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🚫OFAC Sanctions Notice - Business Compliance Implications January 2025

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of one or more persons that have been placed on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) based on OFAC's determination that one or more applicable legal criteria were satisfied. All property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of these persons are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

⚡Transwestern Pipeline Compressor Station Application Notice and Deadlines

⚖️FMC Complaint Filed

📈2025 Update

The NCUA Board (Board) is amending its regulations to adjust the maximum amount of each civil monetary penalty (CMP) within its jurisdiction to account for inflation. This action, including the amount of the adjustments, is required under 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.

🌍EPA Finalizes New Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Power Plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing notice that it has responded to two petitions for reconsideration of the final action titled, "New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions From New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule", published in the Federal Register on May 9, 2024. The Administrator has denied or partially denied the requests for reconsideration in separate letters to the petitioners. The basis for the EPA's action is set out fully in the accompanying decision document, available in the rulemaking docket. At this time, the EPA is not addressing other grounds for reconsideration that have been raised by these or other petitioners.

🚨Draft Risk Assessment of PFOA and PFOS in Sewage Sludge Released

As part of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) commitment to safeguarding the environment from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the agency is announcing the availability of the "Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS)" for a 60-day public comment period. This draft risk assessment reflects the agency's latest scientific understanding of the potential risks to human health and the environment posed by the presence of PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge that is land applied as a soil conditioner or fertilizer (on agricultural, forested, and other lands), surface disposed, or incinerated. The draft risk assessment focuses on those living on or near impacted sites or those that rely primarily on their products (e.g., food crops, animal products, drinking water); the draft risk assessment does not model risks for the general public. This draft risk assessment underwent independent external peer review, and the EPA revised the document accordingly. Once finalized, the risk assessment will provide information on risk from use or disposal of sewage sludge and will inform the EPA's potential future regulatory actions under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

📈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.

🏥Key Business Implications of HHS 2026 Health Regulations

This final rule includes payment parameters and provisions related to the HHS-operated risk adjustment and risk adjustment data validation (HHS-RADV) programs, as well as 2026 benefit year user fee rates for issuers that participate in the HHS-operated risk adjustment program and the 2026 benefit year user fee rates for issuers offering qualified health plans (QHPs) through Federally-facilitated Exchanges (FFEs) and State-based Exchanges on the Federal platform (SBE-FPs). This final rule also includes requirements related to modifications to the calculation of the Basic Health Program (BHP) payment; and changes to the Initial Validation Audit (IVA) sampling approach and Second Validation Audit (SVA) pairwise means test for HHS-RADV. It also addresses HHS' authority to engage in compliance reviews of and take enforcement action against lead agents of insurance agencies for violations of HHS' Exchange standards and requirements; HHS' system suspension authority to address noncompliance by agents and brokers; an optional fixed-dollar premium payment threshold; permissible plan-level adjustment to the index rate to account for cost-sharing reductions (CSRs); reconsideration standards for certification denials; changes to the approach for conducting Essential Community Provider (ECP) certification reviews; a policy to publicly share aggregated, summary- level Quality Improvement Strategy (QIS) information on an annual basis; and revisions to the medical loss ratio (MLR) reporting and rebate requirements for qualifying issuers that meet certain standards.

📄SEC Notice

🐬Marine Mammals and Endangered Species Permit Issuance Notice

Notice is hereby given that permits, permit amendments, and permit modifications have been issued to the following entities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as applicable.