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The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. has filed suit on behalf of the National Urban League and the National Fair Housing Alliance in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the lawfulness and validity of Executive Order 13950, Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, issued on September 22, 2020.

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On August 3, 2020, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order framed as “Aligning Federal Contracting and Hiring Practices With the Interests of American Workers.” The Order declares the “policy of the executive branch to create opportunities for United States workers to compete for jobs, including jobs created through Federal contracts,” and directs

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Following the announcement of the White House’s Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (EO) and the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Artificial Intelligence Strategy (AI Strategy) in February, as reported on here, the United States recently endorsed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Council’s (OECD) Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence (Recommendation) –

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Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without. This latest edition is hosted by partner Peter Eyre and includes updates on the creation of OAI, recent relevant litigation, and the

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Continuing his trend of fulfilling the promises set forth in his Contract with the American Voter, President Trump, on January 30, 2017, issued an Executive Order mandating the elimination of at least two existing regulations for every new regulation issued.  In particular, the order explains that “whenever an executive department or agency…publicly proposes for notice and comment or otherwise promulgates a new regulation, it shall identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed.”  In this way, the Administration intends to offset “any new incremental costs associated with new regulations….” Notably, however, the definition of regulation does not include: (1) “regulations issued with respect to a military, national security, or foreign affairs function of the United States”; (2) “regulations related to agency organization, management, or personnel;” or (3) “any other category of regulations exempted by the Director.”
Continue Reading Trump Administration Seeks to Reduce Regulatory Burdens

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On Saturday, January 28, President Trump issued an Executive Order setting forth the ethics regulations governing current and future executive agency appointments, which is both more restrictive and less restrictive than the 2009 Obama Executive Order addressing the same issue.  Specifically, and with respect to the former, President Trump’s order bans all executive agency appointees from engaging in “lobbying activities” with respect to the particular agency in which the appointee served for a period of five years after leaving the Administration, and further prohibits such appointees from lobbying on behalf of a foreign government or political party during the remainder of their lifetimes (if such activities would require registration “under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938”).  See §§ 1.1, 1.4.  These two prohibitions were absent from the Obama-era counterpart and mirror two of Trump’s promises outlined in his Contract with the American Voter.
Continue Reading Trump’s Ethics Executive Order More Concerned with Post-Government Employment Activities

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Will it be more of the same for government contractors in 2016? Can contractors expect increased oversight, intense competition, new regulations, and consolidation? On Thursday, January 14, Crowell & Moring will be hosting a webinar to discuss the likely trends in the coming year. Topics to be covered include: cost, commercial items, update on Executive

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On September 7, the Obama Administration issued a new executive order requiring that federal government contractors provide paid sick leave to employees, the latest in a series of EOs targeting federal contractors, which have to date resulted in 16 new regulations (previously discussed here, here and here).  According to the White House,

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On May 28, 2015, the Obama Administration published the highly-anticipated Proposed Rule and Proposed Guidance implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” Executive Order, (E.O.) which President Obama issued on July 31, 2014. The proposed rule adds a new subpart to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) – subpart 22.20 “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” – which “incorporate[s]” proposed guidance issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) titled “Guidance for Executive Order 13673, ‘Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces.’ ” (“Proposed Guidance”). These regulations will not take effect until the final rule and final guidance are issued, but the proposed rule and guidance trigger a 60-day period to comment on the proposed rule and guidance, and offer insight into the onerous compliance and reporting burdens that contractors and subcontractors will face under the Proposed Rule. Below is a summary of several key provisions.
Continue Reading Obama Administration Issues Proposed Rule and Guidance for Implementing “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces”