Federal Register Watch is The Investigative Journal’s daily review of the rules, proposed rules and notices that move money, markets and policy. Today’s edition covers the most recent completed issue of the Federal Register, published Tuesday, September 8 — the September 9 issue posts later this morning and will be reviewed in tomorrow’s Watch.
The September 8 issue ran 182 pages and carried 69 documents from 32 agencies, according to the Office of the Federal Register’s daily tally: three final rules, two proposed rules and 64 notices. Small by page count, the issue nonetheless delivered one of the most consumer-facing tax regulations of the year, opened two significant comment windows at the FCC and the Bureau of Land Management, and quietly closed a nonproliferation sanctions file at the State Department. Here is what matters and when the public can weigh in.
IRS finalizes the $10,000 car-loan interest deduction
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service published final regulations implementing the new deduction for qualified passenger vehicle loan interest — the “no tax on car loan interest” provision enacted by section 70203 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) in July 2025. According to the final rule (91 FR 57214), taxpayers may deduct up to $10,000 per year of interest on a loan incurred after December 31, 2024, to purchase a personal-use vehicle, for tax years 2025 through 2028. The deduction is available to non-itemizers, but the loan must be secured by a first lien and the vehicle must have undergone final assembly in the United States.
The regulations confirm an income phase-down: the deduction is reduced by $200 for each $1,000 of modified adjusted gross income above $100,000 — $200,000 for joint filers. Commenters asked Treasury to extend eligibility to foreign-assembled vehicles or carve out exemptions for large U.S. manufacturers; the agencies declined, writing that the statute “explicitly requires” U.S. final assembly. The rule also finalizes a companion reporting regime: businesses that receive $600 or more in interest on a specified passenger vehicle loan in a calendar year must file information returns and furnish payee statements, with penalties for failures. The regulations take effect November 9, 2026. Trade press had flagged the rule while on public inspection — see coverage from the ABA Banking Journal and a technical walk-through at Current Federal Tax Developments; the Journal of Accountancy covered the proposed version in January.
FCC floats unlicensed-spectrum path for satellite links — comments due November 9
The Federal Communications Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (91 FR 57110, ET Docket No. 26-169) that would permit certain unlicensed devices to communicate directly with satellites on a non-interference basis. Per the NPRM, the Commission is exploring satellite allocations in specific unlicensed bands, clarifying that unlicensed equipment may operate aboard spacecraft, and building what it calls a flexible framework that preserves incumbent operations — citing “recent market growth and new industry investment” in direct-to-device technologies.
The practical stakes are considerable: direct-to-device service is the emerging bridge between terrestrial dead zones and satellite constellations, and the choice of unlicensed bands would lower the barrier to entry below the licensed-spectrum deals that have defined the market so far. Comments are due on or before November 9, 2026; reply comments by December 7, 2026.
BLM proposes streamlined oil and gas permitting in the Alaska Petroleum Reserve — comments due November 9
The Bureau of Land Management published a proposed rule (91 FR 57091, RIN 1004-AF57) to streamline approval of qualifying oil and gas production sites and associated rights-of-way in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The proposal would establish pre-defined criteria for what the agency describes as “defined and repeatable common activities with similar environmental effects”; applications meeting those criteria would move through an expedited permitting track.
The NPR-A — roughly 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope — has been a recurring flashpoint between production advocates and conservation groups, and the definition of which activities qualify as “common” with “similar environmental effects” is likely to be the contested core of the rulemaking. Comments are due on or before November 9, 2026; the filing states BLM is not obligated to consider comments received later.
CFTC locks in swap-clearing shift to new Canadian and Mexican benchmarks
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted a final rule (91 FR 57063) amending its interest rate swap clearing requirement to reflect the retirement of the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR) and Mexico’s interbank TIIE rate. Swaps referencing the replacement benchmarks — CORRA for Canadian dollars and F-TIIE for Mexican pesos — are folded into the set of contracts that must be cleared through a registered or exempt derivatives clearing organization. The rule, effective October 8, 2026, is a housekeeping milestone in the decade-long global migration away from IBOR-style survey rates toward overnight, nearly risk-free reference rates.
USDA gives beef-grading overhaul another 90 days of comment — now due December 7
The Agricultural Marketing Service extended by 90 days the comment period on its request for information about revising the U.S. Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef (91 FR 57125). The RFI, first published July 8, asks among other things whether USDA should eliminate the skeletal maturity requirement for carcasses verified — by dentition or age documents — to be under 30 months. According to the notice, stakeholders sought the extra time so ongoing dentition research can be completed and reviewed. Comments are now due December 7, 2026. The extension lands weeks after an August 31 presidential proclamation on beef affordability, and grading standards shape how carcasses are priced across the supply chain — a detail cattle producers and packers will be watching closely.
State Department lifts nonproliferation measures on South Korean firm
In a two-page notice (91 FR 57207, Public Notice 13119), the State Department announced the termination of measures imposed under the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act on JS Research Inc., a Republic of Korea entity, along with any successors or subsidiaries. Records show the measures were imposed on January 22, 2026, and the decision to terminate was made August 27, 2026. The notice does not state the basis for the reversal — INKSNA determinations are made on classified and unclassified reporting, and the statute does not require a public explanation. At roughly seven months, the designation’s lifecycle was notably brief; the public record consists of the January imposition and this termination, and TIJ will report further only as records become available.
Semiconductor patent fight at the ITC ends in settlement
The International Trade Commission terminated in its entirety Investigation No. 337-TA-1443 into certain foreign-fabricated semiconductor devices (91 FR 57161). The Section 337 case, instituted in March 2025 on a complaint by Dublin-based Longitude Licensing Ltd. and Marlin Semiconductor Limited, had named Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Apple, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and Lenovo, Motorola and OnePlus entities as respondents. According to the notice, Apple settled out in June; complainants and TSMC filed a joint motion to terminate based on settlement in July, and because the remaining respondents were alleged to be TSMC customers, the administrative law judge’s order ended the whole investigation. The Commission voted September 3 not to review that determination. Terms of the settlement agreements are confidential.
CMS sets December town hall on Medicare new-technology payments
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced a virtual town hall for December 9-10, 2026, on fiscal year 2028 applications for new technology add-on payments under the hospital inpatient prospective payment system (91 FR 57153, CMS-1865-N). The meeting is the statutory venue for hospitals, physicians and manufacturers to argue whether applicant technologies represent a “substantial clinical improvement” — the gate that determines which new devices and therapies earn add-on payments on top of standard Medicare rates. Presenters must register by November 2; written remarks are due November 12; and post-meeting comments must arrive by December 14 to be considered in the FY 2028 proposed payment rule.
Deadlines and dockets on TIJ’s beats
For readers tracking comment windows from this issue: FCC direct-to-device comments and BLM Alaska permitting comments are both due November 9, 2026; FCC reply comments and USDA beef-grading comments follow on December 7; and the CMS town-hall sequence runs November 2 through December 14. The IRS car-loan regulations take effect November 9, and the CFTC clearing amendments on October 8.
Elsewhere in the issue, several filings touch beats this desk follows. Commerce published preliminary results of the 2023-2025 antidumping review of brass rod from Brazil, and trade proceedings continued on L-lysine from China and certain walk-behind lawn mowers from China. The DEA posted importer-of-controlled-substances applications from pharmaceutical supply-chain firms including PCI Pharma Services and Fresenius Kabi USA. And the FMCSA is weighing driver-qualification exemption applications involving epilepsy and seizure disorders — the kind of quiet safety-waiver docket that rarely makes headlines until it does.
Methodology: Every item above links to the primary document in the Federal Register; figures and dates are drawn from the published texts. This digest reports agency filings as public records and makes no allegations against any person or entity. Corrections and right-of-reply requests: contact the editor via tij.news. Featured image: U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. — photo by Ioana Ye via Unsplash (free Unsplash license).