RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

In the past several months, President Biden released a new national cybersecurity strategy. As part of that strategy, the Administration says that it will seek to “Shape Market Forces to Drive Security and Resilience – We will place responsibility on those within our digital ecosystem that are best positioned to reduce risk and shift the consequences of poor cybersecurity away from the most vulner...

Following concerns about the information collected by and influence of the immensely popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, debates have sprung up: should TikTok be banned? Some contend that TikTok poses a tangible and imminent threat to the United States’ national security, and that as such it should be banned immediately. Others assert it is a valuable and important platform for free spe...

On June 13, 2013, the Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics Inc. a case that would ban attempts to patent naturally occurring DNA sequences. Now, ten years down the line with a decade of hindsight, Dr. Roger Klein, who played a central role as an expert, advisor, and spokesperson for the Association for Molecular Pathology in AMP v. M...

In this Tech Roundup episode, we delve into the discussions raised by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's recent hearing on AI regulation . Neil Chilson and Adam Thierer offer an in-depth analysis of the various approaches to AI that are being considered by regulators and in public policy circles – from voluntary efforts by the industry to promote transparency and accountability to advocating fo...

On April 6, 2023, the Biden Administration announced two new efforts to "modernize regulatory review" – the first through the signing of Executive Order 14094 and the second through proposing revisions to OMB's Circular A-4 , the government-wide guidance on regulatory analysis. Public comments on the proposed revision of Circular A-4 are due by June 6, 2023 . In this Explainer podcast, Howard Beal...

Biosimilars, a category of biologic (medicine derived from a living organism), require approval, at least in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are two types of approval the FDA can give a biosimilar: “approved” and “interchangeable.” This distinction, unique to the U.S. system, along with the burden of proof required by the FDA, can cause confusion and create challenges for...

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rules have careened wildly back and forth as administrations have changed. Most recently, on February 9, 2023, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published in the Federal Register a proposed regulation entitled “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.” Under this version, HUD would req...

This webinar will explore central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the ongoing debates over financial privacy, especially in relation to use of cryptocurrencies and other software privacy tools. The webinar will begin with a discussion between Rep. Tom Emmer, the Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Prof. J.W. Verret of the Antonin Scalia Law School regarding legislation intr...

In March 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new rule that would establish climate-risk disclosure requirements for public companies. The 490-page proposal includes requirements for disclosing direct greenhouse gas emissions (scope 1) and indirect emissions related to use of electricity or other forms of energy (scope 2). While supporters hailed the proposed rule’s ef...

Food is a necessity for life. It should therefore surprise few that the federal government regulates the production and processing of food before it reaches our dinner tables. Labels indicating some meats are “USDA-Prime” or confirming that the product was inspected and approved as safe before delivery to the grocery store reflect this regulatory role. While labels may make the regulation apparent...

On December 30, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an updated rule on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that represents a significant departure from previous RFS rules. It includes a major new regulatory regime for Renewable Identification Numbers from renewable electricity (eRINs) and it proposes renewable fuel volume targets that are no longer prescribed in statute. In thi...

In a highly anticipated decision, the Supreme Court held in Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC (consolidated with Cochran v. SEC) that federal district courts have jurisdiction to resolve challenges to the structure and existence of federal agencies whose decisions are subject to review in a court of appeals. The decision confirms that regulated entities in enforcement proceedings before the FTC and SEC...

The European Union is considering adopting a wide-ranging regulatory regime for the licensing and litigation of standard essential patents (SEPs). Proposed for release on World IP Day (April 26, 2023), a leak revealed the EU plan to create an administrative tribunal to perform mandatory “essentiality checks” of certain SEPs, set royalty rates for those SEPs, mandate public disc...

Artificial Intelligence (AI), once the stuff of science fiction, is now more than ever a part of everyday life, regularly affecting the lives of individuals the world over, sometimes in ways they may not even know. AI is increasingly used both in the public and private sectors for facial recognition, dataset analysis, risk and performance predictions, and much more, though how companies use it and...

Artificial Intelligence (AI), once the stuff of science fiction, is now more than ever a part of everyday life, regularly affecting the lives of individuals the world over, sometimes in ways they may not even know. AI is increasingly used both in the public and private sectors for facial recognition, dataset analysis, risk and performance predictions, and much more, though how companies use it and...

What happens when the Administration's "whole-of-government approach" to climate change meets federal contracting? The Department of Defense, the Government Services Administration, and NASA have jointly proposed a revision to the Federal Acquisition Regulations that would require government contractors to publicly disclose greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk and to set sci...

Social media platforms have emerged as the new “town square” and a key forum for public debate, but some have questioned whether that debate is as open and robust as it should be. On the other hand, some worry that efforts to regulate social media platforms may themselves crimp debate. At the heart of the discussion is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. A panel of experts discussed wha...

Recent months have seen a flurry of notable developments at the Federal Trade Commission, including oral arguments in the high-profile Axon v. FTC and SEC v. Cochran Supreme Court cases, administrative complaints challenging deals between Altria and JUUL and Illumina and GRAIL, and FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson’s announced resignation. This episode is a live recording of a panel of antitrust l...

In late February 2023, the FDA released its responses to the December 2022 Reagan-Udall Foundation reports on the FDA's Human Foods and Tobacco programs. In this follow-on explainer podcast, we once again host Jeff Stier to discuss what these initial responses include, what issues they address, and what one might want to watch moving forward. Featuring: Jeff Stier, Senior Fellow, Consumer Choice C...

In January 2023, the FTC announced a proposed rule that would ban noncompete agreements across most of the U.S. economy – a move President Biden lauded in his recent State of the Union address. While noncompete clauses have existed for centuries and have traditionally been regulated under state law, they have also become a focal point for the executive and legislative branches of late. The FTC's p...

Signed into law in 1965, Medicaid has been active for almost 58 years, during which time its scope has fluctuated and many conversations have been had as to what the appropriate reach, means, and aims for the program should be. In this podcast featuring Tom Miller, he lays out a brief summary of how we got to where we are. He highlights the benefits Medicaid has brought as well as some of the down...

Last November, the Federal Trade Commission accepted comments on its proposal to start a rulemaking related to "Commercial Surveillance" - the agency's newly minted term for any and all business use of data about customers. The FTC has for decades sought to protect consumer privacy and data security through case-by-case application of its general consumer protection authority. It also is charged w...

In November 2022, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, against the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on behalf of the Alliance of Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) and others. The suit challenges the FDA’s 2000 decision to legalize mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs often used in...

The collapse of FTX has intensified the debate about how cryptocurrencies should be regulated, including proposed federal legislation. With a string of cryptocurrency failures and tens of billions in losses for investors, increased regulation has become a hot topic. As Bloomberg summarized: “Crypto is squarely in the cross hairs of Washington” and “Oversight of digital assets is among the most pre...

Although primarily an enforcement agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a historic number of proposed rules over the past two years. From prohibiting non-compete provisions potentially impacting 30 million employment contracts or privacy and data security rules implicating personal information online, these proposed rules will affect most sectors of the U.S. economy. This panel of...