‘Gluten free’ to be clarified, Chemical Data Reporting rule, cable provider regulations, and more.
- President Obama announced a deal with automakers to raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon between 2017 and 2025.
- Senator Harry Reid announced the Senate will pass the House’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, resolving a funding standoff that had left the FAA in partial shutdown for nearly two weeks.
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reopened the comment period for a gluten-free labeling rule first proposed in 2007. The agency aims to clarify the meaning of “gluten-free” and how restaurants and food manufacturers will label their products.
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new Chemical Data Reporting rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which will enable the EPA to collect more information on manufactured and imported chemical substances, and to require that this information be reported electronically.
- House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus announced that he will be introducing legislation to restructure the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by consolidating certain offices and positions and creating an independent ombudsman role that reports directly to the SEC chair.
- A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. vacated SEC Rule 14a-11, which provided shareholders greater ability to nominate directors through the proxy voting system. The court found that the SEC acted arbitrarily and capriciously by not fully considering the costs and benefits of the rule.
- During a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing, several members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expressed some uncertainty that the NRC was ready to move ahead immediately in implementing all the recommendations from its Task Force formed in response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident.
- In an order, the Federal Communications Commission amended its procedures for handling complaints about the carriage of video programming under the 1992 Cable Act, which promotes competition among independent TV program providers and cable companies, and proposed further changes to its program carriage rules.
- The FDA approved Anascorp, the first antidote specifically designed to treat scorpion stings. The drug was tested in clinical trials through the University of Arizona.
