Distilling this week’s 9,325 alerts into the 10 alerts that you care about

Mary Kopczynski, CEO of RegAlytics, breaks down this week’s hot regulatory topics, exclusively for Exiger.

• Regulator of the Week: DOJ
• Topic of the Week: UK
• Other Interesting Alerts

Regulator of the Week: DOJ

The Regulator of the Week is the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department announced that it has done its job as ordered by President Biden this March to come up with a workable plan to confirm when someone needs to officially obtain a federal firearms license. Background: In June of last year, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which expanded the definition of engaging in the business of firearms to cover all persons who devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominately earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and sale of firearms. Then, in March of this year, President Biden issued Executive Order 14092, which, among other things, tells the Attorney General to develop and implement a plan to clarify the definition of who is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms and thus required to obtain a federal firearms license. So this week, the Justice Department announced it has submitted to the Federal Register a notice of proposed rule-making.  So take a look, make comments, and let’s see where the final rule goes. 

Justice Department Proposes New Regulation to Update Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Firearms Dealer

Also this week, the DOJ made an arrest that read like a novel. The alleged perpetrator was a Russian-German citizen who lived in Russia and Cypress and managed to smuggle shipments of U.S. micro-electronics through shell companies that masked the ultimate destination of the parts, which was Russia, where they were used to embed in Russian missiles and drones that have been used in the Ukraine War. 

Russian-German National Arrested for Illegally Exporting to Russia Sensitive U.S.-Sourced Microelectronics With Military Applications in Violation of U.S. Export Controls

Topic of the Week: UK

The Topic of the Week is the United Kingdom. To be clear, when it comes to the regulator or the topic of the week, it’s when I notice an unusual volume of activity from a given regulator or common topic that I see showing up in difference places. In the case of the UK, it was actually a number of different agencies talking about innovative initiatives that I think you’ll enjoy, so here goes…

One, the UK Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister to run the UK government, published a Border Target Operating Model for trade in goods. Keep in mind, with Brexit, the UK needs to come up with a whole strategy for how to allow goods in; and this takes on a whole new shape when it comes to potential bio threats these days (ahem, speaking of Covid). 

New Border Controls to Protect the UK Against Security and Biosecurity Threats and Ensure Smooth Flow of Goods

Two, the UK Defense and Armed Forces announced that their Defense and Armed Forces Accelerator funded a green tech startup that has developed an innovative technology to recycle the materials in body armor. Currently, when body armor expires, it is incinerated, resulting in the loss of valuable fibers, which are estimated to be 85 times more expensive than steel. And these fibers are also found in other gear, like airplanes, land vehicles, uniforms and helmets. So, this veteran-led startup has used sustainable chemicals that turn these fibers into a liquid that can be spun back into high-performance materials. I thought that was cool.

DASA Funded Innovation Gives Old Body Armor a Second Life

Three, the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is investing another round of £341 million into a new nuclear facility as part of a major focus to switch the UK to nuclear power for the purposes of reducing its carbon emissions.

New Steps Will Speed Up Sizewell C Preparations

Finally, speaking of nuclear, Dounreay is an area in Scotland that houses two nuclear sites that have been in the process of being decommissioned for decades. It’s an expensive and arduous task, but the facility managers announced recently that a new robot built by Boston Scientific and called “Spot” successfully navigated several flights of stairs in pitch-black conditions to map a 4-story fuel cell and take important radiological data to prepare for the next phases of decommissioning. This is a first-of-its-kind experiment in western Europe.

Robot Proves Itself in Dounreay Radioactive Area

The last think you must know from this week: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $15 billion in new grants and loans to support a transition to electric vehicles.

Statement by UAW President Shawn Fain on the U.S. Department of Energy Announcing $15.5 Billion in New Grants and Loans to Support a Just Transition to Electric Vehicles

Be sure to scroll down to see other alerts I thought were interesting, including final rules on Quotas for Controlled Substances and List 1 Chemicals, and the findings from last month’s convention for the National Governors’ Association on Energy Policy.

Other Interesting Alerts

Agency	Title
National Governors Association	2023 Governors’ Advisors Energy Policy Institute
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada	Government of Canada Announces Investment in Biofuelnet Canada to Strengthen Bioeconomy
Drug Enforcement Administration	Final Rule: Management of Quotas for Controlled Substances and List I Chemicals
National Association of Boards of Pharmacy	NABP Launches Pulse Interoperable Partner Program to Accelerate Interoperability in Drug Supply Chain