The Investigative Journal’s weekly survey of federal rulemaking, drawn from the Federal Register, Reginfo.gov and agency records. The week of June 29 produced 87 final rules and 37 proposed rules, according to Federal Register tabulations, with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) flagging 15 as significant under Executive Order 12866. The dominant theme was deregulation and administrative streamlining across transportation, banking, energy and the civil service.
FAA moves to lift the half-century ban on supersonic flight over land
The week’s marquee action came from the Federal Aviation Administration, which published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would repeal the prohibition on civil supersonic flight over the United States. Current regulations, codified at 14 CFR 91.817, bar civil aircraft from operating above Mach 1 over land without a special authorization — a restriction the FAA first promulgated in 1973 to protect the public from sonic booms. The agency now states that “advancements in technology, flight techniques that prevent sonic booms from reaching the surface, and increased interest in civil supersonic flight” have rendered the flat ban “outdated and no longer appropriate.”
In place of the speed limit, the FAA proposes an interim noise-based certification standard. Records indicate the rule would permit overland supersonic operations where the sonic-boom overpressure at the surface does not exceed a defined threshold, replacing a categorical prohibition with a performance benchmark. The action implements the June 6, 2025 executive order “Leading the World in Supersonic Flight,” which directed the FAA to repeal the overland ban and set an interim standard within 180 days.
The proposal is significant for aerospace developers pursuing quiet-boom designs and could reshape the domestic market for next-generation civil aviation. The comment period is open through August 17, 2026. See the Federal Register notice and the underlying presidential action.
OPM proposes to streamline the firing of federal employees
The Office of Personnel Management and the Merit Systems Protection Board jointly issued a proposed rule titled “Promoting Employee Accountability” that would rework the procedures agencies use to discipline or remove federal workers for poor performance and misconduct. According to the filing, the rule would streamline performance-based and adverse actions, refocus the MSPB’s penalty review on a “totality of the circumstances” test rather than a rigid application of prescribed factors, and restrict settlement agreements that scrub official records of documented performance or conduct problems.
OPM paired that measure with a companion proposal, “Personnel Management in Agencies: Strategic Human Capital Management,” that would replace existing Human Capital Operating Plans with Annual Staffing Plans and strengthen the role of agency Chief Human Capital Officers. Both proposals carry a comment deadline of August 3, 2026. Separately, the agency finalized a rule on “Suitability and Fitness” governing federal employment eligibility, and proposed changes to “Administrative Leave for Workforce Realignment,” which addresses deferred-resignation programs, with comments due July 29.
Taken together, the OPM package represents one of the more consequential civil-service rulemakings of the year, and public-sector unions and management-side employment lawyers are likely to weigh in heavily. Filings are available for Promoting Employee Accountability, Strategic Human Capital Management, and Suitability and Fitness.
DHS proposes EB-5 investor visa integrity rule
The Department of Homeland Security published a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, the bipartisan law that overhauled the immigrant-investor visa program and its associated Regional Center Program. The EB-5 category allows foreign nationals to seek lawful permanent residence by making a qualifying investment in a U.S. commercial enterprise that creates at least 10 full-time jobs for American workers.
The proposal, which also addresses automatic revocation of certain petitions, would formalize integrity provisions Congress enacted in 2022, including measures aimed at fraud deterrence and program oversight. DHS is accepting comments through August 31, 2026. The rule is one of 15 actions this week that OIRA designated significant. The Federal Register notice details the proposed changes.
EPA proposes sixth round of unregulated drinking-water monitoring
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed the Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6), which would require public water systems to collect national occurrence data on 30 contaminants not currently subject to federal drinking-water standards. The list includes seven ultrashort-chain organofluorine compounds — a category that encompasses certain PFAS “forever chemicals” — along with three pesticide metabolites, 13 semivolatile organic compounds and seven purgeable organic compounds.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the UCMR program gathers occurrence data to inform future regulatory decisions; the results are made publicly available. Subject to appropriations, the EPA would require monitoring by all community and non-transient non-community systems serving 3,300 or more people, plus a representative sample of smaller systems. Comments are due July 31, 2026, and the agency has scheduled two public webinars. See the proposed rule.
DOT rolls back airline fee-disclosure requirements
The Department of Transportation finalized a rule, “Increasing Flexibility on Disclosure of Airline Ancillary Fees,” that implements the Fifth Circuit’s vacatur of the department’s 2024 ancillary-fee transparency rule. Because the court’s decision reinstated the prior regime, DOT revised the Code of Federal Regulations to restore the fee-disclosure standards that existed before 2024, returning to rules established in 2011. The final rule took effect as a conforming action to the court order.
In a related proposal, “Enhancing Flexibility of Air Fare Price Advertising,” DOT would allow carriers to display the total fare — including taxes and fees — with the same prominence as individual price components, and would rescind nine older air-fare advertising guidance documents the department describes as “outdated and unnecessary.” The department argues some of those guidance documents “improperly functioned as de facto regulations” without notice-and-comment. Comments on the advertising proposal close July 31, 2026. The documents are posted as the final ancillary-fee rule and the advertising NPRM.
FDIC proposes higher bank thresholds and lower assessment rates
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation advanced two proposals that would ease requirements on banks. The first, “Assessments Thresholds, Rate Schedules, and Adjustments,” would raise the asset threshold separating “small” from “large” institutions from $10 billion to $30 billion — indexed to inflation every four years — and cut initial base deposit-insurance assessment rates by 2 basis points for small institutions and 1 basis point for large and highly complex institutions. The rule would also create a “resolution readiness” adjustment of up to 1 basis point for large institutions that pass data-room testing and provide prescribed data access.
The companion proposal, “Resolution Submissions Required for Covered Insured Depository Institutions,” would raise and automatically update the $50 billion asset threshold that triggers resolution-planning obligations, pare back the content of required submissions, and eliminate the FDIC’s “credibility assessment” and capability-testing expectations under the current rule. Both carry comment deadlines of August 31, 2026. The filings are the assessments proposal and the resolution-submissions proposal.
Interior proposes to simplify federal oil, gas and coal valuation
The Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) proposed amendments to its federal oil, gas and coal valuation regulations and to the standard of review for director-level appeals. Citing executive and secretarial orders, ONRR states the rulemaking would “likely reduce cost and burden to industry and the Federal Government by simplifying regulatory requirements and ultimately incentivize production to unleash energy dominance.” The office is soliciting comment on all aspects of the proposal through August 31, 2026. The action fits a broader deregulatory posture across the resource agencies this week; see the Federal Register notice.
FDA proposes registration rules for foreign tobacco makers
The Food and Drug Administration proposed regulations to prescribe the format, content and procedures for tobacco-product establishment registration and product listing. The agency notes that under current requirements, only domestic owners and operators must register establishments and list products, while foreign owners and operators are not — “creating significant gaps in Agency information.” The proposal would extend registration and listing requirements to owners and operators of foreign establishments. FDA is accepting comments through September 14, 2026. The notice outlines the proposed framework.
NRC proposes risk-informed framework for low-level radioactive waste
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed to amend its low-level radioactive waste disposal regulations to expand coverage to certain transuranic wastes and introduce a risk-informed framework under which disposal sites could develop site-specific waste-acceptance criteria rather than following prescriptive limits. The proposal describes a “graded approach”: facilities not accepting significant quantities of long-lived radionuclides or Greater-Than-Class C waste would face streamlined requirements, while those managing higher-risk streams would conduct technical safety assessments. The NRC is also issuing draft implementing guidance and has scheduled a public meeting. Comments are due August 17, 2026. Details are in the proposed rule.
A wave of deregulatory rescissions
Several agencies used the week to strike existing regulations. The Department of Labor finalized a rule rescinding portions of its Title VI regulations, and companion final rules rescinded new-construction requirements and general provisions tied to nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families finalized “Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden for Children, Youth, and Family Programs,” removing what it called “duplicative and unnecessary” sections of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program rules.
The Education Department separately proposed to rescind its International Education Programs and Fulbright-Hays Program regulations, saying the change would give the department “greater flexibility” to align the programs with priorities such as workforce readiness and national competitiveness; comments close July 31. And the EPA finalized “Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks,” revising January 2025 interim guidelines on quantifying the carbon intensity of crops used in biofuels — an action tied to recent executive direction on agricultural policy.
Watching the TIJ beats
Several actions bear directly on accountability, national-security and financial-markets coverage. On supply-chain security, the Defense Department issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement’s restrictions on acquiring printed circuit boards from covered nations, implementing provisions of the FY2021 and FY2022 defense authorization acts that target reliance on adversary sources; comments close August 31. On financial markets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a new data-reporting framework for certain event contracts — the fast-growing “prediction market” products — with comments due July 31, and joined the Securities and Exchange Commission in a joint request for comment on portfolio and cross-margining of securities and derivatives.
On drug policy, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a notice of intent to place four novel synthetic opioids — chlorphine and brorphine analogs — in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. And on higher-education accountability, the Education Department finalized its “Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS)” rule tied to demand-driven Workforce Pell and earnings accountability. Readers tracking these dockets can monitor the review status of significant rules through OIRA’s dashboard at Reginfo.gov.
All items above are drawn from public records published in the Federal Register between June 29 and July 3, 2026. Comment deadlines are as stated in each agency’s notice and are subject to change; readers should verify current deadlines and submit comments via the docket links in each Federal Register entry or at Regulations.gov.