The Treasury Department has relinquished some of its authority over implementation of the Trump tax cuts to the White House Office of Management and Budget. [New York Times, 4/13/18]
The Trump administration has begun scaling back protections for transgender people. [New York Times, 4/22/18]
The administration is increasingly taking young children from their parents as they attempt to cross the border seeking asylum from the political violence in their home countries such as Honduras. The idea is to take children from their parents as a way of deterring migrants from coming to this country. At the latest count more
than 700 children have been taken from their parents at the border. [New York Times, 4/17/18]
The administration in the “person” of the USCIS plans to rescind the work authorizations for spouses of H-1B visa holders. [Morning Shift, Politico.com, 4/23/18]
President Trump has ordered the EPA to make it easier for states and industries to comply with national air emission standards for pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide and lead. The goal seems to be to allow states to create their own compliance plans instead of being forced to use a federal plan. [Law 360, 4/13/18]
A year ago for Russians seeking a U.S. tourist visa it took less than a week. Now the wait is about 250 days. [Washington Post, 4/23/18]
“[EPA] chief Scott Pruitt announced he would seek to bar the agency from relying on studies that don’t publicly disclose all their data, a major policy change that has long been sought by conservatives that will sharply reduce the research the agency can rely on when crafting new regulations. The unveiling of the proposed rule delivers a win to Republicans like House Science Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who unsuccessfully pushed legislation to impose the same type of change.”
An appeals court teamed up with President Donald Trump’s Labor Department to deal a huge blow to the Obama-era fiduciary rule, which would have required brokers to put their customers’ best interest ahead of their own compensation considerations. It’s a win that a large swath of the financial sector has been chasing for years, though it’s not the end for any type of regulation in this space; the SEC last month proposed requiring brokers to provide reasonable disclosure about conflicts of interest while protecting them with a safe harbor from liability.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing to raise the rents of people living in federally subsidized house from the current 30% of their adjusted income as rent, to 35% of gross income. Roughly 2.37 million families who receive these benefits will be affected. [Washington Post]
The U.S. Department of Justice is in the process of overhauling its manual for federal prosecutors. A section titled “Need for Free Press and Public Trial” and references to the department’s work on racial gerrymandering are gone. Language about limits on prosecutorial power has been edited down. Prosecutors are directed to report contacts with the media. [Buzzfeed]