With just one race in each chamber still pending, we know that in the 118th Congress, Republicans will control the House with a slim majority, and Democrats will hold the Senate with either 50 or 51 votes. Republicans will field new chairs for every House committee. On the Senate side, with Democrats maintaining control, there
New Gender Pay Gap reporting – deadlines loom in Ireland
By Marie Daly
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting is new to Ireland and is likely to attract media attention and potential comparisons, particularly for multinational and higher profile companies. Deciding how best to communicate the gender pay gap – if it exists – will be important in averting any particular anxieties which may arise for employees and their…
COP27: A Flawed though still Consequential Climate Summit
The United Nations annual climate change conference—officially known as the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”), or COP27 for short—held in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, finally concluded early Sunday morning, more than 24 hours late.
COP27 was held amidst the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and the…
Supreme Court Considers Whether to Allow Early Constitutional Challenges to FTC and SEC Administrative Proceedings
On Monday, November 7, the Supreme Court heard argument in Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC and SEC v. Cochran to decide whether a party subject to an FTC or SEC administrative proceeding can simultaneously challenge the constitutionality of an administrative proceeding, or even of the agency itself, in federal district court rather than waiting for…
National Security and the 118th Congress
For more than 61 consecutive years, the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees have worked on a bipartisan basis to ensure the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is the key authorization bill that establishes national security policy and funding levels for the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and…
Midterm Elections: Democratic Reaction
Immediate Reaction
With Republicans only holding a slim majority in the House and the Democrats keeping their majority in the Senate, there is almost universal agreement that President Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole have outperformed expectations. The President and the White House surely view these results as validation of his approach, his…
Post-Election Life Sciences Policy Menu
The post-election Life Sciences policy menu can generally be described as lame duck leftovers and meaty oversight next Congress.
A number of “super riders” and other add-ons were ultimately not included in the 5 year re-authorization of the various FDA user-fee acts (UFAs), “clean” versions of which passed in the current Continuing Resolution (CR).
Since…
COP 27 – Week one Summary
COP27 was never going to be a ‘Big COP’ in the way that COP26 in Glasgow was. It was not originally designed to be one of the five-year ratchet reviews of NDCs set out by the 2015 the Paris Agreement and there were no major new climate change texts due to be negotiated. Sharm’s value…
The FTC Signals an Unprecedented Expansion in Its Definition of Unfair Methods of Competition
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a policy statement that dramatically expands the scope of what it considers “unfair methods of competition” under Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45. This represents an aggressive and unprecedented interpretation of the agency’s authority, and indicates that the Commission plans to use rulemaking and enforcement actions…
FCC to Release Broadband Maps on November 18: Will Determine How $42.5 Billion in Funding Will be Allocated by NTIA in 2023
Yesterday, the FCC announced that on November 18, 2022, it will release a “pre-production draft” of its widely anticipated broadband maps, which will contain granular information about existing broadband infrastructure and service availability in the U.S. The maps, which the FCC was required by law to develop, will be used by the Department of Commerce’s…