The chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors, is proposing that minks raised for fur production be added to the Lacey Act. That would prevent the sale, possession or transportation of captive American mink and their pelts. The text of MINKS are Superspreaders Act was published July 30. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., was joined by 18 co-sponsors, including seven Republicans, led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and the ranking member of the Trade Subcommittee on Ways and Means. The change would take effect one year after enactment. “The factory farming of mink threatens public health, especially as we continue fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic,” DeLauro said in a press release when the bill was introduced. “The evidence is clear: mink operations can incubate and spread new COVID-19 variants and pose a unique threat of extending the pandemic. At the same time, with virtually no domestic market, the U.S. mink industry has been in steady decline for years. Now is the time for this legislation to become law, and I am urging all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan effort.”
The prospect of an FTC privacy rulemaking is facing a partisan divide in the agency and on Capitol Hill. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., told us the agency shouldn’t issue a rule because it’s a legislative issue Congress needs to fix.
Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Bush repeatedly raised red flags during oral argument Thursday about the different liabilities government and private sector robocallers face under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and how that seems to run afoul of the First Amendment. He twice said he was "bother[ed]" by what appears to be speakers treated differently due to the content of their speech. It's an appeal of a lower court's tossing TCPA litigation against Realgy Energy on grounds the act was unconstitutional until the Supreme Court severed the government-debt exception from the general robocall ban last year, with severance retroactive to 2015 (see 2102020068).
The Court of International Trade should remand the Commerce Department's failure to meet its obligation to verify the information of mandatory respondent Shakti Forge Industries in an antidumping duty investigation on forged steel fittings from India, petitioner Bonney Forge Corporation, along with the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, said in a July 22 reply brief. Commerce's use of facts otherwise available doesn't excuse the agency from its duty to verify and leads to "absurd results," Bonney Forge said (Bonney Forge Corporation et al. v. United States, CIT #20-03837).
The prospect of an FTC privacy rulemaking is facing a partisan divide in the agency and on Capitol Hill. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., told us the agency shouldn’t issue a rule because it’s a legislative issue Congress needs to fix.
The prospect of an FTC privacy rulemaking is facing a partisan divide in the agency and on Capitol Hill. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., told us the agency shouldn’t issue a rule because it’s a legislative issue Congress needs to fix.
The FTC lacks authority and resources to properly enforce against consumer protection and competition violations, the commission tells the House Commerce Committee in testimony prepared for Wednesday’s House Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing (see 2107210061). In a joint statement, the commission highlighted its weakened authority to obtain monetary relief, resulting from the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management v. FTC (see 2106210054). The commission is “facing extremely severe resource constraints,” commissioners wrote, citing a heavy surge in global “mergers and acquisitions.” The pandemic also is causing more complaints about marketplace abuse, the commission said. It cited bipartisan support for some of the legislative proposals the committee is considering at the hearing. It cites the agency’s call for Congress to repeal the telecom common carrier exemption, which it said impedes enforcement against activity like illegal telemarketing. The commission notes broad support for enforcement against nonprofits and for rulemaking and civil penalty authorities, “although some Commissioners would support such measures in more limited ways.” Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote Tuesday against several recent measures from FTC Chair Lina Khan. He raised concerns about the “diminished role” of minority commissioners and allowing public input only after commissioners voted on agenda items at recent public meetings. He criticized the FTC’s “refusal to grant early terminations of the waiting period for mergers that pose no threat to competition under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.” Restoring FTC’s authority to “force lawbreakers to return money to scammed consumers and disgorge ill-gotten gains" should be a key priority, says ex-FTC official David Vladeck, now a Georgetown law professor, in prepared remarks. He seeks adequate funding, saying the FTC has “barely” two-thirds of the personnel it had in the early 1980s.
The FTC lacks authority and resources to properly enforce against consumer protection and competition violations, the commission tells the House Commerce Committee in testimony prepared for Wednesday’s House Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing (see 2107210061). In a joint statement, the commission highlighted its weakened authority to obtain monetary relief, resulting from the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management v. FTC (see 2106210054). The commission is “facing extremely severe resource constraints,” commissioners wrote, citing a heavy surge in global “mergers and acquisitions.” The pandemic also is causing more complaints about marketplace abuse, the commission said. It cited bipartisan support for some of the legislative proposals the committee is considering at the hearing. It cites the agency’s call for Congress to repeal the telecom common carrier exemption, which it said impedes enforcement against activity like illegal telemarketing. The commission notes broad support for enforcement against nonprofits and for rulemaking and civil penalty authorities, “although some Commissioners would support such measures in more limited ways.” Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote Tuesday against several recent measures from FTC Chair Lina Khan. He raised concerns about the “diminished role” of minority commissioners and allowing public input only after commissioners voted on agenda items at recent public meetings. He criticized the FTC’s “refusal to grant early terminations of the waiting period for mergers that pose no threat to competition under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.” Restoring FTC’s authority to “force lawbreakers to return money to scammed consumers and disgorge ill-gotten gains" should be a key priority, says ex-FTC official David Vladeck, now a Georgetown law professor, in prepared remarks. He seeks adequate funding, saying the FTC has “barely” two-thirds of the personnel it had in the early 1980s.
The FTC lacks authority and resources to properly enforce against consumer protection and competition violations, the commission tells the House Commerce Committee in testimony prepared for Wednesday’s House Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing (see 2107210061). In a joint statement, the commission highlighted its weakened authority to obtain monetary relief, resulting from the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management v. FTC (see 2106210054). The commission is “facing extremely severe resource constraints,” commissioners wrote, citing a heavy surge in global “mergers and acquisitions.” The pandemic also is causing more complaints about marketplace abuse, the commission said. It cited bipartisan support for some of the legislative proposals the committee is considering at the hearing. It cites the agency’s call for Congress to repeal the telecom common carrier exemption, which it said impedes enforcement against activity like illegal telemarketing. The commission notes broad support for enforcement against nonprofits and for rulemaking and civil penalty authorities, “although some Commissioners would support such measures in more limited ways.” Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote Tuesday against several recent measures from FTC Chair Lina Khan. He raised concerns about the “diminished role” of minority commissioners and allowing public input only after commissioners voted on agenda items at recent public meetings. He criticized the FTC’s “refusal to grant early terminations of the waiting period for mergers that pose no threat to competition under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.” Restoring FTC’s authority to “force lawbreakers to return money to scammed consumers and disgorge ill-gotten gains" should be a key priority, says ex-FTC official David Vladeck, now a Georgetown law professor, in prepared remarks. He seeks adequate funding, saying the FTC has “barely” two-thirds of the personnel it had in the early 1980s.
The FCC unanimously voted to seek comment on collecting equal employment opportunity data from broadcasters through Form 395-B, said a docket 98-204 Further NPRM Monday. The data collection was originally part of a proceeding in 2004 that stalled over concerns about confidentiality. “After so much time, this pause turned into a standstill,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We can do better than this.” The order stems from a draft circulated by Rosenworcel in February, and issues raised by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in 2019 (see 2103260038). Failure to collect the EEO data “has hampered our ability to determine what regulatory actions are necessary to ensure equal employment opportunities,” said Starks. Rosenworcel commended Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr for their collaboration here. The FNPRM seeks to “refresh the record regarding the collection of broadcaster workforce composition data and obtain further input on the legal, logistical, and technical issues surrounding FCC Form 395-B.” The item doesn’t appear to make specific proposals, and seeks comment on how confidentiality concerns should be handled, how the data collection interacts with court decisions on minority discrimination and recruitment, and whether the data should be “station-attributable.” Broadcasters had expressed concern that EEO data attributable to specific stations could be used against them in petitions to deny and similar filings. “An anonymous filing approach could impede” the FCC from contacting licensees if there are problems with the data, the FNPRM said. NAB said it is looking forward to reviewing the FNPRM and broadcasters "are committed to ensuring that they are able to recruit and retain a diverse workforce that represents the local communities they serve."