Jr., the Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law at The George Washington University School of Law, raised a list of questions about presidential power. Pierce argued that President Donald J. Trump has taken direct action, rather than instructing agencies to act, at a greater frequency than past Presidents. Pierce explained that the Supreme Court’s current framework for the exercise of presidential power provides for three categories. Based on that framework, the President has the greatest power when the President acts on power given to him by Congress and the least amount of power when acting contrary to Congress. Pierce raised the question of how the Supreme Court will approach presidential power when the President takes direct action, noting the Court has not addressed the question during past presidencies.