The Investigative Journal’s daily survey of notable entries in the Federal Register, the official daily journal of the United States government. Today’s digest covers the April 28, 2026 edition (Volume 91), the most recent issue published as of this writing. The Office of the Federal Register had not yet released the April 29 edition at press time; we will refresh this digest when it appears on the public inspection desk.
1. DEA places FDA-approved cannabis products in Schedule III, sets new hearing on broader marijuana rescheduling
The Drug Enforcement Administration published two of the most consequential entries in Tuesday’s edition. In a final rule at 91 FR 22714, the Acting Attorney General formally moved drug products containing marijuana that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The rule took effect immediately upon publication on April 28, 2026, and the agency cited its obligation under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as a driver of the action.
In a parallel notice of hearing at 91 FR 22777, DEA announced a fresh administrative hearing on the broader 2024 proposal to reschedule marijuana itself — not merely FDA-approved derivatives — into Schedule III. The hearing is scheduled to begin June 29, 2026; persons wishing to participate must file written notice on or before May 28, 2026. The agency simultaneously withdrew its August 2024 hearing notice, terminating the proceedings that had been frozen since early last year.
DEA’s filings explicitly cite Executive Order 14370 as the directive instructing the agency to complete the rescheduling rulemaking “in the most expeditious manner in accordance with Federal law.” Schedule III placement, if finalized for marijuana broadly, would carry significant tax, banking, and research implications: Internal Revenue Code §280E, which denies ordinary business deductions to sellers of Schedule I and II substances, would no longer apply to state-legal cannabis operators. Filings indicate the hearing record will address scientific, medical, and international-treaty questions that have stalled the proceeding for nearly two years.
2. HUD reopens Equal Access rule, would replace “gender identity” with biological sex
The Department of Housing and Urban Development published a proposed rule at 91 FR 22779 that would harmonize HUD’s Equal Access regulations with the Executive Order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The rule would strike references to “gender” and “gender identity” from the Equal Access framework and replace them, where applicable, with “sex” as defined by the executive order — an “immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
For HUD-funded shelters and programs that use single-sex sleeping or sanitary facilities, the proposal would expressly authorize providers to seek “reasonable assurances and evidence” of an applicant’s sex when admitting people to those facilities. HUD’s notice frames the change as a safety measure for women and girls in shared shelter settings; advocacy groups for transgender homeless individuals have signaled they will oppose the rule.
Comments are due by June 29, 2026, and will be docketed at regulations.gov. The rule reverses guidance HUD issued in 2016 and modified in 2020, and is likely to draw legal challenges similar to those filed against parallel Title IX and Bureau of Prisons revisions. The proposal does not change anti-discrimination protections under the Fair Housing Act, which HUD says it interprets independently of the Equal Access regulations.
3. FERC sets oil pipeline rate ceiling formula for 2026–2031
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued its final order at 91 FR 22920 establishing the index level used to determine annual changes to oil pipeline rate ceilings under the Interstate Commerce Act. For the five-year period beginning July 1, 2026, the Commission has set the index at the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods minus 0.55 percent, abbreviated PPI-FG-0.55%. The order is effective June 29, 2026.
FERC’s index review is one of the most economically significant rate decisions in U.S. infrastructure regulation. The chosen formula governs the maximum annual rate increase liquids pipelines may charge shippers without filing a contested rate case. Records suggest that the prior period’s index (PPI-FG+0.78%) had drawn complaints from shipper groups that argued it overcompensated pipelines amid post-pandemic inflation. The new “minus 0.55 percent” figure represents a modest tightening relative to the trailing five-year benchmark, according to filings in the docket.
Industry analysts will be watching how the revised index interacts with state-level severance and gathering charges, particularly for Permian, Bakken, and Gulf Coast crude flows. TIJ will track downstream rate filings as the new formula takes effect.
4. Commerce finds Indian solar cells dumped, imposes preliminary AD duties
The International Trade Administration published its preliminary affirmative determination at 91 FR 22798 that crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from India — whether shipped as cells or assembled into modules — are being sold in the United States at less than fair value. The investigation period covers July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Commerce also made a preliminary affirmative determination of “critical circumstances, in part,” which can support retroactive duty assessment.
The determination triggers cash deposit requirements for U.S. importers of Indian solar product and is the latest enforcement action targeting the Asian solar supply chain. Indian production capacity has expanded rapidly since 2023 as Chinese-affiliated manufacturers shifted operations to avoid U.S. anti-circumvention orders. Records suggest several India-based exporters with reported ties to Chinese parent companies are among the respondents under investigation.
Interested parties have an opportunity to comment before the final determination. The decision adds further regulatory pressure on residential and utility-scale solar installers that have leaned on Indian-origin cells to backfill capacity lost to earlier duty orders against Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
5. CBP extends emergency import restrictions on Afghan cultural property to 2029
U.S. Customs and Border Protection published a final rule at 91 FR 22713 extending the emergency import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material of Afghanistan that were originally imposed in 2022 under CBP Decision 22-04. The restrictions, issued under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, are extended for an additional three years through April 28, 2029, and the regulatory text is harmonized with CBP’s other listed cultural-property restrictions.
The action keeps Taliban-era looting of Afghan archaeological sites — including pre-Islamic Buddhist iconography from Bamiyan and Hellenistic artifacts from Ai-Khanoum — outside the U.S. legitimate art market. State Department records indicate U.S. import seizures of Afghan material have continued at elevated levels since the 2021 fall of Kabul, with several New York and London auction houses voluntarily withdrawing lots after CBP outreach.
6. OSHA revokes Open Fires in Marine Terminals standard
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration finalized the revocation of its Open Fires in Marine Terminals Standard at 91 FR 22723, effective April 28, 2026. OSHA characterized the standard, codified at 29 CFR 1917.156, as redundant given general workplace fire-protection rules already applicable at port facilities. The revocation is part of a broader regulatory cleanup directed by Executive Order 14219, which instructed agencies to identify and rescind regulations OSHA staff had previously identified as obsolete.
Maritime labor groups, including the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, are expected to scrutinize the revocation through future enforcement data. OSHA’s preamble argues that no significant uptick in marine-terminal fires is anticipated because terminal operators remain bound by 29 CFR 1910.157 (portable fire extinguishers) and the agency’s general duty clause.
7. Treasury seeks comment on cost of AML/CFT compliance survey
The Department of the Treasury published a notice at 91 FR 22915 inviting public comment on a proposed new information collection: a Survey of the Costs of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Compliance. Comments are due May 28, 2026. The survey is the first systematic federal attempt in over a decade to quantify the burden of Bank Secrecy Act compliance on U.S. financial institutions of varying sizes.
The data collection would support Treasury’s statutorily required review of AML/CFT regulations under Section 6216 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which requires the Secretary, in consultation with FinCEN, to evaluate whether existing rules continue to provide “highly useful” information to law enforcement. Industry estimates of compliance costs range widely; an empirically grounded baseline could reshape FinCEN’s pending revisions to the Customer Identification Program rule and beneficial-ownership reporting framework.
8. FCC sets May 1 open meeting on robocalls, telecom equipment security, E-Rate
The Federal Communications Commission published a Sunshine Act notice at 91 FR 22897 setting an open Commission meeting for Thursday, April 30, 2026. The agenda includes a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on stricter “Know-Your-Customer” obligations for voice service originators, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would block companies on the FCC’s Covered List from holding section 214 blanket authority for domestic interstate service (WC Docket No. 26-82), and a Second Report and Order tightening the equipment authorization program for trusted-test-lab certifications (ET Docket No. 24-136).
The Covered List proceeding has direct national-security implications: the list currently identifies Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, Dahua, China Mobile, China Telecom (Americas), China Unicom (Americas), Pacific Networks Corp., and ComNet (USA) as posing unacceptable risks. Records suggest the FCC has been seeking to close gaps that allow some of those entities to continue offering services through resold or transit arrangements.
What this means for TIJ’s beats
Several of Tuesday’s filings intersect directly with The Investigative Journal’s reporting priorities. The DEA marijuana rescheduling proceeding will reshape state-federal banking and tax conflicts that TIJ has tracked since 2023. The Indian solar-cell anti-dumping case is the latest data point in our running investigation of Chinese supply-chain transshipment through third countries — readers should expect a follow-up examining the parent-company structures of the Indian respondents named in the Commerce docket. Treasury’s AML/CFT cost survey, meanwhile, may finally produce the empirical evidence needed to evaluate longstanding industry claims that beneficial-ownership and SAR reporting obligations have become disproportionate to their law-enforcement value.
TIJ will continue monitoring the Federal Register daily and will note significant developments in tomorrow’s digest. Readers are encouraged to file timely comments on the proposed rules above; the Federal Register is the only public mechanism by which a citizen’s record-of-objection can become part of the administrative record reviewed under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Sources: Federal Register, U.S. Government Publishing Office. Citations are to the published edition of April 28, 2026 (91 FR). All comment deadlines reflect the dates printed in the official notices and may be extended by agency action; readers should verify deadlines on regulations.gov before filing.