Public PolicyRSS

  • August 3, 2009

    NC Enacts New Oversight For Coal Ash Ponds

    North Carolina, which has the most coal ash waste ponds deemed high hazards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of any state, has adopted a law that subjects dams creating coal ash impoundments to direct inspection by state officials.

  • July 31, 2009

    Food Safety Bill May Put Too Much On FDA's Plate

    The U.S. House of Representatives has signed off on a bill to overhaul how the Food and Drug Administration regulates and tracks food safety throughout supply chains, but experts are asking whether the FDA has the resources to pull off the ambitious new plan.

  • July 31, 2009

    Senate Confirms FWS Veteran To Steer Agency

    The U.S. Senate has cleared the way for a longtime biologist and regional manager of the Fish and Wildlife Service to head up the national agency responsible for protecting endangered species and managing hundreds of wildlife refuges and thousands of wetlands.

  • July 31, 2009

    Say-On-Pay Bill Passes House Along Party Lines

    The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill Friday afternoon that would give shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation and allow regulators to ban incentive pay arrangements that could have serious negative effects on economic conditions.

  • July 31, 2009

    WTO To Investigate US Ban On Chinese Poultry

    A World Trade Organization panel has decided to launch a formal inquiry regarding China's allegation that a U.S. ban on Chinese poultry violates international trade laws.

  • July 31, 2009

    Obama Taps Former Lawmaker To Join CPSC

    President Barack Obama said Thursday he intended to nominate former Republican Congresswoman Anne Meagher Northup to join the ranks of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as a commissioner, making good on his intention to boost the number of seats on the largely demoralized federal agency from three to five.

  • July 31, 2009

    Dow Loses Bid To Overturn NMFS Salmon Ruling

    A federal judge has tossed a suit brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service by Dow AgroSciences LLC and two other chemical manufacturers in an effort to overturn an opinion that some of the companies' pesticides have negative effects on Pacific salmon.

  • July 31, 2009

    EU Set To Back Lufthansa-Austrian Airlines Merger

    The European Commission has decided to sign off on German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG's merger with Austrian Airlines AG, following Lufthansa's promise to take additional steps to allay competition concerns raised by European Union regulators.

  • July 31, 2009

    Oil Contractor To Pay $1M To Avoid FCPA Case

    Oil contractor Helmerich & Payne Inc. has agreed to pay $1 million as part of a nonprosecution deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve improper payments made by company employees to government officials in Latin America in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

  • July 31, 2009

    Unions May Look To NLRB If EFCA Fails To Pass

    If the Employee Free Choice Act fails to pass as originally proposed, lawyers say the labor movement could try to extract similar benefits from the National Labor Relations Board, which is expected to be primarily composed of union-friendly members.

  • July 30, 2009

    House Panel OKs Bill To Reverse Leegin Ruling

    A U.S. House of Representatives panel has passed through a bill that would override a 2007 Supreme Court decision by making resale price agreements between manufacturers and retailers violations of the Sherman Act, but the legislation may still be subject to change.

  • July 30, 2009

    DOC Eases Anti-Dumping Order Against Chinese Cos.

    The U.S. Department of Commerce has reconsidered a 2004 determination against China-based Gerber Food (Yunnan) Co. Ltd. and Green Fresh (Zhangzhou) Co. Ltd. for allegedly scheming to evade anti-dumping duties and has cut the rate of anti-dumping duties initially imposed on their shipments of mushroom goods exported to the U.S.

  • July 30, 2009

    House Panel Takes On Railroad Antitrust Bill

    Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are mulling the latest version of legislation designed to lift antitrust exemptions for the railroad industry, just after the authors of a companion bill in the Senate voted to fold their similar measure into wider legislation dealing with transportation issues.

  • July 30, 2009

    Senate Probes Financial Giants Over Mortgage Crisis

    A U.S. Senate panel has reportedly issued subpoenas to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Washington Mutual Inc. as part of an investigation into the roots of the 2008 mortgage banking crisis.

  • July 30, 2009

    Top House Dems Unveil OTC Derivatives Principles

    The two U.S. House of Representatives committee chairmen with oversight responsibilities for the over-the-counter derivatives market on Thursday unveiled their agreed-upon principles for regulation of the market, and said that they hoped to have that legislation passed by the end of the year.

  • July 30, 2009

    Insurers, Others Weigh In On US Model BIT Reform

    A range of interest groups has weighed in as the U.S. prepares to update its model bilateral investment treaty for the first time since 2004, including insurance industry representatives urging the government to use the document to push foreign countries to liberalize their own insurance markets.

  • July 30, 2009

    Penn State Study Opposes Hydraulic Fracturing Bill

    A congressional proposal to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act would pose a serious threat to the development of the Marcellus Shale, which is located underneath a half dozen or so Eastern states and contains up to 489 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a study from Pennsylvania State University.

  • July 30, 2009

    EU Inks Trade Deal With Papua New Guinea

    The European Union and Papua New Guinea signed off Thursday on an interim economic partnership agreement that will allow the South Pacific island to export to Europe without forking over trade charges in exchange for the gradual lifting of duties on most European imports.

  • July 30, 2009

    Fate Of La. Rules On Lawyer Ads Lies With Judge

    A federal judge is considering the future of planned new restrictions on lawyer advertising in Louisiana following a hearing in which attorneys opposed to the rules and the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board each pled their case.

  • July 30, 2009

    Senate May Ban Carbon Derivatives Trading: Kerry

    Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. — who is helping to draw up climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate — said Wednesday that no carbon derivatives trading would be allowed, although he later backtracked slightly from that comment.