OVERNIGHT REGULATION: Dems eye crackdown on nail salons

Welcome to OVERNIGHT REGULATION, your daily rundown of news from Capitol Hill and beyond. It’s Monday evening here in Washington, which means you might have a case of the Mondays.

Here’s what else is happening.

 

THE BIG STORY

Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) wants the Obama administration to create stronger protections for nail salon workers.

In a letter to David Michaels, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) assistant secretary of labor, Rice said she’s deeply concerned with recent media reports highlighting dangerous working conditions for those in the nail salon industry.

In an article first published last week, The New York Times reported that the majority of manicurists in New York City are paid below minimum wage, with many experiencing physical and verbal abuse from employers. They also suffer serious health issues from prolonged exposure to the chemicals used in nail and beauty products, including having babies with low birth weights, miscarriages and cancer.  

{mosads}The federal law that regulates cosmetics safety does not require companies to share safety information with the Food and Drug Administration, The New York Times reported.

“More must be done to help these workers,” Rice said in her letter. “As you have appropriately acknowledged, OSHA’s safety standards regarding chemical exposure levels for manicurists need revision.”

Rice went on to claim that OSHA has admitted its ability to protect workers is less effective due to its internal rule-making process.

“This is simply unacceptable,” she said.

Democrats at the state level are already taking action. The day after the Times published its story, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a multiagency task force to investigate nail salons in New York, institute new rules to protect manicurists from potentially dangerous chemicals found in nail products and begin a six-language education campaign to inform workers of their rights, the paper reports.

 

ON TAP FOR TUESDAY

Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and so-called Young Invincibles, young people reluctant to purchase health insurance, will hold a press conference to call on Congress to pass the Health Families Act. The legislation would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year, which they could use to care for family members or address personal medical needs.

The House will meet to consider the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015, which would require the Environmental Protection Agency to and the Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw their proposed Waters of the U.S. Rule and draft a replacement.

The House Rules Committee will meet to vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban late-term abortions after 20 weeks. http://1.usa.gov/1cK3jX7

 

TOMORROW’S REGS TODAY

The Obama administration will publish 161 new regulations, proposed rules, notices and other administrative actions in Tuesday’s edition of the Federal Register.

Here’s what to look for:

–The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will propose collecting information on possible bankruptcy regulations for commodity brokers.

The proposed information collection could inform future rulemaking.

The public has 60 days to comment. http://j.mp/1RwjM0X

–The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) will propose excluding certain loans to credit unions from the aggregate unsecured lending cap.

Bridge loans made from the NCUA’s Central Liquidity Facility to natural person credit unions would be exempt from these lending caps. Furthermore, they would not be required to calculate their net assets as part of the minimum capital requirements.

The public has 30 days to comment. http://j.mp/1F9rSHA

–The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) will propose changes to its share insurance regulations.

Under the changes, the NCUA would provide “enhanced, pass-through share insurance for interest on lawyers’ trust accounts and other similar escrow accounts,” the agency noted.

The public has 60 days to comment. http://j.mp/1FgjdVt

–The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will correct minor errors it made in a posting about electric enclosures.

The NRC is considering changes for the allowed peak heat release from electrical enclosures. The agency issued a draft regulation last month for refining heat release rates from electrical enclosures during fires.

The public has until June 15 to comment. http://j.mp/1cJUFYM

 

NEWS RIGHT NOW

Public assistance: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released new guidance to help mortgage lenders avoid discriminating against people who receive public assistance. http://bit.ly/1dY2me0

Police bias: Civil rights groups are complaining to the United Nations about “police bias and violence” in the U.S., as tensions between law enforcement and minority communities rise. http://bit.ly/1K2DW0g

Baby monkeys: Bob Barker, former host of CBS’s “The Price is Right,” is calling on the National Institutes of Health to end its experiments depriving baby monkeys of their mothers. http://bit.ly/1RwqsvY

Shootings: Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday condemned two police killings that occurred over the weekend in Mississippi. http://bit.ly/1K2Eh2X

FOIA: The House Oversight Committee asked nearly two dozen public interest groups to share their complaints about the federal government’s compliance with requests for government documents. http://bit.ly/1E2w4mY

Same-sex marriage: No place in East Asia recognized same-sex marriages until late March, when Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya ward passed a local ordinance granting same-sex couples the right to partnership certificates, NPR reports. http://n.pr/1E2wkm7

Phone data: NSA chief warns Congress not to mire telephone data program with new rules, The Wall Street Journal reports. http://on.wsj.com/1KY9UZ2

Federal firings: The Merit Systems Protection Board is clearing up a misconception about federal employees – they can get fired, The Washington Post reports. http://wapo.st/1G0Bwgi

 

BY THE NUMBERS

15,000: How many animal welfare activists have signed a petition calling for federal regulators to ban experiments on monkeys.

70,000: How many monkeys are subjected to experiments in U.S. laboratories each year.

$30 million: How much PETA alleges the National Institutse of Health has spent in taxpayer dollars to perform experiments on baby monkeys.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Biased law enforcement against communities of color is a nationwide issue,” — June Zeitlin, director of human rights policy at the Leadership Conference, told the United Nations. http://bit.ly/1K2DW0g

 

We’ll work to stay on top of these and other stories throughout the week, so check The Hill’s Regulation page (http://digital-staging.thehill.com/regulation) early and often for the latest. And send any comments, complaints or regulatory news tips our way, tdevaney@digital-staging.thehill.com or lwheeler@digital-staging.thehill.com. And follow us at @timdevaney and@wheelerlydia.

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