📞FCC Proposes Elimination of ASCII Requirement for Relay Services
In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) proposes to modify the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) rules to delete the requirement that traditional, Text Telephone (TTY)-based TRS be capable of communicating with the American Standard Code for Information Interexchange (ASCII) format. The record indicates that this format is outdated and rarely used today. Deleting the rule would reduce TRS costs, eliminate an outdated regulatory requirement, and update the Commission's standards to be more consistent with current usage of TTY-based relay service.
Learn More📈Proposed Changes to Small Business Size Standards by SBA
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or the Agency) proposes to increase its monetary based small business size definitions (commonly referred to as "size standards") for 263 industries (259 receipts based and four assets based). SBA proposes to retain receipts based size standards for 237 industries and 12 subindustries ("exceptions") and remove one exception. SBA's proposal relied on its recently revised "Size Standards Methodology" (Revised Methodology). SBA seeks comments on its proposed changes to size standards and data sources it evaluated to develop the proposed size standards. SBA also invites comments on its proposed policy of not lowering any size standards, except for excluding dominant firms from qualifying as small. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(4), a summary of this rule may be found at www.regulations.gov.
Learn More🏥TRICARE Regulation Expands Coverage for Clinical Trials
The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (ASD(HA)) issues this final rule regarding circumstances under which services and supplies related to emerging treatments may be covered under the TRICARE program. This rule finalizes provisions published in two interim final rules (IFRs) with request for comment, which temporarily added coverage for the treatment use of investigational drugs under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized expanded access (EA) programs when for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and permitted coverage of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)-sponsored clinical trials for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. This final rule discusses the DoD's decision not to make permanent the coverage of treatment use of investigational drugs under FDA EA programs while updating language for care associated with their administration and broadens the COVID-19 clinical trial benefit to include coverage of clinical trials sponsored or approved by any National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center or Institute to treat or prevent infectious diseases associated with a pandemic or epidemic. Lastly, the final rule expands TRICARE's clinical trial benefit by covering services and supplies provided in conjunction with Phase I, II, III, and IV clinical trials that are NIH-sponsored or approved and that involve a new treatment or cure for a specific condition or the treatment of a currently uncontrolled symptom or aspect of that condition, provided that the condition is severely debilitating, life- threatening, or a rare disease.
Learn More♿Proposed Revisions to Rehabilitation Act Affecting Federal Contractors
The U.S. Department of Labor proposes to revise its implementing regulations for Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. The proposed revisions will better align the regulations with recent case law and executive orders, including Executive Order 14173, "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity" and Executive Order 14219, "Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's `Department of Government Efficiency' Deregulatory Initiative."
Learn More🚍Rescinded Regulation on Transportation for Elderly and Handicapped Persons
This rulemaking rescinds the FTA regulation on Transportation for Elderly and Handicapped Persons, as FTA finds that the regulation is obsolete and unnecessary.
Learn More❌Rescission of Nondiscrimination Provisions Under Workforce Investment Act
The U.S. Department of Labor (the Department) is rescinding its regulations implementing the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) containing the nondiscrimination and equal-opportunity provisions of WIA. In 2014, Congress passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which repealed WIA and required the Secretary of Labor to transition any authority under WIA to the system created by WIOA. Therefore, the Department is taking this action to remove regulations for a program that is no longer operative.
Learn More🏥Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Regulations Overview
This final rule revises standards relating to denial of coverage for failure to pay past-due premium; excludes Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from the definition of "lawfully present;" establishes the evidentiary standard HHS uses to assess an agent's, broker's, or web-broker's potential noncompliance; revises the Exchange automatic reenrollment hierarchy; revises standards related to the annual open enrollment period and special enrollment periods; revises standards relating to failure to file and reconcile, income eligibility verifications for premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, annual eligibility redeterminations, de minimis thresholds for the actuarial value for plans subject to essential health benefits (EHB) requirements, and income-based cost-sharing reduction plan variations. This final rule also revises the premium adjustment percentage methodology and prohibits issuers of coverage subject to EHB requirements from providing coverage for specified sex-trait modification procedures as an EHB.
Learn More💰2025 Adjustment of Civil Monetary Penalties by HUD
This rule provides for 2025 inflation adjustments of civil monetary penalty amounts required 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 2015 Act). This rule also removes an obsolete regulation relating to the imposition of civil monetary penalties.
Learn More💊Key Medicare and Medicaid Regulatory Changes for 2026
This final rule revises the Medicare Advantage (Part C), Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D), Medicare cost plan, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) regulations to implement changes related to prescription drug coverage, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs), Part C and D Star Ratings, and other programmatic areas, including the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. This final rule also codifies existing sub-regulatory guidance in the Part C and Part D programs.
Learn More🏥Proposed Rule for Marketplace Integrity Under the ACA
This proposed rule would revise standards relating to past-due premium payments; exclude Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from the definition of "lawfully present"; the evidentiary standard HHS uses to assess an agent's, broker's, or web-broker's potential noncompliance; failure to file and reconcile; income eligibility verifications for premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions; annual eligibility redetermination; the automatic reenrollment hierarchy; the annual open enrollment period; special enrollment periods; de minimis thresholds for the actuarial value for plans subject to essential health benefits (EHB) requirements and for income-based cost-sharing reduction plan variations; and the premium adjustment percentage methodology; and prohibit issuers of coverage subject to EHB requirements from providing coverage for sex-trait modification as an EHB.
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