Overnight Regulation: Labor extends comment period for tipping rule | EPA watchdog to probe Pruitt’s $25,000 privacy booth | Trump signs law forcing drone users to register with FAA

Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the courts and beyond. It’s Tuesday night in Washington, and we’ll be watching Alabama’s election, and changes to the GOP tax bill.

 

THE BIG STORY

The public will have more time to comment on a Labor Department proposal to roll back an Obama-era rule that bans employers from pooling workers’ tips, following requests from House Democrats and worker advocates, officials said Tuesday.

The agency said on its website Tuesday it’s extending the comment period from 30 to 60 days to give the public more time to comment on its proposal to change the Fair Labor Standards Act and allow employers to pool the tips of workers who make at least the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour.

The rule has ignited a fight on Capitol Hill over fair wages and the tip ownership.

What’s the controversy? Worker rights advocates and congressional Democrats are slamming the Trump administration for catering to the wishes of the National Restaurant Association and proposing a rule to let employers share tips given to wait staff with others. Workers groups worry the rule change will let employers take a cut of those tips.

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What does the Labor Department say? The Labor Department said it’s aiming to allow employers to share tips with employees who typically don’t earn tips, like the dishwashers and cooks in the kitchen. But Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, said there are no protections in the proposed rule against employers taking a share.

A Labor Department spokesperson told The Hill employers should not, and as a practice do not, keep tips.

Read the full story from Lydia Wheeler here

 

ON TAP FOR WEDNESDAY

The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing “examining the drug supply chain.”

The House Natural Resources Committee marks up 15 bills.

A House Science Subcommittee holds a hearing on advancing solar energy technology.

An Energy and Commerce Subcommittee looks at the future of the North American energy trade.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds an oversight hearing for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a hearing on implementing the 21st Century Cures Act in regards to mental health care.

 

REGULATORY ROUNDUP

Transportation: President Trump signed a sweeping defense policy bill into law on Tuesday that will allow the government to require recreational drone users to register their model aircraft.

A federal court ruled earlier this year that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not have the power to force toy drone users to register their aircraft with the agency because Congress had said in a previous a law that the FAA can’t regulate model aircraft.

But the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which landed on Trump’s desk Tuesday, would restore the FAA’s registration system for civilian drones.

In December 2015, the FAA issued an interim rule requiring drone hobbyists to register their recreational aircraft with the agency.

The rule — which had not been formally finalized — requires model aircraft owners to provide their name, email address and physical address; pay a $5 registration fee; and display a unique drone ID number at all times. Those who fail to comply could face civil and criminal penalties.

Melanie Zanona has more here.

 

Environment: The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog will investigate Administrator Scott Pruitt’s decision to spend nearly $25,000 on a privacy booth for his office.

EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins told Democrats in the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a letter made public Tuesday that his office will look into whether the agency’s purchase complies with congressional spending legislation, in response to a letter the committee sent.

“Your letter does raise issues about whether those agency decisions comply with appropriations law, that is, are appropriated funds available for the purchase of ‘construct[ing] a secure, soundproof communications booth in the offices of Administrator Scott Pruitt’ ” Elkins wrote to Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.), the panel’s top Democrat, in the Dec. 8 letter.

Elkins added that the matter didn’t warrant a criminal investigation, and said his office would not “second-guess decisions about matters within the discretion of the agency.”

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox declined to comment on the probe but defended the booth.

“The use of a secure phone line is strongly preferred for cabinet-level officials, especially when discussing sensitive matters,” he said.” We do not comment on OIG matters until they are resolved.”

Timothy Cama has more here.

 

Transportation: The Trump administration is resisting calls to crack down on the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for funneling more than $50 billion in subsidies to their state-run airlines, despite months of pressure from major U.S. airlines.

State Department officials met with U.S. airline representatives, industry stakeholders and union leaders on Tuesday morning to discuss the United States’ international Open Skies agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which enables them to fly to the U.S.

Despite pressure from the top U.S. airlines, the Trump administration has declined to rework its international aviation agreements with the Persian Gulf nations — at least for now, sources familiar with the discussions said.

Melanie Zanona has more here.

 

Technology: Lawmakers unveiled bipartisan legislation in both the House and Senate on Tuesday aimed at bolstering the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

The Fundamentally Understanding the Usability and Realistic Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Act of 2017 — or FUTURE of AI Act — aims to both ensure the U.S.’s global competitiveness in AI, as well as protect the public’s civil liberties and ease potential unemployment that the technology produces.

“While artificial intelligence holds the promise of providing goods and services more efficiently and effectively, increased automation has potentially broad negative impacts on our workforce and our privacy,” explained Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

The Hill’s Ali Breland has the story here.

 

Environment: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) said Tuesday that President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement has served as a “rallying cry” for environmentalists and boosted efforts to fight climate change.

“The fact that President Trump has a different view has been a rallying cry for the pro-environmentalist groups. And that has been very helpful,” Bloomberg said at a news conference in Paris, according to Time magazine.

“So I just want to thank him for all of his assistance,” he added. “There is not a thing that Washington can do to stop it.”

Max Greenwood has more here.

 

Environment: Three former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrators who served under Republican presidents came out against a proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska on Tuesday.

In a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post, the former officials called the project “the wrong mine in absolutely the wrong place,” and said that as the Trump administration’s EPA considers the project, “the answer is no.”

“The choice is simple,” the administrators wrote in the advertisement. “Protect the greatest salmon fishery on the planet. Protect Alaskans and the Bristol Bay watershed.”

Devin Henry has more here.

 

Technology: Democrats are trying to pressure the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at the eleventh hour to call off its planned vote to scrap its net neutrality regulations.

The vote is planned for Thursday and the repeal proposal is expected to pass along party lines.

On Tuesday, 39 senators sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urging him to call off his “reckless” proposal to eliminate the Obama-era regulations.

“Your plan gives a broadband provider the ability to significantly alter their subscribers’ internet experience,” the letter reads. “Once adopted, this proposal will permit that provider to freely block, slow down or manipulate a consumer’s access to the internet as long as it discloses those practices — no matter how anti-consumer — somewhere within mounds of legalese in a new ‘net neutrality’ policy.”

Harper Neidig has more here.

 

Technology: Mignon Clyburn, a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, on Tuesday offered “edits” to a proposal from the FCC’s Republican chairman to repeal net neutrality rules.

The mock proposal distributed by Clyburn’s office would cut everything from the repeal order except for the words “After further review of the record we affirm the 2015 Open Internet Order.”

The FCC will vote Thursday on a proposal to scrap its 2015 net neutrality regulations, which prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against or promoting certain websites. With Republicans holding three of the commission’s five seats, the proposal is expected to pass.

Harper Neidig has the rest of the story here.

 

Technology: More than 80 percent of voters oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plan to repeal its net neutrality rules, according to a new poll from the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation.

The survey presented respondents with detailed arguments from both supporters and opponents of the repeal plan, before asking them where they stood on the rules. It found that 83 percent overall favored keeping the FCC rules, including 75 percent of Republicans, 89 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of independents.

“A decision to repeal net neutrality would be tacking against strong headwinds of public opinion blowing in the opposite direction,” Steven Kull, the director of the university program, said in a statement.

Harper Neidig has more here.

 

Courts: The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) is suing the Trump administration over its plans to build a border wall through its Butterfly Center in South Texas.

The 100-acre wildlife center and botanical garden abuts the Rio Grande and is part of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Corridor.

In its 20-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, NABA said construction of the proposed wall along the southern border would cut off two-thirds of its property, effectively destroying the Butterfly Center and leaving behind a 70-acre no man’s land between the proposed border wall and the Rio Grande.

NABA is accusing the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol officials of flouting the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the 5th Amendment by threatening to take NABA’s property without just compensation.

Lydia Wheeler has more here.

 

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

Millions of people post comments on federal regulations. Many are fake (The Wall Street Journal)

Want to see a world without net neutrality? Look at these old cellphone plans (The Wall Street Journal)

Trump’s mining regulator nominee was once dropped by the agency for doing “junk” work (ProPublica)

FDA proposes new fast path to market for certain medical devices (Reuters)

SEC chairman warns investors against bitcoin (The Wall Street Journal)

Trump administration appeals transgender recruit order (The Hill)

Schwarzenegger bikes through Paris, calling out Trump on climate (The Hill)

Comcast vows to behave without net neutrality rules. Not all are convinced (Bloomberg)

UK city refuses to renew Uber’s license (Reuters)

White House to host fresh biofuels talks to help refiners: sources (Reuters)