The federal agencies have released their Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (known as the "Unified Agenda.") Twice a year, federal agencies must provide this information to let the public know what regulatory actions they're planning and to coordinate rulemaking among the agencies.
The Unified Agenda can be somewhat daunting, both in length and in jargon (OMB Watch, a nonprofit that works to promote greater transparency in federal regulatory and budget matters, has a nice guide to some of the terms used in the Unified Agenda). Each federal agency that's included in the Unified Agenda must indicate what rulemaking it has planned in coming months. The list of agencies in the ...
Last year was quite eventful when it comes to employment issues: Congress, the Supreme Court, and the crummy economy all did their part to keep things hopping. Here are some of the highlights:
- New laws. Starting with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- the first bill signed into law by President Obama -- Congress has had a busy year. It passed a law providing partial subsidies for COBRA continuing health care coverage, then extended it into 2010. Congress also
My last post covered some of the many employment law developments of 2009, but what about the future? This could be another big year in the field, mainly because of the recent retirement announcements by Senator Dodd and Senator Dorgan, both Democrats. This means 2010 could be the swan song of the 60-vote Democrat (and Independent) filibuster-proof majority, giving some extra urgency to some of the labor and employee protective measures under consideration, such as:
- The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), whi...
This year, the U.S. Department of Labor has taken great strides to modernize the office and better serve the public. The new website is only part of that.
This week, the DOL has begun a series of webchats with the public discuss the 2010 regulatory agenda and other issues facing the Department of Labor. They continue through Wednesday. You can find them all here.
You can also submit questions to the DOL via Twitter using the hashtag #dolregs to designate your post. (If you have no idea what a ha...
Earlier this week, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced its regulatory agenda for Spring 2010. As always, the plan includes a number of discrete areas where the DOL plans to draft or revise regulations (for example, to require coal mine operators to inspect areas where miners will be working). This time around, the agenda also includes a broad paradigm shift: The DOL wants to replace what it calls a "catch me if you can" model, in which violations are stemmed only if and when the DOL steps in, to a "plan/prevent/protect" model, in which employers take the lead in finding, fixing, and preventing workplace problems.
What will this mean in practice? It's not entirely clear, as the DOL hasn't yet issued any pr...
