The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor announced a new rule on April 23, 2024, increasing the number of worker. This rule, titled “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees,” will begin taking effect on July 1, 2024.
Under this rule, the annual salary-level threshold for full-time salaried standard exemptions to overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will increase. Currently set at $35,568 per year, it will rise to $43,888 per year once the rule is implemented July 1, 2025 and then increase to $58,656 on January 1, 2025. Additionally, the threshold for highly compensated employees (HCE) will increase from $107,432 to $132,964 and then to $151,164 at the start of next year.
Moreover, the rule mandates automatic updates to these thresholds every three years, starting on July 1, 2027. These updates will ensure that the standard salary level aligns with the 35th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region, and the HCE total annual compensation threshold aligns with the annualized weekly earnings of the 85th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally.
Ways & Means Committee Launches Tax Teams
On April 24, 2024, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee launched numerous “tax teams,” aimed at examining the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that are slated to end in 2025 and other top tax priorities. These ten Tax Teams consist of Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee and will work to identify and craft “legislative solutions” to address the expiring tax provisions. Each team will concentrate on a specific area of tax policy, including American Manufacturing, Working Families, American Workforce, Main Street, New Economy, Rural America, Community Development, Supply Chains, U.S. Innovation, and Global Competitiveness.
The hearings and roundtables around the country starting this summer will help Republican tax writers as they develop their policy priorities for the coming debate of the more than $4 trillion in tax increases taking effect January 1, 2026, including the elimination of the passthrough business deduction (199a). In addition to educating lawmakers on the impact of the 2025 tax fiscal cliff, One Voice is working with lawmakers to eliminate the tax on R&D activities and to restore 100 percent expensing, as options for retroactive solutions become increasingly remote after the May 2024 Senate work period.
Final Rule Banning Methylene Chloride Released
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its rule regulating methylene chloride under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Announced by the EPA on April 30, 2024, the “Methylene Chloride (MC); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)” rule would prohibit the manufacture or import, processing, and distribution in commerce of methylene chloride for consumer use; and prohibit most industrial and commercial uses of methylene chloride, which, among other uses, has applications as a degreaser in metal manufacturing operations. EPA first proposed the rule on May 3, 2023.
The rule sets a phased deadline to eliminate most uses of methylene chloride within 2 years. The bans “will take effect in 270 days for distributing to retailers, 360 days for retailers distributing more broadly, 360 days for manufacturers, 450 days for processors, 630 days for all other distributors and 720 days for industrial and commercial users.”
A small set of uses would still be allowed with the implementation of a workplace chemical protection program (WCPP). These uses include the manufacture of the chemical; its roles as a feedstock for climate-safe refrigerants and as a degreaser for civilian aircraft; various applications at the Department of Defense (DOD), NASA, and Federal Aviation Administration; industrial and commercial use as a processing aid, industrial and commercial use in plastic and rubber products manufacturing, including polycarbonate manufacturing. A WCPP must include inhalation exposure monitoring and limits, recordkeeping, and downstream notification requirements for these limited continued use.
The final rule also includes a new de minimis level, with products in which the level of methylene chloride is present below 0.1 percent by weight are not subject to the restrictions imposed by the rule. The new rule will take effect 60 days after it is formally published in the Federal Register.
Final Rule Regulating PFAS Under CERCLA Issued
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its final rule designating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA), making PFOA and PFOS the first per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to be regulated under the Superfund law. The rule, announced on April 19, 2024, subjects PFOA and PFOS manufacturers and users to new reporting obligations for spills and other releases as well as expanded enforcement.
While PFOA and PFOS are the first PFAS to be regulated under CERCLA, the EPA is still considering future hazardous substance designations of PFAS. Listed as a “long-term action” in the EPA’s regulatory agenda is the “Addressing PFAS in the Environment” rule, which the EPA plans on using to regulate additional PFAS or classes of PFAS, such as fluoropolymers like polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), as hazardous substances. EPA intends to issue a proposed rule in August 2025.
Final NEPA Phase 2 Rule Issued
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has released the final Phase 2 plan overhauling Trump-era National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing rules. The final “Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule” was officially published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2024.
This second rule follows the Phase 1 regulation finalized in April 2022. The Phase 1 rule marked three core changes to NEPA. Under the Phase 1 final rule agencies again are required to assess direct, indirect, and cumulative effects. The rule also reverts to the prior definition of a project’s “purpose and need” to stress it is not the applicant’s prerogative; and states that the CEQ rule is the floor, not the ceiling, for how agencies implement NEPA when they review major federal actions.
The Phase 2 rule, first proposed on July 31, 2023, was expected to substantially modify the 2020 rule by addressing the issues left out of the Phase 1 regulation. However, certain elements of the previous rule were codified in the debt ceiling bill, including the definition of a “major federal action,” which sets limits on the types of projects and actions that trigger NEPA, along with expanded categorical exclusions. The provisions included in the debt ceiling bill require a single lead agency to develop environmental reviews as well as set time limits for those reviews; one year for an environmental assessment and two years for a full environmental impact statement.
The final Phase 2 rule not only includes provisions to update procedural requirements but also requires stronger consideration of climate and environmental justice (EJ) when agencies are conducting environmental reviews for a project. The rule requires that agencies “ should consider the effects of climate change in environmental review and encourage identification of reasonable alternatives that will mitigate climate impacts” and includes a provision stating that projects with only “significant, long-lasting positive impacts” will not require an environmental impact statement. Furthermore, agencies are directed to consider, analyze, and mitigate the impacts on “communities with environmental justice concerns.” The final rule takes effect on July 1, 2024.