Federal Register Watch is The Investigative Journal’s daily review of the rules, proposed rules, and notices shaping federal policy. All items below appear in the August 20, 2026 edition of the Federal Register; links go to the official documents.
The August 20 edition of the Federal Register is dominated by a proposal with continental reach: the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s move to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which for a quarter century has restricted road-building and timber harvesting across 58.5 million acres of national forest. According to the Office of the Federal Register’s public-inspection listings, roughly 108 documents from 45 agencies were filed for today’s issue. Alongside the roadless proposal, the Justice Department finalized a long-dormant pathway for restoring firearm rights, the IRS proposed restricting refundable tax credits for certain non-citizens, and the Education Department opened a 354-page overhaul of college accreditation for comment. Here is what matters and when the comment windows close.
USDA proposes rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule
The Forest Service proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, the Clinton-era regulation that generally prohibits road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvesting on inventoried roadless areas covering 58.5 million acres of National Forest System land. The filing states the rescission would “return decisionmaking for the management of inventoried roadless areas to the land management planning process at the individual national forest level,” citing wildfire risk, insect infestations, and Executive Orders 14192 (deregulation) and 14225 (timber production). State-specific roadless rules for Idaho and Colorado would remain in effect.
The agency’s own analysis, published with a draft environmental impact statement and cost-benefit analysis under docket FS-2025-0001, is candid about scale: near-term road construction would be constrained by budgets and terrain, but roughly 18.2 million acres — 45.5 percent of the affected area — sit where current forest plans would already allow new permanent roads absent the rule. Active timber management could expand on about 4.8 million operable forested acres, which the Department estimates could lift National Forest System sawtimber harvest 5 to 10 percent and generate $5.2 to $11.4 million annually for the Treasury, while recreation-related economic losses could run an estimated $6.1 million per year. The filing acknowledges total annual impacts “could exceed $100 million,” and the rule is designated economically significant under Executive Order 12866.
The record shows the proposal is contentious before it is even published: a 21-day scoping period last fall drew more than 220,000 comment letters on behalf of over 625,000 individuals and organizations, and the Department reports that the majority sentiment among consulted Tribal governments opposes rescission, while an Alaska Native Corporation supported it. Comments are due 30 days after publication — by September 21, 2026 — via regulations.gov under RIN 0596-AD66. Subsistence hearings in Alaska will be announced separately.
DOJ finalizes firearm-rights restoration process
The Justice Department and ATF published a final rule establishing criteria for relief from federal firearms disabilities under 18 U.S.C. 925(c) — the statute that lets prohibited persons petition the Attorney General to restore their firearm rights. The mechanism has been effectively frozen since 1992, when Congress barred ATF from spending appropriated funds to process applications. The new rule moves administration to the Office of the Pardon Attorney and, per the filing, takes effect 30 days after publication — September 21, 2026 — when the Department will begin accepting applications at justice.gov/ffrr.
The rule’s architecture follows the July 2025 proposal: applicants with prior violent felonies, firearm-brandishing convictions, or SORNA registration obligations would be presumptively unable to establish eligibility; drug-trafficking and misdemeanor domestic-violence convictions carry a presumptive 10-year post-sentence waiting period, other felonies five years. Applications require sworn character references, notification of the applicant’s chief local law enforcement officer, and a fee. The Department reports receiving 15,559 public comments across the interim rule and proposal, roughly 91 percent of them supportive of reviving the process. How the Pardon Attorney’s office handles volume and consistency — the failures that led Congress to defund the ATF program — will be worth watching.
IRS: refundable credits off-limits to non-“qualified aliens”
The IRS proposed regulations providing that the refunded portion of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, American opportunity tax credit, and adoption credit is a “Federal public benefit” under the 1996 welfare reform law (PRWORA). The practical effect, per the filing: individuals who are not “qualified aliens” under that statute would become ineligible to receive the refundable portion of those credits. The proposal (REG-119882-25) also serves as PRWORA’s required public notice of the eligibility change.
The comment window runs 45 days from publication, and the IRS has scheduled a public hearing for October 14, 2026, with attendance requests due by 5 p.m. ET on October 9. Given the millions of households that claim these credits, expect close scrutiny of how “qualified alien” status would be verified at filing time — and litigation risk questions that commenters will surely raise.
Education Department opens accreditation overhaul
The Office of Postsecondary Education filed a 354-page proposed rule revising how the Secretary recognizes accrediting agencies — the gatekeepers that determine which institutions can access more than $100 billion in annual Pell Grants and federal student loans. The proposal implements Executive Order 14279, “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education,” and states its aims as aligning regulation more closely with statute and reducing burden; the Department asserts that many recognized accreditors are failing to serve as “reliable authorities” on educational quality. Comments are due 30 days after publication (by September 21, 2026) under Docket ID ED-2025-OPE-1042 — a short window for a rule of this size, which commenters may themselves flag.
Labor drops merit-staffing mandate for employment services
The Employment and Training Administration finalized a rule removing the requirement that states use state merit-staff employees to deliver Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service programs, allowing states to choose “the most efficient and cost-effective” staffing model — including contractors. The rule effectively reverses the Biden administration’s 2023 rule (88 FR 82658), which had reinstated the merit-staffing mandate after the first Trump administration’s 2020 flexibility rule. It takes effect 60 days after publication, on October 19, 2026. State workforce agencies in the roughly 46 states that never used the 2020 flexibility will now face the choice anew.
SBA proposes resetting size standards for 338 industries
The Small Business Administration filed a pair of proposals — new size standards for 338 industry groups and industries and a revised calculation methodology — that together determine which firms qualify as “small” for federal contracting set-asides, SBA lending, and other programs. Notably, the methodology adjusts receipts-based standards for productivity growth for the first time, in addition to inflation. Size-standard lines move real money: crossing a threshold in either direction changes eligibility for set-aside contracts government-wide. Comments on both documents are due 30 days after publication (by September 21, 2026) under RIN 3245-AI67 and Docket SBA-2026-0199.
EPA: eight Superfund sites off the National Priorities List; neonicotinoid settlement on the table
EPA published a final rule deleting six sites and partially deleting two more from the Superfund National Priorities List, finding all appropriate CERCLA response actions complete. The list includes Miami Drum Services and Pepper Steel & Alloys in Florida, the Kerr-McGee Kress Creek site in DuPage County, Illinois, Rowe Industries groundwater contamination in Sag Harbor, New York, and partial deletions at Velsicol Chemical (Illinois) and the Hastings, Nebraska groundwater site. Per the filing, deletion does not end monitoring or five-year reviews at several sites, and sites can be relisted if conditions warrant.
Separately, EPA noticed a proposed settlement agreement in the D.C. Circuit case In re Natural Resources Defense Council (No. 25-1251), which alleges the agency unreasonably delayed acting on NRDC’s 2020 petition to revoke food-residue tolerances for five neonicotinoid pesticides. Under the proposed settlement, EPA must issue a final decision on the petition by April 30, 2027, with the litigation held in abeyance until then; the case remains pending. Comments are due 30 days after publication under docket EPA-HQ-OGC-2026-6172.
Also on our radar
Several smaller filings intersect with this publication’s accountability beats. CMS filed a Privacy Act system-of-records notice — worth reading for what data Medicare systems newly collect and share. The Bureau of Land Management is renewing its coal management information collection, a window into federal coal leasing paperwork. The FAA proposed an airworthiness directive for Boeing airplanes, and Commerce’s International Trade Administration continues antidumping proceedings on large vertical-shaft engines from China. And EPA’s approval of Arizona’s attainment plan for the Hayden sulfur-dioxide nonattainment area closes another chapter for one of the country’s oldest smelter towns.
Comment deadlines listed reflect the periods stated in each agency’s filing, measured from today’s publication date; where filings insert dates at publication, we compute them from August 20, 2026. Documents were reviewed in their public-inspection form and become official upon publication in today’s issue.