Overnight Regulation: EU approves data privacy shield in annual review | FCC delays Sinclair-Tribune merger review | Feds give CNN approval to fly news drones | Controversial EPA nominee already at agency

Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the courts and beyond. It’s Wednesday night in Washington, the House is on recess and the Senate is looking to pass a budget this week, the first step on the long road to passing a Republican overhaul of the tax code.

 

THE BIG STORY

The European Union determined that the so-called Privacy Shield, a deal allowing U.S. firms to store EU citizen’s data stateside, had performed adequately, according to its first annual report.

The report, released Wednesday, found that the deal “ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data that has been transferred from the European Union to organisations in the U.S.”

What is Privacy Shield? It’s the second attempt at a framework to exempt U.S. companies from EU privacy laws requiring all data to be stored on servers within the EU if there’s no contract guaranteeing protections. Without the arrangement, U.S. companies would have faced obstacles in moving data for customers across borders.

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What did the report recommend? The report called for some changes to make the shield work better. Among the suggestions are better informing EU citizens of their avenues to direct complaints, improving monitoring of businesses, and bolstering coordination between federal enforcement agencies. It also asks the United States to fill empty posts on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

Joe Uchill has the full story.

 

ON TAP FOR THURSDAY

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations holds a hearing on “Modernizing the Food for Peace Program.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing on the “Roles and Responsibilities for Defending the Nation from Cyber Attack.”

 

REGULATORY ROUNDUP

Environment: A pair of Republican senators want to fast-track the approval process for companies wishing to export relatively small-scale volumes of liquefied natural gas.

Under a bill from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), applications to export up to 51.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to nearly any country would get Energy Department approval “without modification or delay.”

The bill comes as the Trump administration is working on multiple fronts to promote the production and use of fossil fuels and other domestic energy sources under an “energy dominance” banner.

Read more from Timothy Cama here.

 

Tech: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is allowing more time for the public to weigh in on the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed takeover of Tribune Media.

The FCC’s Media Bureau said Wednesday that it would be halting its “shot clock” for approval of the deal’s broadcast license transfers.

The commission said it will pause its shot clock for 15 days, offering a new deadline of Nov. 2 for the public to submit additional comments.

Harper Neidig has the story here

 

Environment: A controversial nominee for a top Environmental Protection Agency post is already working at the EPA, E&E News reported Wednesday.
Michael Dourson, President Trump’s nominee to head the agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, is currently serving as an “adviser to the administrator,” Scott Pruitt, the EPA confirmed to E&E News.

Democrats and environmentalists have pushed back against Dourson’s nomination, given his work within the chemicals industry, which, if confirmed, he would soon regulate.

Devin Henry has more here.

 

Democrats are not happy about the development… Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Wednesday that she was “stunned” when she learned that Michael Dourson, President Trump’s nominee to head the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Protection, was already serving as an unpaid adviser to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

“The fact that he has already begun advising the EPA administrator shows contempt for the committee’s role in his nomination process and more importantly a profound disrespect to the families who are terrified about what toxic chemicals are going to do to their children’s health,” Gillibrand said, calling for the EPA to cut ties with Dourson until the Senate could vote on him.

Josh Delk has more here.

 

And more EPA… Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) has placed a hold on two of President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominees.

Duckworth’s office said she has holds on the nominations of Bill Wehrum to lead the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation and Michael Dourson to head the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

In a statement, Duckworth cited the pair’s history working on behalf of industries they would regulate if the Senate confirms them to their positions at the EPA.

Wehrum and Dourson are among the more controversial nominees put forward by President Trump. The Environment and Public Works Committee, on which Duckworth sits, was due to consider the nominees on Wednesday but committee Republicans canceled the vote Tuesday night.

Devin Henry has more here. 

 

Courts: A second federal district judge has put a hold on President Trump’s latest travel ban.

Judge Theodore Chuang, a federal district judge in Maryland, temporarily blocked the majority of the president’s ban on nationals from eight countries, but he said the president could still ban individuals from North Korea, business officials from Venezuela and individuals lacking a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

The order now allows entry of individuals from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad.

Chuang is the second judge to halt the ban. Hawaii District Judge Derrick Watson went even further Tuesday, blocking all of Trump’s restrictions except with respect to Venezuelan officials or immigrants from North Korea.  

The Hill’s Lydia Wheeler has the story here.

 

Tech: CNN has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly drones while covering news events involving large crowds, according to a Wednesday announcement from the network.

The Time Warner-owned news organization said it will have the ability for the first time to fly an unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, over crowds of people at an altitude of up to 150 feet.

“This waiver signifies a critical step forward not only for CNN’s UAS operations, but also the commercial UAS industry at large,” CNN senior vice president of legal David Vigilante said in the announcement.

The FAA waiver authorizes the news organization to operate a 1.37-pound aircraft.

Read Joe Concha’s story here

 

From The Hill’s opinion pages:

Building a lasting off-ramp for strong, sound banks, by Lawrence Harris, former chief economist of the SEC and executive director of the Financial Economists Roundtable

Attorney General Sessions leads the charge against LGBT rights, by Ian Thompson, American Civil Liberties Union

 

ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS:

NIH emails reveal divisions over renewal of gun research program (Science Magazine)

SEC names J.P. Morgan executive as top regulator of exchanges (The Wall Street Journal)

The federal lawmakers who regulate Amazon are begging the company to move to their home states (Recode)

Proposal to ban EPA grantees from agency science advisory boards stirs controversy (E&E News)

White House to test federal-local sharing of drone regulation (The Wall Street Journal)