Week in Review

IN THE NEWS: 

• The U.S. Supreme Court blocked an order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri that would have required Missouri to use a new congressional map in its November 2026 elections. Republican lawmakers drew the new map during a 2025 special session. The map would have eliminated one of the state’s two Democratic-held congressional seats, but opponents gathered more than 300,000 signatures for a referendum petition, which Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected on the day of the state primary. The Missouri Supreme Court later ruled that the referendum petition was valid and barred Hoskins from using the new map. However, Hoskins directed election officials to use the new map, prompting the court to hold him in contempt. Voters will now decide whether to approve the new map on the November ballot.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed a rule that limited greenhouse gas pollution from power plants. The former rule, issued under the Biden administration, aimed to reduce pollution emitted from both coal and gas-fired plants by the next decade. In its announcement, the EPA called the repeal the “largest power sector deregulatory action in U.S. history.” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated the decision is an effort to “protect American energy and make sure you can afford to keep the lights on.”
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an order that will temporarily exempt Tokenized Securities Venues from certain regulations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. With the exemption, tokenized stocks, which represent stock ownership in digital record books rather than through the databases associated with traditional stocks, will be excluded from the definition of “exchange” under the Act. The five-year pause from classification as securities exchanges will exempt tokenized venues from a myriad of securities regulations. According to SEC Chairman, Paul S. Atkins, this “innovation exemption”, designed to facilitate trading of tokenized stocks, is “a significant step forward” that brings “America’s capital markets into the digital age.”
• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) launched a new program called Gateside by TSA PreCheck allowing eligible TSA PreCheck members without plane tickets to pass through security and access airport gates, reviving a practice that ended after the September 11 attacks. The program is free but requires applicants to apply online one to three days in advance and receive approval before arriving at the airport. Gateside by TSA PreCheck launched at 13 airports, including Los Angeles International, Dallas-Fort Worth International, and Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, with the TSA planning to expand the program to more airports in the coming months.
• Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging a rule issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The rule rescinds earlier regulations that specified what information DHS officers could consider when determining whether a green card applicant was likely to become reliant on government assistance. The states challenging the rule argued that it gives DHS too much power to determine who can be restricted from green card access. The new rule allows DHS officials to consider an applicant’s prior participation in any public program or receipt of any public assistance as evidence that the applicant will become reliant on government support after immigrating.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled the Expedited Investigational New Drug Pilot Program to bring new medications onto the market more quickly. The program—launched under a broader U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiative called Operation Trailblazer—will accelerate how new drugs advance to in-human clinical trials, while also “maintaining FDA’s rigorous standards for participant safety and scientific oversight.” Before the official launch of the program, pharmaceutical industry groups requested greater clarity over how the program will depart from FDA’s existing review processes.
• The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act did not pass a vote in the U.S. Senate. The proposed bill would have established the first regulations on crypto currency in United States history. The bill divided oversight of crypto currency between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Critics of the bill noted that the bill placed a majority of the oversight responsibilities under CFTC, a smaller department than SEC, and claimed that CFTC would not have the capacity to administer the regulations as needed. While the bill did not pass the Senate, it remains a priority of the Trump Administration.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that requires any advertisement that uses artificial intelligence (AI) generated performers to disclose the use of AI in the advertisement. The bill is aimed at protecting actors and performers in California from losing job opportunities to AI generated performers in advertisements. Newsom has also signed two other recent AI consumer protection bills into law over the last year. California law requires both audio and visual performances to have the disclosure, using language that is similar to “this performance features a synthetic performer.”

WHAT WE’RE READING: 

• In a recent Brookings Institution report, Marcela Escobari and Ian Seyal, respectively Director and Associate Research Director of Global Economy and Development at Brookings, along with Paul Beach, a research analyst for the Workforce of the Future Initiative, estimated the local employment effects of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement surges across U.S. cities in 2025. Escobari, Seyal, and Beach found that payroll employment fell 0.43 percent below its expected path in the 64 cities where ICE enforcement surged most, equivalent to approximately 13,000 missing jobs in a city with 3 million workers. They attributed the decline to workers withdrawing from public life out of fear, businesses struggling to replace absent employees, and households cutting spending. Escobari, Seyal, and Beach emphasized that the economic effects showed no sign of recovery through December 2025 and could persist well after arrests subside. Escobari, Seyal, and Beach suggested that policymakers should consider these lasting economic ripple effects when designing enforcement strategies.
• In a recent Brookings Institution report, Marta E. Wosińska, a Senior Fellow on Economic Studies for Brookings’ Center on Health Policy, argued that current problems that patients face in obtaining certain drugs, such as stimulants used to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder or opioids for pain relief, are a result of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) quota system for regulating drug diversion. Wosińka explained that DEA treats any “slack” in the system—basically surplus drugs on the market—as a risk for diversion to illegal uses, resulting in fragmented quota grants, late allocations, and inventory caps. Wosińka recommended that Congress transfer funding and reallocation authority to the FDA to improve prescription drug supplies because the agency already approves these drugs, inspects their manufacturing plants, and could be accountable for shortages.
• In a recent report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office studied the impact of chronic facility issues in school districts. Chronic facility issues include water intrusion, excessive or extreme temperatures, plumbing issues, and poor air quality. The report examined lost instructional time that occurred because of facility issues in elementary, and high school buildings. The report found that nearly half of the districts surveyed had chronic facility issues in at least one building and 14 percent of all school buildings in the study were in poor or very poor condition. These chronic facility issues led to around 19 percent of schools closing for a day or more during the 2024-2025 school year, impacting 2 million students. Schools cited multiple issues preventing facility improvements including a lack of funding, the need to prioritize more urgent issues, and the cost of complying with federal requirements.

EDITOR’S CHOICE: 

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Edward DeSeve, Coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration, argued that regulators should adopt an agile mindset to improve regulatory outcomes and restore public trust in government. DeSeve contended that an agile mindset requires regulators to continuously examine the status quo, develop strategy through evidence and metrics, and engage the public and cross-functional teams in designing and implementing regulations. DeSeve explained that the National Academy of Public Administration’s 2022 report on agile regulation articulated four key principles: assessing the need for regulation, designing regulations strategically, improving internal agency processes, and committing to continuous learning and improvement. DeSeve concluded that agile regulation—by focusing on evidence, public values, and continuous improvement—represents a path forward for government leaders seeking to improve competence and enhance public trust.