RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

In this episode, Brooks Rainwater and Jon Riches discuss developments in state and local regulations surrounding home-sharing and home-based businesses. How do we balance safety and public goods with innovation and entrepreneurialism? Featuring:- Brooks Rainwater, Senior Executive & Director, Center for City Solutions, National League of Cities- Jon Riches, Director of National Litigation, Goldwater InstituteVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In this episode, Ajit Pai joins Adam Thierer and Brent Skorup to discuss the principles driving the Federal Communications Commission in recent years, the "Keep Americans Connected" pledge, and how things have changed for the FCC in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.Featuring: - Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission- Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University- [Host] Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason UniversityVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On March 18, the Senate passed and the President signed into law the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act.” Among other things, this new law, set to take effect no later than April 2, 2020, creates a new paid sick leave mandate for all employers with fewer than 500 employees and expands the application of the Family Medical Leave Act to cover all employers in certain circumstances related to the coronavirus. Karen Harned and James Paretti will walk listeners through key provisions of this new law.Featuring: - Karen Harned, Executive Director, National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center- James A. Paretti, Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On March 4, 2020, the Regulatory Transparency Project sponsored a symposium with the University of Pennsylvania Federalist Society student chapter. The second panel of the symposium was titled "Should Social Media Platforms Be Viewpoint Neutral? Should the Government Care?"Featuring:- Adam Candeub, Michigan State University College of Law- Carrie Goldberg, C. A. Goldberg PLLC- Arthur Milikh, Heritage Foundation- Nadine Strossen, New York Law School- Moderator: Neil Chilson, Charles Koch InstituteVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On March 4, 2020, the Regulatory Transparency Project sponsored a symposium with the University of Pennsylvania Federalist Society student chapter. The first panel of the symposium was titled "Do We Need to Rethink Antitrust for Big Tech?"Featuring:- Roger Alford, Notre Dame University- Jay Himes, Labaton Sucharow LLP- Salil Mehra, Temple University School of Law- Moderator: Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of LawVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

The recent Supreme Court ruling in Allen v. Cooper is the latest development in a decades-long series of Congressional enactments and Supreme Court rulings over whether and how Congress can abrogate the sovereign immunity of States from intellectual property infringement suits. This all-star panel will discuss the Court’s most recent decision in the context of the evolution of the Court’s sovereign immunity jurisprudence, the policy concerns of Congress and intellectual property owners, and where we might go from here.Featuring:- Prof. John T. Cross, Grosscurth Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Technology Transfer, University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law- Prof. Ralph Oman, Pravel, Hewitt, Kimball and Kreiger Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law- Prof. Steven Tepp, Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington Law, and President and Founder of Sentinal Worldwide - Prof. Ernest A. Young, Alston & Bird Professor, Duke Law School Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

Join us as Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai discusses how the FCC is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. What measures has the FCC taken to date, and what is planned in the future?Featuring:- Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications CommissionVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

Join us as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan discusses the role of his agency. Likely topics include COVID-19, as well as the agency’s regulatory reform efforts.Featuring:- Eric Hargan, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On November 1, 2019, Neora, a Texas-based healthcare products multi-level marketing (MLM) business, filed suit in Illinois Federal Court against the FTC. The suit alleges that throughout three years of enforcement actions, the agency attempted to unilaterally and retroactively change the law governing MLMs without Congressional action or formal rulemaking. Neora asserts that in these types of regulatory enforcement actions other businesses are not only forced to try to prove their innocence, but they are forced to prove their innocence under standards that are not set forth by existing law. They argue that other businesses similarly situated are either coerced into resolutions/settlements or forced to fight.Later on the same day, the FTC filed suit against Neora in New Jersey. The FTC asserts that Neora was unlike legitimate MLMs and was a “pyramid scheme” since its inception. The FTC argues that the company has focused on recruiting new distributors or so-called brand partners (BPs) and the vast majority of them don’t earn anything after expenses and quit.Neora Co-CEO Deborah Heisz and lead litigation counsel Ed Burbach of Foley & Lardner will join us to describe their last four years of interactions with the FTC and the ultimate “fencing in” proposal that lead them to file suit.Featuring:- Ed Burbach, Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP- Deborah Heisz, Co-CEO, Neora Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

The Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice recently announced a policy that the Division would no longer agree to Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) in settlement agreements or judicial consent decrees resolving violations of environmental laws. As defined by EPA, a SEP is an environmentally beneficial project or activity that is not required by law, but that a defendant agrees to undertake as part of the settlement of an enforcement action. Under EPA’s SEPs policy, the agency (through the Division) will seek a lesser civil monetary penalty in settling a civil enforcement action than what it would otherwise seek in the settlement in exchange for a defendant’s voluntary commitment to perform a SEP. Because SEPs purposefully trade civil monetary penalties payable to the U.S. Treasury for projects selected or approved by EPA that Congress either has not approved or had no occasion to consider, do SEPs violate the Miscellaneous Receipts Act and other laws intended to preserve Congress’ constitutional power of the purse?Featuring:- Jeffrey Clark, Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), Department of JusticeVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.