New regs for Wednesday: Bumblebees, ships, discrimination

Wednesday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new protections for bumblebees, environmental standards for military ships and discrimination rules for the federal government.

Here’s what is happening:

Military: The Pentagon is moving forward with new environmental protections.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Defense (DOD) announced Tuesday new discharge standards for Navy ships operating in U.S. waters.

“The discharge performance standards will reduce the adverse environmental impacts associated with the vessel discharges, stimulate the development of improved vessel pollution control devices, and advance the development of environmentally-sound vessels of the armed forces,” the Pentagon wrote in the Federal Register.

The rule goes into effect in 30 days.

Endangered: The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is moving forward with new protections for bumblebees.

The rusty patched bumblebee is an endangered species, the agency said Tuesday.

“All rusty patched bumblebees have entirely black heads, but only workers and males have a rusty reddish patch centrally located on the abdomen,” the agency said.

The protections go into effect in 30 days.

Affirmative Action: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is correcting an affirmative action rule for federal agencies.

The affirmative action rule issued earlier this month will protect people with disabilities who work for federal agencies. But the EEOC is going back to correct a minor omission in the rule.

The protections go into effect on March 6.