⚡New Energy Efficiency Testing Rules for General Service Lamps
The U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") is adopting clarifications to the test procedures for general service lamps ("GSLs") located in appendix W, appendix BB and appendix DD. Specifically, DOE is clarifying instructions that GSLs must not be tested as colored lamps and that lamps with additional components that do not affect light output must be turned off during testing. The clarifications also specify that non-integrated lamps be tested with a fluorescent lamp ballast, high intensity discharge ("HID") lamp ballast or external light-emitting diode ("LED") driver selected based on compatibility lists and availability; and provide specifications regarding the starting method, ballast factor, and number of lamps. This rulemaking is limited in scope and is providing clarifications to the current test procedures that are required for certification of compliance with existing applicable GSL energy conservation standards. Further, this rulemaking does not satisfy the Energy Policy and Conservation Act ("EPCA") requirement that, at least once every 7 years, DOE review the test procedures for GSLs.
Learn More🌊New Regulations for Navy Activities and Marine Mammal Protections
NMFS, upon request from the U.S. Navy (Navy), issues these regulations pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to govern the taking of marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing (HSTT) Study Area between 2018 and 2025. In 2021, two separate U.S. Navy vessels struck unidentified large whales on two separate occasions, one whale in June 2021 and one whale in July 2021, in waters off Southern California. The takes by vessel strike of the two whales by the U.S. Navy were covered by the existing regulations and Letters of Authorization (LOAs), which authorize the U.S. Navy to take up to three large whales by serious injury or mortality by vessel strike between 2018 and 2025. The Navy reanalyzed the potential of vessel strike in the HSTT Study Area, including the recent strikes, and as a result, requested two additional takes of large whales by serious injury or mortality by vessel strike for the remainder of the current regulatory period. In May 2023, a U.S. Navy vessel struck a large whale in waters off Southern California. NMFS reanalyzed the potential for vessel strike based on new information, including the three strikes, and authorizes two additional takes of large whales by serious injury or mortality by vessel strike for the remainder of the current regulatory period (two takes in addition to the three takes authorized in the current regulations). The Navy's activities qualify as military readiness activities pursuant to the MMPA, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (2004 NDAA).
Learn More⚖️2025 Civil Penalties Adjustments for Businesses Under NAGPRA
This rule revises U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations implementing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to provide for annual adjustments of civil penalties to account for inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 and Office of Management and Budget guidance. The purpose of these adjustments is to maintain the deterrent effect of civil penalties and to further the policy goals of the underlying statute. This rule also updates the mailing address for the NAGPRA Program.
Learn More⚖️New Export Controls on Biotechnology Equipment for Businesses
With this interim final rule (IFR), the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is revising the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to address the accelerating development and deployment of advanced biotechnology tools contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. This rule institutes new controls on certain biotechnology equipment and related technology. It further solicits public comments on the changes it implements.
Learn More📊New Compliance Measures for Advanced Computing ICs Effective 2025
BIS is revising the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) in response to requests from the public to provide additional due diligence procedures regarding advanced computing integrated circuits (ICs). This interim final rule (IFR) will protect the national security of the United States and assist foundries and Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test ("OSATs") companies in complying with provisions of the EAR pertaining to advanced computing ICs in the supply chain. This IFR also revises the EAR to make amendments and clarifications to the EAR for changes made to the EAR in an IFR released by BIS on December 2, 2024, "Foreign-Produced Direct Product Rule Additions, and Refinements to Controls for Advanced Computing and Semiconductor Manufacturing Items," (FDP IFR), including extending the deadline for written comments for the FDP IFR to March 14, 2025.
Learn More🎓Post-9/11 VA Educational Assistance Regulations Overview
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its regulations that govern VA's administration of educational assistance programs to implement the provisions of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, which modified the manner in which payments of educational assistance are determined and expanded the types of programs students may pursue under the Post-9/11 GI Bill; section 1002 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009, which authorized the "Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship;" and a select number of provisions of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017.
Learn More📈OFAC Adjusts Civil Monetary Penalties for Inflation, Effective 2025
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing this final rule to adjust certain civil monetary penalties for inflation pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.
Learn More🤖New Export Controls Impacting AI Technology and Business Compliance
With this interim final rule, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) revises the Export Administration Regulations' (EAR) controls on advanced computing integrated circuits (ICs) and adds a new control on artificial intelligence (AI) model weights for certain advanced closed-weight dual-use AI models. In conjunction with the expansion of these controls, which BIS has determined are necessary to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, BIS is adding new license exceptions and updating the Data Center Validated End User authorization to facilitate the export, reexport, and transfer (in-country) of advanced computing (ICs) to end users in destinations that do not raise national security or foreign policy concerns. Together, these changes will cultivate secure ecosystems for the responsible diffusion and use of AI and advanced computing ICs.
Learn More🎓Income-Contingent Repayment Plan Changes
The Department of Education (Department) adopts as final, without changes, the interim final rule published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2024. This final rule amends the regulations governing income-contingent repayment plans available to Federal student loan borrowers to satisfy the Department's statutory obligation under the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, (HEA) to offer borrowers access to an income-contingent repayment plan. The scope of this rule is narrow. It revises the last date for most borrowers to enroll in the Income-Contingent Repayment or Pay As You Earn plans from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2027. Changing the eligibility restrictions that went into effect on July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2027, allows the Department to meet its statutory obligations while it undertakes the necessary administrative changes to make its repayment plans compliant with the terms of an injunction pending appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Eighth Circuit).
Learn More💼DoD Adjusts Civil Monetary Penalties for Inflation
The DoD is issuing this final rule to adjust each of its statutory civil monetary penalties (CMP) to account for inflation. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act), requires the head of each agency to adjust for inflation its CMP levels in effect as of November 2, 2015, under a revised methodology that was effective for 2016 and for each year thereafter.
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