New regs for Monday: Ethics office pulls back hiring rule

New regulations are on the way affecting government workers, the finance sector and potatoes grown in Colorado.

Here’s what will be published in the Federal Register on Monday:

Government workers:

The Office of Government Ethics is withdrawing a rule that would have eliminated some exemptions allowing senior Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staffers to take certain private sector jobs one year after leaving the agency. 

The ethics office only published the rule in October, but is pulling the regulation “to allow the SEC time to effectively educate affected employees before the exemption revocation takes effect,” it said.

It plans to publish the rule again in January.

Finance:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Reserve are jointly publishing rules to adjust a thresholds for exempting some consumer leases from requirements of the Consumer Lending Act and some credit transactions from Truth in Lending Act rules. 

The adjustments are called for annually, to align the exemption limits with the Consumer Price Index. 

Agriculture:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is increasing the size requirements for Colorado potatoes handled under a marketing order.

Acquisition:

The Defense Department, NASA and the General Services Administration are issuing new rules and guides to change their acquisition processes.

The changes make it easier to speed up payments to small business subcontractors, include Croatia under a World Trade Organization procurement agreement, make editorial changes and help small businesses comply with federal regulations.

Social Security:

The Social Security Administration wants to change its rules for reimbursing states to allow for the use of a new electronic system.

The system, which is already in use, has “greatly reduced” the involvement in manually processing the cases, the agency said. 

Superfund:

The Environmental Protection Agency is deleting an Indiana Superfund site from its national list because “all appropriate response actions” except for operations, maintenance and reviews have been completed.

The agency is accepting comments on the deletion for 30 days. 

Communications:

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has approved the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to collect information as part of new rules on satellite radio service and an effort to bring broadband access to all corners of the country.