Compliance Regulations and Guidance Affecting your Industry

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the preliminary regulatory reform plan of the National Labor Relations Board.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the General Services Administration.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of the Treasury.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of Transportation.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of Labor.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of Energy.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of Commerce.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Department of Agriculture.

The White House has announced plans for an ambitious regulatory reform across federal departments and agencies. This is the final regulatory reform plan of the Council for Environmental Quality.

This regulations requires the establishment of standards and procedures to assure efficient and effective records management by government agencies. These records management standards and procedures should implement accurate and complete documentation of the policies and transactions of the Federal Government, control the quantity and quality of records produced by the Federal Government, establish and maintain mechanisms of control with respect to records creation in order to prevent the creation of unnecessary records and with respect to the effective and economical operations of an agency, among others.

The SEC formulated its final rule for whistleblowers as required by the Dodd-Frank Act in May. The rule gives the definition of a whistleblower and requirements in order to be eligible for an award.

In 2009, a Colgan Air turboprop plane crashed near Buffalo, New York. Investigators looking into the crash pinpointed pilot fatigue as cause of the accident in which 50 people were killed.

The incident forced the FAA to finally propose legislation regarding pilot rest times and fatigue – regulation that hadn’t been revised in decades despite the growth of the commercial and cargo airline industry. Fatigue experts, pilot unions, airlines and sleep researchers were consulted in creating the proposed rule. The rules would have given pilots longer rest periods between shifts and reduce the maximum hours they can fly under conditions deemed fatiguing.

The proposed rule was based on the latest scientific understanding of how fatigue slows human reflexes and erodes judgment.

NHTSA’s final fuel consumption standards and EPA’s final carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions standards are tailored to each of three regulatory categories of heavy-duty vehicles: (1) Combination Tractors; (2) Heavy-duty Pickup Trucks and Vans; and (3) Vocational Vehicles. The rules include separate standards for the engines that power combination tractors and vocational vehicles. Certain rules are exclusive to the EPA program. These include EPA’s final hydrofluorocarbon standards to control leakage from air conditioning systems in combination tractors, and pickup trucks and vans. These also include EPA’s final nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions standards that apply to all heavy-duty engines, pickup trucks and vans.

FDA has developed this draft guidance document to provide greater clarity for FDA reviewers and industry regarding the factors FDA considers when making benefit-risk determinations during the premarket review process for certain medical devices. FDA believes that the uniform application of the factors listed in this guidance document will improve the predictability, consistency, and transparency of the premarket review process.

The Davis Bacon Act, 1931, is a federal law requiring that construction workers working on public projects be paid the local “prevailing” wage. The law applies to contractors and subcontractors who have taken up federally funded or assisted construction contracts in excess of $2000.

This Act regulates the organization of companies, including mutual funds, that engage primarily in investing, reinvesting, and trading in securities, and whose own securities are offered to the investing public. The regulation is designed to minimize conflicts of interest that arise in these complex operations. The Act requires these companies to disclose their financial condition and investment policies to investors when stock is initially sold and, subsequently, on a regular basis. The focus of this Act is on disclosure to the investing public of information about the fund and its investment objectives, as well as on investment company structure and operations. It is important to remember that the Act does not permit the SEC to directly supervise the investment decisions or activities of these companies or judge the merits of their investments. 

FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY

(a) Upon the basis of facts disclosed by the record and reports of the Securities and Exchange Commission made pursuant to section 30 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, and facts otherwise disclosed and ascertained, it is hereby found that investment companies are affected with a national public interest in that, among other things—

(1) the securities issued by such companies, which constitute a substantial part of all securities publicly offered, are distributed, purchased, paid for, exchanged, transferred, redeemed, and repurchased by use of the mails and means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and in the case of the numerous companies which issue redeemable securities this process of distribution and redemption is continuous;

(2) the principal activities of such companies-investing, reinvesting, and trading in securities-are conducted by use of the mails and means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, including the facilities of national securities exchanges, and constitute a substantial part of all transactions effected in the securities markets of the Nation;

(3) such companies customarily invest and trade in securities issued by, and may dominate and control or otherwise affect the policies and management of, companies engaged in business in interstate commerce;

(4) such companies are media for the investment in the national economy of a substantial part of the national savings and may have a vital effect upon the flow of such savings into the capital markets; and

(5) the activities of such companies, extending over many States, their use of the instrumentalities of interstate commerce and the wide geographic distribution of their security holders, make difficult, if not impossible, effective State regulation of such companies in the interest of investors.  

(b) Upon the basis of facts disclosed by the record and reports of the Securities and Exchange Commission made pursuant to section 30 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, and facts otherwise disclosed and ascertained, it is hereby declared that the national public interest and the interest of investors are adversely affected—

(1) when investors purchase, pay for, exchange, receive dividends upon, vote, refrain from voting, sell, or surrender securities issued by investment companies without adequate, accurate, and explicit information, fairly presented, concerning the character of such securities and the circumstances, policies, and financial responsibility of such companies and their management;

(2) when investment companies are organized, operated, managed, or their portfolio securities are selected, in the interest of directors, officers, investment advisers, depositors, or other affiliated persons thereof, in the interest of underwriters, brokers, or dealers, in the interest of special classes of their security holders, or in the interest of other investment companies or persons engaged in other lines of business, rather than in the interest of all classes of such companies’ security holders;

(3) when investment companies issue securities containing inequitable or discriminatory provisions, or fail to protect the preferences and privileges of the holders of their outstanding securities;

(4) when the control of investment companies is unduly concentrated through pyramiding or inequitable methods of control, or is inequitably distributed, or when investment companies are managed by irresponsible persons;

(5) when investment companies, in keeping their accounts, in maintaining reserves, and in computing their earnings and the asset value of their outstanding securities, employ unsound or misleading methods, or are not subjected to adequate independent scrutiny;

(6) when investment companies are reorganized, become inactive, or change the character of their business, or when the control or management thereof is transferred, without the consent of their security holders

(7) when investment companies by excessive borrowing and the issuance of excessive amounts of senior securities increase unduly the speculative character of their junior securities; or

(8) when investment companies operate without adequate assets or reserves. It is hereby declared that the policy and purposes of this title, in accordance with which the provisions of this title shall be interpreted, are to mitigate and, so far as is feasible, to eliminate the conditions enumerated in this section which adversely affect the national public interest and the interest of investors.

 To know more about: - Investment Company Act of 1940