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Summary

Next week, the Members of the European Parliament (“MEPs”) will meet in Brussels to hold the constitutive meetings of the Parliamentary committees, and appoint the committee’s chairs and vice-chairs.  Meanwhile, political groups will prepare for the plenary meeting that will take place the week after, during which they will…
Continue Reading The Week Ahead in the European Parliament –  July 5, 2019

As was widely predicted, and perhaps predictable, Presidents Trump and Xi have agreed, again, to restart trade negotiations.  President Trump says things are re-starting “where they left off.”  Relieved that the talks netted agreement not to impose new tariffs, some easing of the administration’s ban on U.S. sales to tech…
Continue Reading The Trump-Xi “Truce”– Mirage, or Path To a Worthwhile Deal

Summary

Next week will see the first sessions of the new European Parliament after the elections in May.  The Members of the European Parliament (“MEPs”) will gather in Strasbourg to elect the new President of the European Parliament and form the new parliamentary committees.

On Tuesday, July 2, the new…
Continue Reading The Week Ahead in the European Parliament –  June 28, 2019

Last week, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the Protecting Personal Health Data Act (S. 1842), which would provide new privacy and security rules from the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) for technologies that collect personal health data, such as wearable fitness trackers…

Continue Reading Senators Introduce Legislation to Regulate Privacy and Security of Wearable Health Devices and Genetic Testing Kits

On June 14, 2019, the Federal Reserve Board (“Federal Reserve”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPR”) requesting public comment on updates to its regulations governing the disclosure of confidential supervisory information (“CSI”) and its Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) procedures. Although the Federal Reserve classified many of the proposed

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Continue Reading Federal Reserve Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding Confidential Supervisory Information and FOIA Procedures

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday issued a long-awaited opinion upholding, on the merits, a recent update to the SEC’s pay-to-play rule.  While the case involved only a narrow piece of the rule, the decision’s logic is worded more broadly and could apply to the SEC

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Continue Reading In Major Blow To Its Opponents, SEC Pay-to-Play Rule Survives D.C. Circuit Challenge

Last week’s negotiations held in Washington between Mexico and the United States were successful in suspending indefinitely president Donald Trump’s threat to impose an immediate 5% tax on all Mexican imports. These were set to go into force June 10 and escalate to 25% over time. In a series of…
Continue Reading Blowback From Mexican Tariff Negotiations

Yet another U.S. regulator is entering the foreign corruption space.  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is a civil agency that oversees commodity and derivatives markets in the United States.  It enforces the Commodity Exchange Act, a set of statutes that are enforced criminally by the U.S. Department of Justice.  The…
Continue Reading Beyond The FCPA: New U.S. Regulator Enforcing Against Foreign Corruption

This week, Congress took an important step forward to protect the benefits of retirees in multiemployer pension plans facing insolvency.  On Tuesday, June 11, 2019, the House Committee on Education and Labor marked-up the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (H.R. 397), better known as the “Butch Lewis Act.”  Among other…
Continue Reading The Butch Lewis Act Takes Important Step Forward

This week, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held the first two of a three-part series of hearings on “The State of Patent Eligibility in America.”  The hearings are part of an ongoing bipartisan congressional effort to reform section 101 of the Patent Act to address confusion over patent…
Continue Reading Senate Committee Holds Hearings on New Bipartisan, Bicameral Proposal to Reform Section 101 of the Patent Act