Federal Register Watch is The Investigative Journal’s running digest of notable entries in the daily Federal Register, the U.S. government’s official journal of proposed and final rules, agency notices, and presidential documents. Because June 19 fell on the Juneteenth National Independence Day federal holiday, no edition was published that day; this digest covers the most recent issue, dated Thursday, June 18, 2026, which carried 8 final rules, 5 proposed rules, 2 presidential proclamations, and roughly 106 agency notices.
The June 18 edition was unusually heavy on agency information-gathering and deregulatory action. Two of the day’s most consequential items were not rules at all but requests for information — one from Medicare’s administrator on how pharmacy middlemen are paid, another from the derivatives regulator on financial-technology rules — each opening a public comment window that closes within weeks. Below are the entries most likely to matter to readers tracking regulatory policy and government accountability.
1. CMS asks how pharmacy benefit managers get paid, ahead of 2028 limits
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published a Request for Information on Pharmacy Benefit Manager Compensation and Data Collection. According to the notice, the agency is seeking technical input on the “services and business practices” of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their affiliates to inform implementation of recent legislation. The RFI focuses on two statutory requirements that take effect beginning in calendar year 2028: restrictions on the remuneration PBMs and their affiliates may receive for services tied to the utilization of covered Medicare Part D drugs, and new data-reporting obligations.
The underlying requirements were enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, which legal analyses indicate was signed into law on February 3, 2026 and which restructures how Part D middlemen may be compensated. Beginning in 2028, according to summaries published by Pharmacy Times and law firm Sidley Austin, PBMs and their affiliates would be barred from receiving Part D remuneration other than “bona fide service fees,” which the law reportedly requires to be flat amounts not based on a drug’s price. The statute also directs PBMs to file annual reports with plan sponsors and the Secretary covering drug costs, pricing, rebates, pharmacy reimbursement, and revenue retained by the PBM.
For readers tracking drug-pricing transparency, the RFI is an early signal of how aggressively the agency intends to define those terms. Comments must be received by 5 p.m. on July 20, 2026, and may be submitted through Regulations.gov under docket CMS-2026-2212-0001. Because an RFI precedes formal rulemaking, the responses CMS collects now will shape the binding rules that follow.
2. CFTC opens a fintech deregulation review under Executive Order 14405
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a Request for Information on regulations affecting fintech firms. The notice states the Commission is acting pursuant to Executive Order 14405 and is asking market participants to identify rules, guidance documents, orders, and no-action letters that may “unduly impede” fintech firms from partnering with CFTC-regulated intermediaries — among them futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, swap dealers, designated contract markets, and derivatives clearing organizations — or that could be streamlined to ease registration for eligible fintech applicants.
Executive Order 14405, titled “Integrating Financial Technology Innovation Into Regulatory Frameworks,” was signed on May 19, 2026 and directs federal financial regulators to review existing rules within 90 days, according to analyses by law firms Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Hastings. The CFTC’s notice frames the review as balancing innovation against “safety and soundness, consumer and investor protection, market integrity, financial stability, and oversight.”
The comment period is comparatively short. Submissions must be received on or before July 9, 2026, via Regulations.gov docket CFTC-2026-1321-0001. Industry observers, including coverage by PYMNTS, have characterized the move as part of a broader deregulatory posture toward crypto and fintech firms; the public record of comments will indicate which specific rules industry wants relaxed.
3. Two HHS actions extend the “Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden” deregulation drive
The Administration for Children and Families, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, advanced a paired set of deregulatory measures under a common banner. A proposed rule, “Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden for Child Support Enforcement Programs,” would amend federal child-support regulations to eliminate provisions the agency describes as “unnecessary and obsolete” across areas including state plan requirements, program-performance measures, computerized enforcement systems, and the Tribal IV-D program. A plain-language summary is posted on Regulations.gov, and comments are due by July 20, 2026 under docket ACF-2026-0529-0001.
The same agency simultaneously finalized a companion measure, “Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden for Native American Programs,” which amends Native American Programs Act regulations to remove rules the department deems outdated. That final rule takes effect August 17, 2026. Because the child-support measure remains a proposal open to comment while the Native American programs measure is already final, the pair illustrates how the same deregulatory rationale can move at two different speeds. Advocates and program administrators who wish to weigh in on the child-support changes still have a window; the tribal-programs changes are settled absent further action.
4. FDA details emergency authorizations for New World screwworm treatments
The Food and Drug Administration published a Notice of Availability for two Emergency Use Authorizations covering animal drugs to prevent and treat infestations caused by New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) larvae. According to the notice, one authorization was requested by Health and Hygiene (Pty) Ltd. and one by Elanco US Inc., and the products cover livestock and a range of other animals. The EUAs were effective on their issuance dates of April 24 and April 27, 2026, and follow an August 18, 2025 determination by the HHS Secretary that the screwworm threat carried significant potential to affect national security and the health of U.S. citizens.
The authorizations are the regulatory tail of a biosecurity episode that has disrupted cross-border agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has tracked the parasite’s northward spread and repeatedly suspended live-animal imports from Mexico; trade data reported in agricultural press indicate Mexican cattle imports fell sharply after restrictions tightened in 2025. Public-health reference material is maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The screwworm response remains an active story at the intersection of animal health, trade policy, and border enforcement, and the EUAs document the federal tools now deployed against it.
5. Commerce imposes antidumping duties on imported chassis
The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration issued antidumping duty orders on certain chassis and subassemblies from Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam. The order states it follows affirmative final determinations by Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, and it became applicable June 18, 2026. A companion countervailing duty order (document 2026-12329) addressing chassis from Mexico and Thailand was published the same day.
Chassis — the wheeled steel frames that carry shipping containers over the road — are a chokepoint in freight logistics, and trade remedies on them ripple through import costs for retailers and carriers. The orders are findings, not allegations: they reflect the conclusion of formal investigations in which Commerce calculated dumping margins and the ITC found material injury to domestic producers. Affected importers retain administrative and judicial review options, and the precise duty rates by exporter are set out in the published orders.
6. EPA exempts a pesticide surfactant from tolerance requirements
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule exempting residues of resin acids, esters with glycerol (CAS Reg. No. 8050-31-5) from tolerance requirements when used as an inert-ingredient surfactant on growing crops and raw agricultural commodities. According to the rule, the chemical company Croda Inc. petitioned for the exemption under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and EPA concluded a maximum residue level was not necessary for the substance used as directed.
The regulation took effect June 18, 2026, but the agency is not treating the matter as entirely closed: objections and requests for a hearing must be filed by August 17, 2026, under the procedures in 40 CFR part 178. Tolerance exemptions of this kind are routine in volume but collectively define what residues may legally accompany the food supply, making them a recurring item for environmental-health watchers.
7. FAA sets cybersecurity conditions for a connected business jet
In a pair of final “special conditions,” the Federal Aviation Administration addressed cybersecurity risk on a Dassault Falcon 900EX business jet modified by Honeywell Aerospace. The agency found that the modification introduces a digital systems architecture allowing greater connectivity to external networks — operator systems, wireless devices, internet links, and satellite communications — reaching avionics that were “previously isolated.” Because existing airworthiness standards do not address that design, the FAA imposed additional safety requirements to protect against unauthorized external access and, in a companion document, unauthorized internal access.
The conditions are effective for Honeywell as of June 18, 2026, but the FAA is also accepting comments through August 3, 2026 via docket FAA-2026-4885-0001. As aircraft become more networked, these case-by-case rulings are accumulating into the de facto cybersecurity rulebook for civil aviation — a beat worth watching as connectivity expands across the fleet.
Also on file June 18
Other entries of note include a proposed FAA airworthiness directive for Airbus Helicopters, with comments open until August 3, 2026; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration final rules setting Cook Inlet salmon harvest specifications and transferring a summer-flounder quota from North Carolina to Virginia; and an International Trade Commission determination on unwrought palladium from Russia. On the presidential side, the edition carried two routine proclamations from the Executive Office of the President, marking Flag Day and National Flag Week and National Homeownership Month.
Why it matters for TIJ’s beats
Several of these entries sit squarely on The Investigative Journal’s accountability beats. The CMS pharmacy-benefit-manager RFI is the front end of a transparency regime — mandatory PBM data reporting beginning in 2028 — that will, for the first time, route detailed drug-pricing and rebate information to regulators; how CMS defines “bona fide service fees” will determine whether the disclosures have teeth. The recurring “Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden” rulemakings and the CFTC’s Executive Order 14405 review are markers of a wider deregulatory program whose cumulative effect is best measured rule by rule, in the public comment dockets, rather than asserted in the abstract.
The screwworm authorizations and the chassis duty orders, meanwhile, show regulation operating as an instrument of border biosecurity and trade enforcement — areas where agency findings, import data, and company filings leave a documentary trail that rewards scrutiny. The Investigative Journal will continue to monitor these dockets, note approaching comment deadlines, and follow the proposed rules as they move toward final action. Readers who wish to participate can file comments directly through the Regulations.gov links above before the deadlines noted in each section.
Sources: All primary documents cited above are published in the Federal Register (federalregister.gov) and, where applicable, open for comment at Regulations.gov. Supporting context is drawn from U.S. government agencies (CMS, FDA, USDA APHIS, CDC) and from published legal and trade analyses. This digest summarizes public records; characterizations of pending proposed rules reflect their status as proposals open to public comment, not final agency action.