Podcasts about federal advisory committee act

Kel McClanahan joins us for part two of the interview, where he tells us how to keep tabs on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as they gear up to do for the federal government what Elon did for Twitter. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is not going to jail, Alex Jones continues to be a ghoul, and Rudy Giuliani has found another lawyer to help him humiliate himself in federal court. Links: Rudy Giuliani Can't Go On Trial, He Has An Inauguration To Attend! https://www.lawandchaospod.com/p/rudy-giuliani-cant-go-on-trial-he   Roake v. Brumley 5th Circuit denial of stay https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.221848/gov.uscourts.ca5.221848.68.2.pdf   Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. Chapter 10 et seq. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/part-I/chapter-10   Kel McClanahan, President Trump's Cronyism and Excesses Should Prompt Security Clearance Reform https://www.justsecurity.org/63108/president-trumps-cronyism-excesses-prompt-security-clearance-reform/   Kel McClanahan, The Case for Legislative Security Clearance Reform https://www.justsecurity.org/60440/case-legislative-security-clearance-reform/   Kel McClanahan, What Everyone Gets Wrong About Kushner's Clearance Fiasco https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/01/jared-kushner-clearance-fiasco-217210/   Support and donate to: www.nationalsecuritylaw.org Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod Patreon: patreon.com/LawAndChaosPod  

Biden Cancels Trump Opioid Plan The Biden administration said that it is canceling a last-minute plan by the Trump administration to let more physicians prescribe an opioid-treatment drug, despite exhortations to keep it from lawmakers and physician groups. Vec discusses this change in policy from the new administration. USDA Violated FACA Later in the episode, Mark talks about USDA's violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and why it matters for regulations of Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) eartags. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). In their attempt to unlawfully mandate RFID eartags on livestock destined for market, USDA and APHIS set up two advisory committees to assist their RFID efforts, the “Cattle Traceability Working Group” (CTWG) and the “Producer Traceability Council” (PTC). An opening brief filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming argues that USDA and its subagency, APHIS, failed to comply with FACA's statutory requirements in establishing and using the two advisory committees to gather information necessary to implement RFID eartags.   NCLA represents the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) and four ranchers: Tracy and Donna Hunt from Wyoming, and Kenny and Roxy Fox from South Dakota, who filed a lawsuit against these agency defendants challenging their illegal April 2019 “guidance” as violating the 2013 Traceability and Identification Rule by attempting to force cattle producers to use RFID eartags in lieu of all other forms of approved identification under the earlier rule. NCLA's brief criticizes the Defendants' decision to establish and utilize “advisory committees” without complying with FACA's procedural requirements, as well as their decision to exclude from participation anyone who opposed the RFID requirements. Defendants' mandate, issued in violation of the 2013 Final Rule, was designed to prohibit cattle producers from using any animal identification options that up to now had been perfectly acceptable, including tattoos, backtags, permanent metal eartags, brands, and group/lot identification numbers. Defendants have taken the position that they neither “established” nor “utilized” the CTWG and PTC advisory committees within the meaning of FACA. However, their Administrative Record and documents obtained through a FOIA request prove otherwise. Defendants have conceded that they did not follow FACA's procedural requirements—mostly because they wrongly assumed that they should not have to. Again, however, their own documents demonstrate that FACA applies in this case: (1) the agency urged the formation of CTWG; (2) numerous APHIS employees actively participated in CTWG's and PTC's meetings and calls; (3) CTWG's fixed membership included APHIS officials; (4) CTWG and PTC—and their various subgroups—met regularly and made a series of recommendations to APHIS regarding the implementation of the RFID technology. NCLA is asking the court to recognize the CTWG and PTC as federal advisory committees set up by USDA. To penalize USDA for not following FACA's public meeting and balanced membership requirements, NCLA is further asking the court to prohibit Defendants from using any of the work product or recommendations made by either CTWG or PTC. Read more here: https://nclalegal.org/r-calf-usa-v-united-states-department-of-agriculture/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday was the deadline for federal agencies to send the Office of Management and Budget a list of the federal advisory committees they're proposing to do away with – the mandate to reduce committees came in an executive order President Trump signed earlier this year. Sean Moulton, senior policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, says the actions are a step backward. He joined Federal Drive to discuss.

Some organizations are so interesting that we come back to them more than once. Among US regulatory agencies, the most fascinating may be the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Last July we ran a podcast conversation with the Commission’s Chairman, Christopher Giancarlo, which goes into greater depth about the role of the CFTC and it also contains Chairman Giancarlo’s thought-provoking statement that the top priority facing every regulatory body is to convert the rule book from analog to digital design. The CFTC is at the forefront of regulatory innovation in part because its leader is so passionate about the importance of it. In that spirit, they recruited the perfect person to lead the LabCFTC innovation project -- today’s guest, Daniel Gorfine. Luckily for us, the CFTC was able to attract Dan into government from the fintech sector – I first met him when he was at OnDeck – and he’s been bringing an innovator’s mindset and working models to this venerable government agency. This episode has three very meaty topics, each of which could have been a whole show. First, Dan talks about the vision and work of LabCFTC, sharing insights about how it’s organized that I know other regulators will find helpful. He talks about how they track and facilitate innovation in the financial markets, including a “primer” they issued on rules applying to cryptocurrency. He also explains how they explore new technology for use by the agency, itself -- they call that CFTC 2.0 -- as well as “Digital Reg,” an internal think tank for rapid learning and sharing of tech insight. Second, Dan talks with me about an exciting initiative they’ve just launched, issuing the first-ever CFTC Science Prize Competition Act challenge. They discovered this law empowering agencies to run competitions to solve regulatory problems in science and technology, and they decided to crowdsource ideas on both the problems to tackle and the process to use. Public comments are due July 24. In our conversation, Dan throws out some of the ideas he and his colleagues have thought of -- maybe regulatory data visualization tools, or machine-learning for market surveillance, or machine-readable and machine-executable regulation -- but they want to hear from you. Our listeners are among the most thoughtful people anywhere on regulation innovation, so please comment. You could even become CFTC Innovator of the Year! Our third topic is one that rarely surfaces in the innovation dialogue, and solely needs discussion: the legal and procedural obstacles to government agencies that want to embrace innovation. We could call the topic, government modernization. Think about it. If you were a federal agency wanting to keep up with technology innovation, you would want to be able to do a few things. You would want to be able to try out new technologies, hands-on. If the innovation was something you might adopt for your own agency, you would want to test it before you had to commit to a major procurement budget and procedure. You would also want to be able to brainstorm with a wide range of people, learning from them, thinking through ideas with them. All of this is stunted today by well-intentioned rules that were designed long ago -- for good reason -- to prevent inappropriate influence, backroom deals, and the like. Dan talks in particular about the Anti-Deficiency Act, which restricts procurement activities and prevents the CFTC from being able to try out new kinds of tools. Another issue is the procurement process itself. I met a few months ago with people from a different agency, showing them some innovative technology that could make their regulatory work easier, and one of them said, “If we decided today that we should adopt this, we would have it in seven years.” I’ve talked with other agencies that cite the Federal Advisory Committee Act, with its restrictions on meetings, and the Administrative Procedure Act, which structures the rule-making process and, at some stages, limits interactive dialogue. Agencies have raised concerns about various “government in the sunshine” rules, which again make it difficult to talk informally. Some can’t readily attend a breakfast or lunch event. They have to ask about the value of the meal being served and if it’s more than, I think it’s $15, they can’t eat it, or they have to go through paperwork to pay for it. And of course, there are complex approval processes for participating in various kinds of forums. More than any show we’ve done, this one puts you in the shoes of the regulatory agency and shows how their hands are tied by procedural prohibitions and requirements. I’d love to see someone do a study, maybe a graduate thesis, on how rules that were written in an older, slower era may now undermine the ability of regulators to keep up with exponential change in technology. We could use suggestions on updating them for the digital age. And remember, it’s an issue much broader than finance. I’ve been in and around Washington for decades and can remember the bad old days before some of these rules were created -- indeed, I remember some of the bad old practices that led to them. Still, we don’t need to straightjacket our regulators. Other countries have a much more fluid discussion between agencies and industry, and also have the ability to try things. One model is the Bank of England’s Fintech Accelerator, which explores new technology for the bank itself. And Dan and I both participated in London last month in the amazing AML Tech Sprint run by the UK Financial Conduct Authority -- which is a stunning model of innovative regulatory process. Its leaders were my guests on the last podcast we posted (which my friend Peter Renton of LendAcademy and LendIt called the “most fascinating discussion he’s ever heard on the future of financial regulation” -- if you missed it, check it out). Meanwhile, here’s some great news. Just a few days ago, Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA) introduced the CFTC Research and Development Modernization Act, H.R. 6121. Dan refers to it in our talk – it’s bipartisan legislation to address some of these hurdles at the CFTC. We’ll link to it in the show notes. The bill would permit the Commission to collaborate on projects with fintech developers. It would also allow it to receive “gifts” for R&D purposes, including software to try out, subject to common sense safeguards. The bill echoes work by Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who has sought to facilitate innovation by all the financial regulatory agencies. And the US agencies, themselves, are all moving ahead, too. The CFPB’s Acting Director, Mick Mulvaney, plans to launch a regulatory sandbox. The FDIC held a tremendously impressive technology forum. Five US agencies attended the UK tech sprint. Regulation innovation is coming, and no one is more thoughtful about it than Dan Gorfine. More links Our Podcast with Christopher Woolard of the UK Financial Conduct Authority Our Podcast with Nick Cook, the FCA’s head of regtech FinRegLab, which is leading regulatory innovation in the US Link to transcription of this episode (Note that transcripts may sometimes contain errors and that transcript timing notations do not match the posted podcast) More on Dan Gorfine Daniel Gorfine is Chief Innovation Officer and Director, LabCFTC at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. LabCFTC is dedicated to facilitating market-enhancing financial technology (FinTech) innovation, fair market competition, and proactive regulatory excellence and understanding of emerging technologies. Daniel is also an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches a course on ‘FinTech Law & Policy.’ Daniel was most recently Vice President, External Affairs & Associate General Counsel at OnDeck, and previously served as director of financial markets policy and legal counsel at the Milken Institute think tank where he focused on technology-driven financial innovation, capital access, and financial market policy. Earlier in his career, Gorfine worked at the international law firm Covington & Burling LLP and served a clerkship with U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake in the District of Maryland. A graduate of Brown University (A.B.), Daniel holds a J.D. from George Washington University Law School and an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. More for our listeners We have many more great podcasts in the queue. We’ll talk with another community bank CEO, Mike Butler of Radius Bank.  We’ll have two more episodes that we recorded this year at LendIt. One is a discussion of new research by LendUp and Experian, on credit reporting, and the other is with Greg Kidd, Founder of Global ID.  We also recorded two episodes at last month’s Comply 2018 conference in New York, with two regtech firms -- Compliance.ai, which offers machine-readable regulatory compliance, and Alloy, which has high-tech solutions for meeting the Know-Your-Customer rules in AML. Speaking of LendIt, I was a guest last week on Lend Academy podcast, and Peter Renton will be on our show soon as well, so watch for those. I’m also excited we’ll have several leading members of Congress on the show in the coming weeks. So, stay tuned! The summer conference slowdown is nearly upon us, but I hope to see you at upcoming speeches and events including: American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, June 26, Nashville, TN Money 2020, October in Las Vegas. Among other things, I’ll be speaking on the Revolution Stage about the regulation revolution Also, watch for upcoming information on my collaboration with Brett King on his new book on the future of finance -- we’ll have a show and events on that as well. If you listen to Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, please leave a five-star rating on the show to help us build it. Also please remember to send in your “buck a show” to keep it going, and come to jsbarefoot.com for today’s show notes and to join our email list, so you’ll get the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts. As always, please follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Support our Podcast And tell me what you’re thinking about digitizing regulation. Let’s widen this dialogue to more people and more and more ideas! Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Today's rapid-response episode begins with a discussion of the tragedy in Las Vegas and whether we can do anything about it.  Before you dig in, you might want to take a refresher on our two-part masterclass on the Second Amendment in Episode 21 (Part 1) and Episode 26 (Part 2). Then, we take our first of two separate trips to Yodel Mountain with the recent revelation that the Trump DOJ disregarded decades of advice before issuing an opinion memo that authorized the (blatantly illegal) hiring of Jared Kushner.  Is this really a Hillary Clinton story?  Listen and find out! After that, we trek back up Yodel Mountain with the breaking news that the New York Attorney General's office was about to indict Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump in 2012... until the AG received a visit (and a bag of money!) from Donald Trump's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz. Finally, we end with a new Thomas Takes the Bar Exam Question #44 about hearsay... and Thomas is joined by next week's guest, Andrew Seidel of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.  Remember that you can play along with #TTTBE by retweeting our episode Tweet along with your guess.  We'll release the answer on next Tuesday's episode along with our favorite entry! Recent Appearances None!  Have us on your show! Show Notes & Links Our two-part masterclass on the Second Amendment begins with Episode 21 (Part 1) and continues in Episode 26 (Part 2). After that, we discussed Kolbe v. Hogan, 849 F.3d 114 (4th Cir. 2017), which we also covered in depth in Episode 47. You can read the Trump Administration's talking points on Las Vegas here. This is the breaking story by Politico about the DOJ ignoring precedent. The case Andrew discusses at length is AAPS v. Clinton, 997 F.2d 898 (D.C. Cir. 1993).  It is being grossly misreported in the media; see, for example, this NPR story. This is 5 U.S.C. App. § 1, the Federal Advisory Committee Act. You can read the ProPublica story here that suggests that Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were about to be indicted in 2012. The federal bribery law is 18 U.S.C. § 201; the relevant case is McDonnell v. U.S., 579 U.S. ____, 136 S.Ct. 2355 (2016); and you can check out our friend Randall Eliason's great analysis of the bribery statute here. Support us on Patreon at:  patreon.com/law Follow us on Twitter:  @Openargs Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/openargs/ And email us at openarguments@gmail.com  

Guests discuss two lesser-known pieces of federal law gaining prominence in recent suits against the current administration; Professor Zachary Clopton (Cornell Law) addresses the threshold inquiry of whether Emoluments Clause questions are justiciable, and Sophia Lakin and Theresa Lee (ACLU) discuss their Federal Advisory Committee Act claims just filed against President Trump's Committee on Election Integrity. Original airdate: July 21, 2017

A summary of all the bills that passed at least one branch of Congress in February, including six bills destined for a veto and one new law. Please support Congressional Dish: Click here to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536 Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Information Discussed in this Episode Read Jennifer Briney's Reddit Ask Me Anything from March 23, 2015. Check out The Marketers Guide to Reddit AMAs, written by Paul and David DiGiovanni. [caption id="attachment_1731" align="aligncenter" width="266"] This is the tool I used to help my AMA raise to #1 on Reddit's front page[/caption] Follow Paul DiGiovanni and David DiGiovanni, the Reddit Marketers on Twitter Listen to the details of Jen's front-page of Reddit experience on Episode 145 of The Pursuit Podcast [caption id="attachment_1732" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Listen to this episode to find out what it's like to have your first reddit AMA end up at #1 on the front page[/caption] Rep. Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi died of brain cancer at age 56 February Laws H.R. 203: Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act Requires annual independent evaluations of Veteran's Administration mental health programs Requires the Veteran's Administration to create a website for information about their mental health services that needs to be updated at least every 90 days. Creates a three year pilot program to repay psychiatrists' loans ($30,000 a year) if they work for at least two years at the Veteran's Health Administration. Prohibits any additional money to get this done. Written by Democrat Rep. Timothy Walz of Minnesota February Bills S.1: Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act Authorizes TransCanada to construct, operate, and maintain the KeystoneXL pipeline. Deems the environmental impact analysis complete Forces all challenges in court to be heard in Washington D.C. or in the Supreme Court. Orders the Department of Energy to create a website to coordinate Federal assistance for making schools energy efficient Expresses a "sense of the Senate" that Congress should tax bitumen as oil for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund Requires the General Services Administration to develop commercial leasing provisions that encourage tenants to invest in energy and water efficiency Requires the EPA to develop a voluntary "Tenant Star" program to recognize commercial tenants who achieve high standards of energy efficiency. Makes it illegal for people to tamper with grid-enabled water heaters Passed 62-36 in the Senate, with nine Democrats joining all Republicans. It passed 270-152 in the House, with all but Justin Amash of Michigan voting yes on the Republican side and with 29 Democratic yes votes. Sponsored by Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, whose top contributing industry is Oil and Gas, which has given him over $330,000 President Obama vetoed the bill and the Senate failed to over-ride that veto by the two-thirds majority they would need to do so. H.R. 596: To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Repeals the Affordable Care Act, effective 6 months after it would become law. The effects this would have on the budget would not be counted. Would require three House Committees to write replacement bills. There is no deadline. Would be vetoed by the President Written by new Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabama, whose #1 contributor) in his first election was Blue Cross/Blue Shield, who gave him over $30,000 that we know of. In total, he took over $180,000 from the Insurance and Health industries. H.R. 50 and S. 189: Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2015 Forces the government to consult with the private sector when creating regulations. Would be vetoed by the President Sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina in the House and Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska. H.R. 527: Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2015 Would make creating regulations harder and make the government analyze a regulations effect on businesses finances. Blog: Deregulating big business in the name of small business by Amit Narang. The Hill. February 2015. Passed 260-163 in the House. Would be vetoed by the President Written by Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio H.R. 644: Fighting Hunger Incentive Act of 2015 Makes permanent a tax deduction for businesses that donated food inventory to charity Increases the amount corporations can deduct for food inventory they donate to charity Passed 279-137, with 39 Democrats joining all but one Republican (Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina). Would be vetoed by the President because it would increase the budget deficits by about $2.2 billion over the next 10 years. Written by Rep. Tom Reed of New York H.R. 636: America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015 Makes permanent a tax credit for depreciable business property, and increases the credit every year with inflation. Expands the eligible business property to include computer software, actual property, air conditioning and heating units. Cuts in half the amount of time certain gains are taxable, from 10 years to 5 years. The effects of this on the budget will not be counted. The bill would increase the deficit by $77 billon over the next 10 years Passed 272-142, with all but one Republican (Walter Jones of North Carolina) voting yes, along with 33 Democrats. Would be vetoed by the President because it would increase federal deficits by about $77 billion over the next 10 years. Sponsored by Rep. Pat Tiberi of Ohio H.R. 361: Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act Allows Urban Area Security Initiative and State Homeland Security Grant Program money to be used for pharmaceutical stockpiles. Written by Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida; he has taken over $750,000 from "health professionals" and over $120,000 from pharmaceuticals. H.R. 623: Social Media Working Group Act of 2015 Authorizes a group within the Department of Homeland Security, made up of government officials and private sector employees, to report on how to use social media during emergencies. The group will be exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires meetings and transcripts be available to the public. Passed 328-51 in the House, with most no votes coming from Republicans, along with Democratic Rep. Jared Polis. Written by Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana H.R. 212: Drinking Water Protection Act Orders the EPA to make a plan to study algae in drinking water supplies Passed with 37 Republicans voting no Written by Rep. Robert Latta of Ohio H.R. 529: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve 529 plans. Allows computers and Internet access to be paid for with tax-advantaged college savings plan funds Changes the way taxes are calculated Would increase the deficit by $51 million over 10 years. Passed 401-20 Written by Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas H.R. 615: Department of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Gives the Under Secretary of Management of the Department of Homeland Security the job of making sure that DHS departments can communicate with each other in emergencies. Written by Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey H.R. 1020: STEM Education Act of 2015 Changes definition of STEM education to include computer science Creates one-year grants for math and science teachers to get master's degrees Passed 412-8 Written by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas H.R. 719: TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015 Changes the job classification standards of criminal investigators in the TSA to make them tougher, which would theoretically result in less people being paid the higher wages associated with that title Passed 410-0 Sponsored by Rep. John Katko of New York H.R. 710: Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to review the effectiveness of the transportation security card program, which are biometric identification cards for maritime DHS workers. Prohibits the Secretary of Homeland Security from requiring the use of security card readers until the assessment is finished and a card reader is identified that will work with existing security cards Appropriates no additional money Passed without a recorded vote Sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas H.R. 734: Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act Consolidates FCC reports into one assessment to be done every two years Passed 411-0 Written by Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana S. 295: Amy and Vicky Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2015 Expands the definition of "full amount of the victim's losses" to include medical services, rehabilitation, and loss of income for the victim's lifetime. Passed 98-0 Sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio) February by The Distants (found on Music Alley by mevio) Change the World by Dona Oxford (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Learn about the use and management of FACA committees and their role in advising federal agencies and/or the President. Consider if your community collaboration outreach meets FACA criteria. Explore four alternatives to FACA management for community engagement with Karen Simms, Assistant Field Manager, Gila District, Tuscon FIeld Office, BLM.

Learn about the use and management of FACA committees and their role in advising federal agencies and/or the President. Consider if your community collaboration outreach meets FACA criteria. Explore four alternatives to FACA management for community engagement with Karen Simms, Assistant Field Manager, Gila District, Tuscon FIeld Office, BLM.