Overnight Regulation: Trump repeals consumer arbitration rule | Trump to reconsider Grand Canyon uranium mining ban | Court deals blow to Sierra Club over natural gas exports

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, and we are waiting to see whether House Republicans finally unveil their tax bill tomorrow, or if it gets delayed again.

 

THE BIG STORY

President Trump on Wednesday signed a repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule on forced arbitration, winning praise from banking and business groups.

Trump approved the resolution to repeal the CFPB rule, meant to prevent banks and credit card companies from blocking customers from joining class-action lawsuits against them, in a private Oval Office signing.

The House passed a resolution to repeal the rule in July, which passed the Senate two weeks ago.

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Trump was joined by the heads of several banking lobbying groups that opposed the CFPB rule, contending it would kill cheaper options for consumers while enriching trial lawyers.

What’s the arbitration rule? The rule would have barred banks and credit card companies from writing “forced arbitration” clauses into customer contracts. The contract language typically bars customers from joining class-action suits against companies, forcing them to resolve disputes through a third-party mediator.

Who opposes this? Democrats and the CFPB criticized Trump, claiming he sides with banks over consumers. They’ve long called for action on forced arbitration, which they say denies fraud victims basic legal rights, and the CFPB rule was the most ambitious effort to regulate the practice.

Read Sylvan Lane’s story here.

 

ON TAP FOR THURSDAY

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources holds a hearing on “The Potential for Oil and Gas Exploration in the 1002 Area,” as Republicans look at aloowing drilling in parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing titled “Sustainable Housing Finance: Private Sector Perspectives on Housing Finance Reform, Part II.”

 

REGULATORY ROUNDUP

Energy: The Trump administration is targeting for review a uranium mining ban that former President Barack Obama instituted in the watershed of the Grand Canyon.

The Forest Service, which owns some of the more than 1 million acres of land subject to the uranium ban in Arizona, put the withdrawal on a list of policies released Wednesday that it says inhibit the production and use of domestic energy.

Uranium mining is regulated as hard-rock mining, so the federal government does not get any royalties for it, unlike with coal or oil extraction.

The ban has been highly controversial since it was put in place, and Republicans, industry groups and some local leaders say it unnecessarily prevents responsible economic activity.

Timothy Cama has the full story here.

 

Transportation: The Trump administration has quietly dropped an Obama-era proposal requiring all new vehicles to have communication technology that allows them to wirelessly “talk” to each other, according to The Associated Press.

The rule, unveiled last December, calls for all new light-duty cars and trucks to eventually be equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology, a safety system that enables cars to send wireless signals to each other, anticipate each other’s moves and thus avoid crashes.

Officials have said the technology could prevent tens of thousands of crashes each year.

But, according to the AP, the administration is reluctant to impose costly mandates on the auto industry, while President Trump has made easing regulatory burdens a staple of his administration.

Melanie Zanona has more here.

 

Health care: Four companies have received warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration for illegally selling products online they claim prevent, diagnose, treat or cure cancer, the agency announced Wednesday.

FDA said it sent warning letters to Greenroads Health, Natural Alchemist, That’s Natural! Marketing and Consulting, and Stanley Brothers Social Enterprise LLC. The companies are accused of illegally selling products made with cannabidiol, a component of the marijuana plant that isn’t FDA-approved, and making unsubstantiated claims about their effectiveness.

FDA said some of the companies claimed their products combat tumors or kill cancer cells, but the agency said it has not yet reviewed their effectiveness, proper dosage or side effects.

Lydia Wheeler explains it all here.

 

Environment: A federal appeals court Wednesday rejected an environmental group’s lawsuits trying to overturn federal approval for three liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that the Sierra Club’s challenges to export facilities in Maryland, Louisiana and Texas, fail for the same reasons that the same court ruled against the group in a similar case in August.

The cases decided Wednesday were part of a collection of cases the Sierra Club and other groups filed to try to stop approvals of LNG export facilities by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Read Timothy Cama’s story here.

 

Finance: President Trump has told Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell that he will be nominated to serve as the Fed’s next chairman, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Powell, a Republican, had been reported as Trump’s top choice this week by several media outlets.

Trump called Powell on Tuesday to inform him of the decision, sources familiar with the talks told the Journal.

Sylvan Lane has the rest here.

 

Health care: A House committee on Wednesday considered a controversial bill that would make it illegal for doctors to perform abortions after a heartbeat is detected.

The “Heartbeat Protection Act,” authored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), would make it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion if the fetus has a “detectable” heartbeat.  

King acknowledged that such a bill, if signed into law, would face legal challenges, possibly going all the way to the Supreme Court.

A committee spokesperson would not say when or if the bill would be called for a vote.

Jessie Hellman has more here.

 

Courts: Congressional Democrats are pushing the Supreme Court to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.) led a “friend of the court” brief signed by 36 senators and 175 House members in support of the same-sex couple at the center of a legal battle with a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for their wedding.

In the case, scheduled for arguments before the Supreme Court on Dec. 3, the baker claims he should not be forced under the state’s anti-discrimination laws to make a cake for an event that contradicts his religious beliefs.

The Democrats’ brief comes about two months after Republicans filed a brief in support of the baker’s claim that his wedding cake designs are an expressive form of speech protected under the First Amendment.

Lydia Wheeler has the story here.

 

THE HILL OP-EDS:

Rep. Hensarling will push deregulation until retirement

Puerto Rico-Whitefish fiasco a byproduct of flawed DC incentives

 

ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS:

Top Chamber of Commerce regulatory official to retire (Axios)

Louisiana groups sue EPA over chemical found in FEMA trailers (The Advocate)

Hospital groups to sue CMS over $1.6 billion cut to program (Modern Healthcare)

Robots in finance bring new risks to stability, regulators warn (Bloomberg)

Uber-SoftBank deal in jeopardy over Kalanick’s role (The Wall Street Journal)