The Investigative Journal’s daily read of the Federal Register, highlighting the rules, proposals, and notices most likely to reshape American regulatory life. This edition covers the most recent entries posted by the Office of the Federal Register, filed April 13, 2026, and available online as of publication.
Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service led the most recent Federal Register edition with a proposed rule on the new excise tax on remittance transfers, while the Environmental Protection Agency moved on two major regulatory fronts — a delay to long-anticipated PFAS reporting and a sweeping revision of coal-ash disposal rules. The Securities and Exchange Commission also cleared a path for Cboe to list options on commodity-based crypto trusts, a notable step in the ongoing integration of digital assets into traditional derivatives markets.
1. IRS Proposes Rules for New Excise Tax on Remittance Transfers
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service published a proposed rule implementing the excise tax on remittance transfers enacted as part of the 2025 tax-and-spending package. The proposal addresses who qualifies as a “remittance transfer provider,” how the tax is computed and remitted, the mechanics of the sender-verification exemption for U.S. citizens and nationals, and the recordkeeping framework providers must follow.
The remittance excise has been among the more closely watched provisions of last year’s legislation because of its potential impact on the roughly $80 billion a year in outbound cross-border consumer transfers originating in the United States, according to World Bank migration and remittances data. Industry groups representing money-transmitter businesses have signaled concerns about compliance costs, while supporters argue the tax aligns enforcement with anti-money-laundering goals.
Treasury invites public comment during the period established in the notice; the filing indicates submissions may be made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Stakeholders in banking, fintech, and consumer-advocacy communities are expected to weigh in on the definition of “qualified sender” and the administrability of the verification exemption.
2. EPA Delays PFAS Reporting Submission Window
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule modifying the start of the submission period for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) reporting under Section 8(a)(7) of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The rule adjusts the opening of the reporting window originally set under the Biden-era PFAS data call, which requires manufacturers and importers to disclose a decade of production and use data for thousands of chemistries.
EPA’s notice frames the shift as an administrative accommodation to ensure the Central Data Exchange reporting system is fully operational when filings begin. Environmental groups have pressed the agency not to further delay the substantive obligation, while trade associations representing chemical manufacturers have generally welcomed additional time to assemble historical records. The rule is effective immediately upon publication.
The PFAS reporting obligation is one of the largest single information collections in EPA’s history, and records compiled through it will shape future risk evaluations, drinking water limits, and potential designation of additional PFAS as hazardous substances under the Superfund statute.
3. EPA Proposes Revisions to Coal Combustion Residuals Rule
In a separate action, EPA published a proposed rule revising the Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System provisions on disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR) from electric utilities. The proposal would introduce new compliance pathways for legacy CCR surface impoundments and clarify obligations covering inactive facilities brought under the rule by the 2024 “CCR Legacy” amendments.
Utilities have argued that aspects of the 2024 framework impose closure and groundwater-monitoring requirements on sites without a clear technical basis, while environmental plaintiffs have defended the prior rule as necessary to address decades of documented contamination. The proposal also revisits exemptions for certain beneficial-use applications of coal ash.
Filings indicate the agency will accept public comment during the period stated in the proposal. Because coal-ash disposal has repeatedly produced litigation in the D.C. Circuit, the final rule that follows is likely to face court challenge regardless of outcome.
4. SEC Approves Cboe Listing Standards for Crypto-Trust Options
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order approving a Cboe Exchange, Inc. proposed rule change that establishes listing criteria for options on commodity-based crypto trusts. The approval allows Cboe to list and trade standardized options on a class of exchange-traded products that hold digital commodities such as bitcoin and ether, subject to the generic listing framework used for other commodity-based trusts.
Commission orders of this kind are narrow in scope but significant in market structure. Standardized options expand hedging tools available to institutional holders of crypto exchange-traded products and typically deepen secondary-market liquidity in the underlying trusts. The order follows a series of approvals dating to 2024 for spot-crypto ETFs and earlier options listings tied to specific issuers.
On the same day the Commission also cleared a NYSE Texas, Inc. proposal permitting generic listing and trading of a new class of exchange-traded fund shares — part of NYSE’s buildout of the Texas-domiciled venue it formally launched in 2025.
5. ITC Opens Antidumping Investigations of PTMEG from Four Countries
The U.S. International Trade Commission instituted preliminary antidumping duty investigations of imports of polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG) from China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. PTMEG is an industrial polymer used principally in spandex and elastic-fiber production and in thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers.
The Commission’s notice sets a preliminary-determination deadline of May 26, 2026, by which it must decide whether there is a reasonable indication that U.S. industry is being materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by reason of the subject imports. A negative preliminary determination would terminate the investigation; an affirmative determination would send the matter to Commerce for further action on provisional duty calculations.
The PTMEG complaint marks the latest in a series of trade-remedy actions targeting Chinese chemical exports and re-exported product from third countries, an issue TIJ has previously reported on in connection with circumvention inquiries involving Southeast Asian processing hubs.
6. Education Department Finalizes “Career Pathways” Supplemental Priority
The Department of Education published a final priority and definitions notice establishing the Secretary’s Supplemental Priority on Career Pathways. The priority allows the Department to steer discretionary grant competitions toward applicants advancing work-based learning, apprenticeship pipelines, and credentialing programs aligned with labor-market needs.
Supplemental priorities are procedural tools rather than standalone programs, but they shape how hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding are awarded each year across K–12, higher-education, and workforce-adjacent programs at the Department. The rule’s definitions section — delineating terms such as “quality career pathway” and “industry-recognized credential” — will govern how applicants frame proposals going forward.
The priority aligns with the administration’s broader emphasis on workforce readiness over traditional baccalaureate degree-centric metrics and is expected to influence upcoming funding notices in career-technical education.
7. FAA Authorizes Hermeus to Exceed Mach 1 in Test Flight
The Federal Aviation Administration published a notice of special flight authorization granting Hermeus Corporation permission to exceed Mach 1 in designated test airspace. The authorization covers Hermeus’s Quarterhorse Mk 2 test vehicle, a hydrogen-fueled demonstrator the Atlanta-based firm is developing under a series of Department of War research contracts.
FAA approval to break the sound barrier during domestic test flights remains uncommon under standing noise rules, and each authorization is granted on a case-specific basis. The notice indicates the Administrator found the public-interest showing sufficient under the relevant exemption framework.
Commercial and defense-oriented supersonic activity has accelerated in recent filings — the FAA issued multiple similar authorizations in 2025 to operators including Boom Supersonic — and the Hermeus notice contributes to a growing record that will inform pending regulatory proceedings on supersonic overland flight.
8. FCC Moves to Debar Individual from E-Rate Program
The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau issued a notice of suspension and commencement of proposed debarment proceedings against Donatus Anyanwu in connection with the schools-and-libraries universal service support mechanism, commonly known as the E-Rate Program. Filings indicate the action is based on a prior criminal conviction triggering the Commission’s mandatory debarment rules.
The E-Rate Program disburses roughly $4 billion a year to subsidize broadband and telecommunications at schools and libraries, and it has been the subject of repeated Office of Inspector General attention over fraud in equipment procurement and invoicing. Debarment notices of this kind typically precede a formal order barring the individual from participating in Universal Service Fund programs for a three-year period.
The filing carries the standard procedural notice that the respondent may contest the proposed debarment, and it does not itself constitute a finding of additional wrongdoing beyond the underlying conviction.
9. SBA Declares Disasters in Tennessee and Louisiana
The Small Business Administration published two disaster declarations of note. The Administrative Declaration of a Disaster for the State of Tennessee, dated April 7, 2026, covers damage from “2026 Severe Winter Storm Fern” and makes economic-injury and physical-damage loans available to eligible businesses, nonprofits, homeowners, and renters. A companion rural-area declaration for Louisiana, dated April 8, 2026, addresses damage from a separate winter storm event.
Administrative declarations differ from presidential major-disaster declarations in that they are issued under the SBA Administrator’s own authority and are limited to SBA-administered loan programs. The declarations set deadlines for physical-damage loan applications and longer windows for economic-injury applications; applicants should consult the declarations for specific dates.
Items Relevant to TIJ’s Investigative Beats
Several of the day’s filings intersect with continuing TIJ reporting interests. The ITC’s PTMEG investigation tracks the broader pattern of Chinese-origin industrial chemicals being routed through Vietnam, Taiwan, and South Korea — a circumvention question TIJ has followed in connection with earlier inquiries on tire and steel trade. The FCC’s E-Rate debarment notice fits into the publication’s continuing coverage of Universal Service Fund fraud, a program area repeatedly flagged by the FCC Office of Inspector General.
EPA’s PFAS timing adjustment and the CCR proposal both sit within the category of regulatory-implementation questions that determine whether statutory mandates translate into measurable environmental outcomes. Records suggest the forthcoming comment files in each matter will offer a detailed view of industry compliance posture. And the IRS remittance-tax proposal — because it bears directly on cross-border consumer money flows — is likely to generate data of interest for the publication’s ongoing work on illicit finance and money-services-business oversight.
Methodology and Sources
All entries summarized above are drawn directly from the Office of the Federal Register’s online publication and API. Direct links to each document are provided in-line; readers are encouraged to consult the original notices for the full text, comment-filing instructions, and any docket identifiers. Where comment deadlines are not explicitly stated in the Commission or agency notice as listed in the Federal Register’s metadata, filers should refer to the published text of each rule or notice for the operative dates and submission channels.
Federal Register Watch is a daily feature of The Investigative Journal. Tips, corrections, and right-of-reply requests may be sent to editor@tij.news.