RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

Energy consumers continue to see rising rates, but how do regulators decide the rate that consumers pay? In this episode, James Coleman and Mark Ellis explain the relationship between federal and state regulators and utility companies, the financing models behind regulated rates, and the incentives created by these models. What are the implications of state-regulated projects? How do utility compa...

On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 into law. This omnibus law is over 4,100 pages, and, like many omnibus bills, affects a broad range of issues. According to Dr. Joel M. Zinberg, physician and health care expert, one such issue is the practice of medicine, as a nineteen-line section relating to the authority of the Food & Drug Administration...

Under the Biden Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra has dramatically increased the substantive reach of the CFPB’s use of guidance documents and examination and supervision powers. This includes the articulation of a new standard of Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) that includes allegedly discriminatory practices. It also has...

Title VI and IX apply to all colleges and universities that accept federal funds, which, as a condition of accepting those funds, agree they will enforce all Federal Civil Rights laws. However, sometimes programs offered by such institutions seem to run afoul of Title VI and IX, and when that happens, a recourse is to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. In this explainer podcast, Dr....

The EPA has rescinded The Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient Vehicles Rule Part One: One National Program rule. It has reinstated a waiver of Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption for California’s greenhouse gas standards and Zero Emission Vehicle sales mandate. These are some facets to California’s Advanced Clean Car Program. In Ohio v. EPA, now pending before the D.C. Circuit, various...

On December 19, 2022, the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration, an independent 501(c)(3) organization created by Congress “to advance the mission of the FDA to modernize medical, veterinary, food, food ingredient, and cosmetic product development, accelerate innovation, and enhance product safety” released the second of two highly anticipated reports on its state of affairs...

The Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Capitol Hill Chapter hosted the third in a lecture series on the administrative state. The subject of this discussion was the major questions doctrine and how Congress may respond to the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA. Arguably unenforced for some time, recent federal court cases have once again raised the specter of no...

The Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Capitol Hill Chapter hosted the second in a lecture series on the administrative state’s role in policymaking in modern American government. This second event of our co-sponsored series on the Administrative State focused on the role of the administrative state in policymaking. Through its various roles and capacities, the Administrative...

The first in a lecture series on how the administrative state functions in modern American government, presented by the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Capitol Hill Chapter. This first luncheon featured former “regulations czar” Paul J. Ray, who served as President Trump’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator (OIRA). As OIRA Administrator, Ray oversaw...

In this podcast episode, Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies at Cato Institute and Marisa Maleck, Partner at King & Spalding LLP join us to discuss telehealth regulation - what it is, what happened to it during COVID-19, and what the opportunities and barriers are for future telehealth innovation. Visit our website – www. RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, a...

In this podcast, technology and data privacy experts discuss the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and what these new technologies mean for existing and future policy and technology innovation. Without a clear regulatory framework, differing definitions and taxonomies have been adopted to regulate AI technology. What will future AI trends look like, and what should p...

In this episode, Hon. Gail Heriot, discusses her recent article for the New Criterion, An Agenda for Congress, in which she provides recommendations for Congress to adjust existing incentives that provide structural support for race-preferential admissions. Professor Heriot shares her projections for the outcome of Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard and the University of North Carolina,...

Kimberly Hermann, General Counsel for Southeastern Legal Foundation and Tiffany Justice, Co-Founder of Moms for Liberty, share their insights on the interplay of parents, unions, and government regulators. In this episode, learn how "parental rights" have become a growing influence on education reform. Visit our website – www. RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect wi...

On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, to decide whether Congress stripped federal district courts of jurisdiction over constitutional challenges to the FTC by granting the courts of appeals jurisdiction over FTC cease-and-desist orders. This panel will discuss key take-aways from the oral argument and implications for administrative litigati...

Some employers were surprised by the en banc Fifth Circuit’s December 2021 decision in Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt that a supervisor for an offshore oil company who received approximately $1,000 per day for a total of over $200,000 annually was eligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Act exempts from overtime pay workers “employed in a...

Tornado Cash is an open source, decentralized cryptocurrency tumbler that was introduced in 2019. The service allows users to mix identifiable Ethereum cryptocurrency funds with others, thus obscuring the trail back to the funds original source. On August 8, 2022, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, making it illegal for United States citizens,...

In the last few years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has emerged from relative obscurity to find itself squarely in the middle of many of today’s most contentious public policy fights. As the agency that regulates wholesale electricity and transmission rates, the Commission faces the tension between the rapid adoption of renewable generation sources and the reliability of the bul...

In the last few years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has emerged from relative obscurity to find itself squarely in the middle of many of today’s most contentious public policy fights. As the agency that regulates wholesale electricity and transmission rates, the Commission faces the tension between the rapid adoption of renewable generation sources and the reliability of the bul...

The Goldwater Institute’s Christina Sandefur moderates a discussion with the Cato Institute’s director of health care policy Michael F. Cannon, on the role that the federal government plays in requiring prescriptions for medications. If you would like to read more from Cannon, see his and Jeffrey A. Singer’s white paper, Drug Reformation: End Government’s Power to Require Prescriptions. Featuring:...

One of the longest-standing environmental law challenges is how to define the scope of waters regulated under the Clean Water Act known as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). After decades of regulatory uncertainty, the Supreme Court has again taken up a case that may provide clarity. On October 3rd, the Court will hear oral argument in Sackett v. EPA, the first case of this...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world – and directed renewed attention to the global energy system. Suddenly, the topic of energy security rose to the forefront as consumers across the globe began to feel the impact of the conflict when filling their gas tanks and paying their electricity bills. As Europe struggles to disentangle itself from dependence upon Russian energy sources, the Uni...

As a condition of his vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, Sen. Joe Manchin demanded space for his own permitting-reform package in the latest spending bill. While his proposed legislation was ultimately pulled over objections to aspects tangential to permitting, interest in permitting reform remains strong. The target of many reformers’ ire is the current interpretation of the National Environme...

A private right of action, or the ability of individuals to bring lawsuits for violations of a statute, has been a major point of contention in debates over a potential federal data privacy law. This podcast featuring Andrew Kingman (Mariner Strategies), Jennifer Huddleston (NetChoice), and Keir Lamont (Future of Privacy Forum) will dive into the questions surrounding this debate. Is the litigatio...

One of the most controversial and long-standing environmental issues deals with what waters are regulated under the Clean Water Act. For decades, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have struggled to define "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) and the Supreme Court has not been able to provide clarity in its previous WOTUS decisions. Now though, the U.S. Supreme Court's first case of the new term...

Ashley Baker and Asheesh Agarwal discuss the FTC's Strategic Plan for 2022 - 2026, which sets out the FTC's priorities over the next five years. Ashley and Asheesh discuss goals that the FTC would like to achieve, their shift from the historically used consumer welfare standard to a public interest standard, and challenges to the FTC's assertion of jurisdiction to keep an eye on. Featuring: Ashley...