In a significant victory for permitting reform, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 29 issued an opinion in the case Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, establishing that federal environmental reviews must be reasonable in scope.

On May 20, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began accepting 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 reports. The deadline to submit is Tuesday, June 24. EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas issued this bulletin about the opening of the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection process.

On May 19, ABC participated in a listening session focused on the impact on small businesses of revising the definition of “waters of the United States” subject to Clean Water Act regulation and permitting.

On May 16, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ request for a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Defense and General Services Administration’s orders seeking to exempt certain federal construction contracts from the Biden administration’s PLA mandate.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it will pause enforcement of the 2024 Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule in current enforcement matters while the agency reviews this regulation.

The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, the watchdog for small businesses in the regulatory process, recently launched the Red Tape Hotline.

On April 23, ABC urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to streamline the federal permitting process under the Clean Water Act while protecting America’s navigable waters from pollution in comments submitted as part of the Waters Advocacy Coalition.

On April 23, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at overhauling federal workforce development efforts.

On April 23, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued alternative permitting processes in response to President Donald Trump’s prior declaration of a National Energy Emergency, with the goal of reducing the federal permitting process for covered energy projects to no more than 28 days.

On April 15, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement, directing significant revisions to the Federal Acquisition Regulations System with the goal of simplifying and streamlining federal procurement. The White House released an accompanying fact sheet and press release with the order.