Overnight Regulation: FCC, FTC unveil plan to police internet after net neutrality repeal | Justices turn down case on LGBT worker rights | Dems seek delay of new tipping rule | Industry sues over California drug pricing law

Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the courts and beyond. It’s Monday evening and both the House and Senate are in session, trying to take on tax reform and spending before the year ends.

 

THE BIG STORY:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced an agreement on Monday to coordinate their efforts to police the internet after the repeal of net neutrality.

On Thursday, the FCC is expected to approve a plan to scrap the Obama-era consumer protections that prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against, or favoring, certain websites. Under the proposal, the FCC would get rid of the conduct rules governing broadband companies and cede authority over the industry to the FTC.

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“The Memorandum of Understanding will be a critical benefit for online consumers because it outlines the robust process by which the FCC and FTC will safeguard the public interest,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors.”

Once the repeal is passed, the FTC will be tasked with going after internet providers that engage in unfair or deceptive practices, but net neutrality supporters argue that the agency is not equipped to prevent companies from abusing their power over web traffic.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a statement, “The agreement announced today between the FCC and FTC is a confusing, lackluster, reactionary afterthought: an attempt to paper over weaknesses in the Chairman’s draft proposal repealing the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules.”

More from Harper Neidig here.

 

More on net neutrality:

A group of internet innovators is calling on Congress to intervene to stop the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from repealing its landmark net neutrality rules.

In a letter to the top congressional Republicans and Democrats overseeing the agency, the group argued that the plan to deregulate internet service providers threatens the openness of the internet.

The letter, which was sent on Monday, was signed by Tim Berners-Lee and Vinton Cerf, both considered the founding fathers of the internet; Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; and Mitchell Baker, the head of the Mozilla Foundation.

The group wrote, “The FCC’s rushed and technically incorrect proposed Order to abolish net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the Internet we worked so hard to create. It should be stopped.”

Harper Neidig has the details.

 

Activists are planning a protest outside the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday as the agency is expected to vote to repeal its landmark net neutrality rules.

The rally will feature speakers like Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Symone Sanders, a former spokeswoman for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign. The event will be hosted by a coalition of consumer groups called the Voices for Internet Freedom.

Harper Neidig has more here.

 

ON TAP FOR TUESDAY

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on the permitting process at the Interior Department and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for energy and resource infrastructure projects.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a hearing on the cost of prescription drugs, focused on a report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on “Oversight of the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act.”

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee holds a hearing on “National Ocean Policy” with a focus on laws and regulations for ocean management.

A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee holds a hearing on changes to the fuel economy program and greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles.

The House Natural Resources Committee marks up 15 bills.

The House Financial Services Committee marks up 15 bills, including on banking and mortgage regulations.

A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee holds a hearing on the future of NAFTA.

 

REG ROUNDUP

Courts: The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a case challenging whether sex discrimination protections in employment extend to sexual orientation.

The justices denied an appeal from a Georgia woman who claims she was harassed and forced from her job as a security officer at Georgia Regional Hospital.

Jameka Evans argued the hospital violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act when it discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation and her nonconformity to gender norms of appearance and demeanor, according to her attorneys at Lambda Legal.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Evans’s claim and dismissed her lawsuit. The court said it could not rule, based on its past precedent, that discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited under Title VII.

“Under our prior precedent rule, we are bound to follow a binding precedent in this Circuit unless and until it is overruled by this court en banc or by the Supreme Court,” the court said.

The 11th Circuit declined to hear the case with its full panel of judges.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave no explanation as to why it decided not to take the case.

Lambda Legal criticized the high court’s move, saying it leaves in place a split among lower circuit court decisions that will cause confusion across the country.

“But this was not a ‘no’ but a ‘not yet,’ and rest assured that Lambda Legal will continue the fight, circuit by circuit as necessary, to establish that the Civil Rights Act prohibits sexual orientation discrimination,” Greg Nevins, the group’s employment fairness project director, said in a statement.

Lydia Wheeler has the details here.

 

Defense: The Trump administration must accept transgender recruits into the military by Jan. 1, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The decision prevents a ban on enlisting new transgender troops that the administration had sought to implement after an earlier injunction against the president’s order. 

“The court will not stay its preliminary injunction pending defendants’ appeal,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote Monday.

“In sum, having carefully considered all of the evidence before it, the court is not persuaded that defendants will be irreparably injured by allowing the accession of transgender individuals into the military beginning on January 1, 2018.”

The Pentagon in a statement said it would begin processing transgender recruits for military service on Jan 1 while the Department of Justice appeals the court orders.

“As required by recent federal district court orders, the Department of Defense recently announced it will begin processing transgender applicants for military service on January 1, 2018,” it said. “This policy will be implemented while the Department of Justice appeals those court orders.”

Rebecca Kheel breaks down the legal arguments and what comes next here.

 

Health care: Drug companies are suing the state of California over a recently enacted law that would require manufacturers to give advance notice before significantly raising prices.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the industry’s leading lobby group, filed the complaint late Friday seeking to block the law, which supporters say is one of the most comprehensive drug transparency measures in the country.

PhRMA argued the state law imposed nationwide restrictions on the price of drugs, because it is tied to a nationwide measure of drug costs.

In its suit, PhRMA said the law “penalizes manufacturers for conduct that occurs exclusively outside California. And it intentionally exports California’s policy choices regarding prescription drug pricing on the entire nation.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the law into effect in October amid increasing consumer outrage over extremely high drug prices, such as $600 for EpiPens and $1,000 a pill for hepatitis C treatment.

The law requires manufacturers to notify insurers and state officials anytime they plan to raise the price of a medication by 16 percent or more over two years. Companies also have to provide justification for the increase.

The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel has more here.

 

Immigration: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is suing the federal government, accusing it of unconstitutionally raiding the homes of immigrant families.

In a lawsuit filed in the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia’s Atlanta Division, the civil rights group alleges U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials entered the homes of immigrant families without warrants, consent or probable cause — in violation of the Fourth Amendment — solely to detain and deport families, mostly women and children.

SPLC brought the suit on behalf of three families caught in a targeted sweep of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala on Jan. 2-3, 2016. In one instance, the complaint alleges, ICE agents claimed to be police searching for criminal suspects and threatened to arrest a family member for obstructing a fictitious criminal investigation to get into the house.

Lydia Wheeler has the story here.

 

Labor: House Democrats are calling on Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to give the public more time to comment on a proposal to roll back the Obama-era rule that banned employers from pooling workers’ tips.

In a letter Monday, 46 Democrats including Rep. Bobby Scott (Va.), Keith Ellison (Minn.) and Mark Takano (Calif.) asked Acosta to extend the current 30-day comment period to 60 days.

The Labor Department issued a proposal earlier this month to change the Fair Labor Standards Act regulation and allow employers to pool the tips of workers who make the minimum wage and share them with non-tipped workers.

The Democrats said the proposed rule would allow employers to pocket employee tips or redistribute them among employees, reversing the department’s more than 40-year position that tips are the property of the employee who earns them.

But the National Restaurant Association has been fighting hard for the rule change.

The proposed rule is expected to impact nearly 1.3 million tipped workers, but only those who make the standard minimum wage. Workers who make less than the minimum wage and rely on tips to supplement their pay were not part of the proposed rule.

Lydia Wheeler has the details.

 

Environment: The Trump administration urged a federal court on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the government by a group of young people who allege the government’s policies are driving climate change.

Federal lawyers called the claims “unprecedented” and said the case, if it is allowed to go forward, could lead to “litigation that is distracting the executive branch from the discharge of its duties.”

“It is really extraordinary,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Grant told a panel of judges on the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

“Plaintiffs seek unprecedented standing to pursue unprecedented claims in pursuit of an unprecedented remedy.”

Devin Henry has the story here.

 

Energy: The former head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said he isn’t discouraged by a 30-day delay in the agency’s consideration of a proposal to boost coal and nuclear power plants.

Neil Chatterjee, who was FERC’s chairman on an interim basis from August through last week, said he’s still pushing for the commission to take action on Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposal to require that grid operators pay more to coal and nuclear plants.

Though he was replaced as chairman by Kevin McIntyre, Chatterjee is still a commissioner, along with three others.

Hours after he was sworn in, McIntyre asked Perry for a 30-day extension of the deadline, originally Monday, to take action on the proposal. Perry granted the request, though he warned that more delays could be harmful to the electric grid.

“I think it’s prudent that my colleagues want a little bit more time to carefully evaluate the docket,” Chatterjee said Monday at an event hosted by Axios, noting that McIntyre and Commissioner Richard Glick were both sworn in in recent weeks.

“And they intend to do that, and I presume that they will thoughtfully and carefully evaluate the fact-based, data-driven process that we have … at the commission, and we’ll look to see what potential actions can taken,” he said.

Chatterjee has been an outspoken advocate for an “interim” FERC rule to require higher payments while the agency takes a deeper dive into whether the electric grid is at risk due to closing nuclear plants.

Check out Timothy Cama’s story here.

 

Environment: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed legislation Monday opening the door to copper and gold mining in the state.

The legislation, which was opposed by environmentalists, Democrats and some Republicans, is designed to help grow the state’s mining sector, Walker said in a statement.

“Mining is a vital piece of Wisconsin’s history and is at the core of our cultural identity,” Walker said.

The mining technique he approved is controversial because of its potential for releasing acidic material into waterways, both when a mine is operating and in the decades of wastewater storage that comes afterward.

Wisconsin law had barred state regulators from issuing sulfide mining permits until similar mines elsewhere in the country had both operated and been shut down for decades without adverse environmental impacts.

But supporters say technological advances have made the process safer.

Devin Henry has more here.

 

ALSO IN THE NEWS

Hospital giants in talks to create US’s largest operator (The Wall Street Journal)

Trump takes credit for killing hundreds of regulations that were already dead (Bloomberg)

Here’s how the Trump administration enabled polluters without cutting regulations (Salon)

SEC halts initial coin offering from restaurant review app (Reuters)