Federal Register Watch is The Investigative Journal’s daily review of the rules, proposed rules, notices, and presidential documents shaping federal policy. All items below are drawn from documents filed with the Office of the Federal Register and scheduled for publication in the August 25, 2026 edition, per the OFR’s public inspection listings. Unpublished documents can differ marginally from the official published editions; readers relying on them for legal purposes should consult the final versions.
White House issues new National Space Transportation Policy, sets 1,000-launch goal
The most consequential document in today’s edition is a presidential one: a National Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-17, dated August 20 and published today as the National Space Transportation Policy. The memorandum declares access to space “a vital national and economic security interest” and sets a concrete target: by 2030, U.S. space transportation ranges “must grow to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries every year.” The document supersedes and revokes Presidential Policy Directive 26 of November 2013, the Obama-era space transportation policy that had governed the field for more than a decade.
The policy’s operational core is a series of deadline-driven taskings. Within 180 days, the Secretary of War and NASA must promulgate federal range scheduling criteria that maximize commercial use; the Secretary of Transportation must identify potential locations for additional launch facilities, integrate launch and reentry management into airspace modernization, and designate “priority airspace for critical space launch corridors.” Within 90 days, the Interior Department must identify federal lands to serve as an additional designated reentry site. The memorandum also directs agencies to favor commercial services, requires U.S. government payloads to launch on American-made vehicles subject to narrow exceptions, and establishes case-by-case review of requests to launch or reenter foreign space vehicles in the United States.
For industry, the document signals continued consolidation of a commercial-first posture: it directs NASA to develop a lunar logistics architecture built on commercial transportation and to explore commercial robotic and human access to the surface of Mars. Implementation, per the text, runs through the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology under Executive Order 14369 of December 18, 2025 (“Ensuring American Space Superiority”).
FAA opens 60-day comment window on new spaceport siting and priority airspace
Published alongside the policy is its first implementing action: an FAA request for information on siting new spaceports and priority airspace for critical space launch corridors (Docket No. FAA-2026-9736). The RFI states that the United States conducted 217 of 329 worldwide launches in 2025, that three federal sites — Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center, and Vandenberg — account for 83 percent of U.S. launches, and that FAA-licensed launches and reentries are expected to reach 10,000 a year by 2035. The agency describes federal ranges as “strained” and warns that site availability may become a bottleneck.
Notably, the RFI asks the public to weigh in on previously considered spaceport locations, naming Spaceport Shiloh in Florida, the stalled Camden Spaceport in Georgia, a Puerto Rico spaceport concept, and launch platforms converted from oil rigs. It also floats public-private partnerships through the Transportation Department’s new National Infrastructure Development Office as a financing route. Written comments are requested within 60 days of publication — on or about October 24, 2026. Responses will feed directly into the site-identification report the NSPM requires the Transportation Secretary to deliver to the White House within 180 days.
DHS proposes $103,265 fee on H-1B cap-subject petitions
The Department of Homeland Security is publishing a 67-page proposed rule that would establish a $103,265 fee, payable at filing, for all H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those under the advanced-degree exemption — on top of all other applicable fees. According to the notice, the figure derives from dividing $8,777,488,035 in government-wide immigration administration costs across a projected 85,000 fee-paying petitions, with revenue intended to support adjudications, fraud detection, and vetting activities at USCIS as well as related work at CBP, ICE, the immigration courts, the State Department, and the Labor Department. DHS cites its cost-recovery authority under sections 286(j) and (m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The filing is explicit that this fee is separate from the $100,000 payment required by Proclamation 10973 of September 2025, which restricted entry of certain nonimmigrant workers. The rule notes that on June 8, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated the agency guidance implementing that proclamation’s payment (California et al. v. Mullin), that the government’s appeal remains pending before the First Circuit, and that the proclamation, unless extended, will expire before the proposed fee takes effect. In other words, the rulemaking would place on independent statutory footing a six-figure charge whose proclamation-based predecessor is tied up in litigation.
The comment period is unusually short for a rule of this scale: 30 days from publication, closing on or about September 24, 2026, via Docket No. USCIS-2026-0298 at regulations.gov. Employers, universities, and immigration practitioners who want the economic assumptions on the record will need to move quickly.
Seven agencies rescind 2022 special purpose credit program guidance
In a joint notice effective on publication, the FDIC, NCUA, OCC, CFPB, HUD, the Justice Department, and FHFA are rescinding the February 22, 2022 Interagency Statement on Special Purpose Credit Programs under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B. The 2022 statement had encouraged creditors to offer lending programs designed to meet the credit needs of specified classes of persons. The agencies now state that the statement referenced a version of Regulation B that was amended in April 2026 (91 FR 21620), and that prior interpretations “cannot be reconciled” with the statutory text of ECOA and the Fair Housing Act. The notice cites the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision and a series of executive orders on deregulation and nondiscrimination.
The practical message to lenders is spelled out in the document: all special purpose credit programs must comply with ECOA, Regulation B, and the FHA, and “creditors should not rely upon previous guidance which may have suggested otherwise.” The notice states that federal law does not authorize “generalized remedial ‘equity’ initiatives absent specific cases of unlawful discrimination.” The rescission follows earlier withdrawals of HUD’s 2021 special purpose credit program guidance (September 2025) and the CFPB’s 2020 advisory opinion (June 2026). Banks and credit unions operating such programs — many launched after the 2022 statement — will be reassessing them against the revised Regulation B’s standards.
CBP declares four offshore customs-enforcement areas, extending boarding authority to 24 nautical miles
Invoking the Anti-Smuggling Act of 1935, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is publishing a declaration establishing four Customs-Enforcement Areas in near-shore waters off South Florida, the Texas Gulf Coast, Central and Southern California (including the Channel Islands), and Puerto Rico. Within the designated areas, the declaration extends customs officers’ authority to hail, stop, board, search, and seize vessels from the customary 12 nautical miles out to 24 nautical miles from the baseline, aligned with the U.S. contiguous zone.
The document justifies the move with five-year enforcement data: nearly 77,000 pounds of narcotics seized and 26,000 apprehensions in the South Florida area alone, and some 860,000 pounds of cocaine seized around Puerto Rico. CBP states the areas do not close any waters to navigation or impose new reporting requirements, though vessels within them may be subject to boarding and examination. The declaration’s severability language — expressly anticipating that a court might enjoin one or more areas — suggests the agency is braced for legal challenge. The action is framed as implementing Executive Order 14165 (“Securing Our Borders”) and Executive Order 14411 (“Strengthening Customs Enforcement”).
EPA opens comment period on glyphosate literature search ahead of late-2026 risk assessment
The EPA is publishing a notice of availability for its open literature search supporting the ongoing registration review of glyphosate, the nation’s most widely used herbicide and the subject of years of litigation and scientific dispute. The notice opens a 30-day comment period — closing on or about September 24, 2026 — for the public to identify peer-reviewed studies missing from the agency’s search results (Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361). The search will inform an updated human health risk assessment the agency says is targeted for completion in late 2026, which would itself then be released for public comment.
The notice states that EPA’s screening followed systematic review approaches consistent with Executive Order 14303 (“Restoring Gold Standard Science”). For farm groups, public health advocates, and the crop-protection industry alike, the completeness of this literature base will shape the evidentiary foundation of one of the most closely watched pesticide decisions on the regulatory calendar.
NRC clears early site work for small modular reactors at Palisades
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is issuing an environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact for an exemption sought by Palisades SMR, LLC, tied to the proposed dual-unit SMR-300 plant — Pioneer Units 1 and 2 — at the Palisades Energy Center in Covert, Michigan. The exemption would allow construction of permanent support-of-excavation walls before the NRC rules on a limited work authorization. According to the filing, the company argued that waiting would add significant delay and cost, and could postpone the addition of 680 megawatts of generation in Michigan; the company proceeds at its own risk, as the grant “would not constitute a commitment” to approve the construction permit.
The notice also discloses the project’s broader schedule: the NRC expects to publish a draft environmental impact statement for the full construction, operation, and decommissioning review in the fall of 2026. The filing is an early procedural milestone in what would be among the first SMR deployments co-located with an existing U.S. nuclear plant — a project energy watchers will track as a test of whether the advanced-reactor licensing pipeline can move at the pace its backers promise.
Cuba sanctions authorities extended through September 2027
In a one-page determination (No. 2026-21), the President is continuing the exercise of Trading With the Enemy Act authorities with respect to Cuba for one year, through September 14, 2027. The annual renewal is the legal keystone for the Cuban Assets Control Regulations administered by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control; the authorities would otherwise have lapsed on September 14, 2026. Separately, OFAC has three sanctions-related notices in today’s edition, and filings indicate an amendment to the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations is scheduled to publish tomorrow.
On TIJ’s radar
Several additional filings intersect with beats this publication follows. The Office of Personnel Management is publishing five correction documents to its recent civil service rules — including corrections to its reduction-in-force regulations and to rules streamlining probationary and trial-period appeals (RIF correction, probationary appeals correction) — technical amendments worth reading closely given the scale of the federal workforce restructuring they implement. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is publishing an information collection tied to directive allocation orders under the Defense Priorities and Allocations System in response to a presidential determination on recoverable critical minerals — a paper trail worth watching for how allocation authority is used in mineral supply chains.
Looking one day ahead, public inspection filings show two significant items scheduled for Wednesday’s edition: a 95-page Postal Service final rule on ballot mail for federal elections, relevant to election administration ahead of the November midterms, and a DEA order temporarily placing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and two related kratom-derived compounds in Schedule I. Both will be covered in this space.
All documents cited are public records available at federalregister.gov and regulations.gov via the links above. Comment deadlines are calculated from the scheduled publication date and should be verified against the published documents.