Insights

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) issued its Lapse Plan in advance of the federal government shutdown. The CSPC will furlough 35% of full-time employees, with the overwhelming majority of those retained focused on “protect[ing] life and property.” Under the Lapse Plan, consumer-oriented programs and, notably, civil penalties, will pause for the duration of any shutdown.

Congress has not passed crucial funding bills for the start of Fiscal Year 2026.  If Congress fails to act by September 30, the government may be forced to shut down for lack of funding.  In anticipation of that possibility, agencies government-wide are preparing for a shutdown, and contractors and companies that work with the government should do so as well.  Our team is ready and available to help advise companies through the shutdown process.

On September 26, the White House invited the public to submit comments on Federal laws, rules, and policies that “unnecessarily hinder” the development or deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the United States. This request marks one of the Trump Administration’s most substantial moves yet to reduce the regulatory burden on AI. Respondents may submit comments through a government website until October 27, 2025.

The Department of Education (DOE) announced on September 10, 2025, that it will end discretionary funding to several Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) grant programs that, it stated, “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”[1] The agency stated that it would “us[e] its statutory authority to reprogram discretionary funds to programs that do not present such concerns.”[2] This announcement follows a July 2025 decision by the Department of Justice to no longer defend the constitutionality of a provision of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) that authorizes grant funding to Hispanic-Serving institutions, after determining that such programs “violate the equal-protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.”[3]

On September 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a news release announcing an “aggressive[]” “crackdown” on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.  This release came on the heels of a Presidential Memorandum President Trump issued the same day directing HHS to “ensure transparency and accuracy in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements,” and the FDA to “take action to enforce legal requirements that advertisements for prescription drugs be truthful and not misleading.”

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) titled, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking,” setting out the framework for sweeping changes to the grantmaking process.  The order purports to address the Administration’s concerns about federal grants supporting controversial or ineffective programs and incurring excessive administrative costs.  The EO implements three key changes to federal grant requirements. 

On July 24, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Saving College Sports” (the “Order”). The White House also released an accompanying Fact Sheet regarding the Order.

On July 29, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued new guidance to all federal agencies entitled “Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination” (“Guidance”). The Guidance purports to “clarif[y] the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (‘DEI’) programs.” It declares that “[e]ntities receiving federal funds . . . must ensure that their programs and activities comply with federal law and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or other protected characteristics,” and identifies a series of “‘Best Practices’ as non-binding suggestions to help entities comply with federal antidiscrimination laws and avoid legal pitfalls.” The Guidance is the most comprehensive articulation of the Administration’s view of what constitutes unlawful DEI released since President Trump’s Executive Order, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, issued on January 21, 2025.

On July 23, 2025, the Trump Administration issued an artificial intelligence (AI) action plan titled “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan” (the Plan) to guide AI innovation in the U.S. The Plan includes 90 policy recommendations that will shape future AI guidance and policies impacting a range of entities and industry sectors, including health care/life sciences and entities involved in clinical research.

On July 24, the European Commission announced the imposition of new EU countermeasures in response to U.S. tariffs further to an agreement reached among EU Member States. These measures are adopted through Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1564 and take the form of additional customs duties on U.S. products as well as export restrictions for certain EU products. In total, these measures concern about EUR 93 billion ($109 billion) worth of customs duties, the highest volume of bilateral trade caught by the EU so far. The EU countermeasures are set to enter into force as of August 7.

On July 23, 2025, the White House released Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan (“the Plan”) the Trump Administration’s most significant policy statement on artificial intelligence to date.

In May 2025, the Trump Administration, asserting Executive authority, terminated the three Democratic Commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. On June 13, 2025, a Maryland district court aborted the without-cause termination while a legal challenge proceeds, leaving the Commissioners in place.

Since taking office earlier this year, the Trump administration has reignited tariff disputes between the European Union and the United States. The US has reimposed US Section 232 measures on steel and aluminum, extended the scope of these measures, and, on April 2nd, imposed IEEPA tariffs on EU products under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. These IEEPA tariffs were then reduced to 10% until July 9th.

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the OBBBA) which amended a number of Internal Revenue Code provisions related to employee benefits and compensation. Although not an exhaustive list, below are the provisions we expect will have the greatest impact on compensation and benefits for mid- and larger sized employers.

On June 25, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the agenda for its July 9, 2025 Workshop exploring the characterization of gender-affirming health care as involving consumer deception or unfair trade practices. Health care providers, plans, and related businesses should anticipate that investigations and lawsuits related to gender-affirming care will follow under federal unfair competition law and, perhaps first, under state unfair trade practices laws.

On July 4th, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the “Act”), which included a phaseout of incentives for solar and wind generation projects. Projects must either begin construction within one year or be placed in service by 2027 to qualify for the Section 45Y Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit or the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit. The House’s version of the legislation required a more accelerated phaseout than the Act and only allowed projects that began construction within 60 days of enactment of the bill to be eligible for the tax credits.  In discussions last week with House conservatives who favored the faster phaseout of solar and wind tax credits, which was not adopted in the Act, President Trump promised strict enforcement of the rules, including the beginning of construction requirements, for solar and wind projects to qualify for energy tax credits.

On June 6, 2025 President Trump signed an Executive Order, Sustaining Select Efforts to Strengthen the Nation’s Cybersecurity and Amending Executive Order 13694 and Executive Order 14144 (the “Trump Cyber EO”). The Trump Cyber EO rescinds and modifies select Biden administration guidance from EO 14144 covering several cybersecurity regimes, including digital identity verification, artificial intelligence, and secure software development practices, and it amends Obama administration guidance from EO 13694 authorizing sanctions on persons involved in malicious cyber activities. We have provided a summary of significant changes made by the Trump Cyber EO below.

On May 12, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled "Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients," which aims to reduce the costs of prescription drugs and biologics for American consumers and other payers. This Order revives a plan from President Trump’s first term and follows his April Executive Order, “Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First,” which also sought to reduce drug prices. With drug prices in the United States nearly three times higher than many other countries, this second Order asks drug manufacturers to adopt Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) pricing for drugs sold in the United States or face potential regulation. MFN pricing would tether drug prices offered in the United States to the lower-cost prices offered in other comparably developed nations, such as Canada, Germany, or the United Kingdom.

On May 20, 2025, former Missouri congressman, Billy Long, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing as President Donald Trump’s nominee for IRS Commissioner.  Senators questioned Long about his role in promoting questionable tax credits, including Employee Retention Tax Credits (“ERTC”) after leaving the House of Representatives in 2023.  Long also disclosed receiving financial compensation from these entities for his work promoting ERTC.  Given Long’s support for ERTC, there is speculation that the IRS could ease enforcement activity directed towards these credits.

On 8 May 2025, the European Commission published new lists of products potentially subject to EU rebalancing measures in retaliation to U.S. tariffs. The proposed measures would apply if EU-U.S. trade negotiations fail. They are designed to stand alongside previously adopted EU countermeasures, which are currently suspended until 14 July 2025.