🎓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.
Learn More📈Inflation Adjustments to Civil Money Penalties - FCA 2025
This regulation implements inflation adjustments to civil money penalties (CMPs) that the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) may impose or enforce pursuant to the Farm Credit Act of 1971, as amended (Farm Credit Act), and pursuant to the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, as amended by the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994, and further amended by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (Biggert-Waters Act) (collectively FDPA, as amended).
Learn More🌱CEQ Updates Regulations for Environmental Quality Management Fund
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is amending its Office of Environmental Quality Management Fund regulations to clarify their meaning, modernize them to reflect developments in CEQ's practices in administering the Office of Environmental Quality Management Fund (the Management Fund) since CEQ first adopted its regulations, and make administrative changes.
Learn More🌍EPA Finalizes Fuel Quality Standards and Testing Regulations
This action finalizes revisions, updates, and corrections to EPA's streamlined fuel quality regulations. This action does not change the stringency of the existing fuel quality standards.
Learn More⚖️NRC Adjusts Civil Penalties for Inflation in FY2025
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to adjust the maximum civil monetary penalties it can assess under statutes enforced by the agency. These changes are mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The NRC is amending its regulations to adjust the maximum civil monetary penalty for a violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, or any regulation or order issued under the Atomic Energy Act from $362,814 to $372,240 per violation, per day. Additionally, the NRC is amending provisions concerning program fraud civil penalties by adjusting the maximum civil monetary penalty under the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act from $13,946 to $14,308 for each false claim or statement.
Learn More⚖️FCC Announces 2025 Civil Penalties Adjustments for Businesses
The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Inflation Adjustment Act) requires the Federal Communications Commission to revise its forfeiture penalty rules to reflect annual adjustments for inflation in order to improve their effectiveness and maintain their deterrent effect. The Inflation Adjustment Act provides that the new penalty levels shall apply to penalties assessed after the effective date of the increase, including when the penalties whose associated violation predate the increase.
Learn More🇺🇸Federal Acknowledgment for Indian Tribes
The United States Department of the Interior (Department) revises the regulations governing the process through which the Secretary acknowledges an Indian Tribe, creating a conditional, time- limited opportunity for denied petitioners to re-petition for Federal acknowledgment.
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🌍Kansas EPA Proposes New Emission Fees and Compliance Rules
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve revisions to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) and Operating Permits Program and the 112(l)plan submitted by the State of Kansas on February 20, 2023. The revised Kansas rules update the Class I emission fee and emissions inventory regulations, establish a Class II fee schedule and ensure that Kansas's Operating Permits Program is adequately funded. Approval of these revisions ensures consistency between the State and federally-approved rules and does not impact air quality.
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