Federal agencies closed out the first week of August with one of the most consequential stretches of rulemaking this year: 83 final rules and 36 proposed rules published in the Federal Register between August 3 and August 7, according to Federal Register data. The headline development is a four-rule package from the Office of Personnel Management that rewrites how federal layoffs are conducted and who hears employee appeals. The week also brought a $2.1 billion Medicare hospital payment update, a permanent visa bond program at the State Department, a Defense Production Act order restricting exports of battery and tungsten scrap, and a sweeping Federal Communications Commission proposal targeting foreign equipment in U.S. networks. Below, The Investigative Journal breaks down the week’s most significant regulatory actions and the comment deadlines that matter.
OPM finalizes reduction-in-force overhaul, prioritizing performance over tenure
The Office of Personnel Management published a final rule on August 3 revising the government’s reduction-in-force (RIF) regulations, which govern how agencies decide which employees are retained during layoffs and reorganizations. According to the rule’s summary, the revisions are intended to make RIF procedures “more streamlined, efficient, and merit-based by prioritizing performance over tenure and length of service” in retention decisions, and by modifying which categories of employees are excluded from RIF competition. The rule (RIN 3206-AO86) also revises regulations governing the reemployment priority list, career transition assistance programs, and transfers of function.
The rule takes effect September 2, 2026. It is the capstone of a rulemaking effort that began with a March proposal and drew heavy public attention; Government Executive reported that the package was announced by OPM at the end of July alongside three companion appeals rules. For agencies planning workforce restructuring, the practical effect is that recent performance ratings will weigh more heavily — and seniority less heavily — in determining who stays. The regulatory history and OIRA review record for the rule can be traced through Reginfo.gov’s EO 12866 review database.
Three companion rules move employee appeals from MSPB to OPM itself
Alongside the RIF rule, OPM published three final rules — Reduction in Force Appeals (RIN 3206-AO99), Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals (RIN 3206-AO96), and Suitability Action Appeals (RIN 3206-AO97) — that collectively replace the Merit Systems Protection Board with OPM as the adjudicator for appeals of RIF actions, probationary terminations, and suitability determinations. All three take effect September 2, 2026. According to the rules’ summaries, OPM will run a “uniform, record-based” appeal process intended to improve timeliness and consistency, with the agency required to produce its complete record.
The change is contested. Government Executive reported that OPM’s own preamble acknowledged 99% of roughly 1,250 public comments on the RIF appeals rule were opposed, and quoted former MSPB member Raymond Limon calling the shift “an existential threat to due process.” OPM Director Scott Kupor, in a blog post cited in the same report, defended the move on efficiency grounds, writing that the MSPB’s backlog “stretches to many months and, in some cases, years” and that OPM’s internal process is designed to be “faster, more efficient, and, critically, structurally independent.” Records suggest litigation over the final rules is plausible given the volume of opposition comments, though as of publication TIJ has not independently confirmed any filed challenges to the final versions.
CMS hospital payment rule adds an estimated $2.1 billion for FY 2027
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published its FY 2027 Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule on August 4, setting Medicare payment rates for acute care and long-term care hospitals effective October 1, 2026. According to the CMS fact sheet, the rule finalizes a 2.3% payment rate increase — a 3.2% market basket update minus a 0.9 percentage point productivity adjustment — which CMS expects will increase hospital payments by approximately $2.1 billion overall. New technology add-on payments are projected to rise by roughly $779 million.
Beyond the annual rates, the rule expands the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model into a nationwide, mandatory bundled-payment program for hip, knee, and ankle replacements — dubbed CJR-X — beginning January 1, 2028, a significant expansion of mandatory value-based payment. CMS states the underlying model “produced strong evidence of cost savings while maintaining quality of care.” The rule also conditions Medicare graduate medical education payments on residency programs not discriminating on the basis of race, sex, or other protected characteristics, including through what CMS calls “intentional proxies” — extending nondiscrimination requirements CMS finalized in an earlier outpatient payment rule.
State Department makes visa bonds permanent, up to $20,000
The State Department published a final rule on August 3 converting its 12-month visa bond pilot into a permanent program, effective immediately. Under the rule (RIN 1400-AG33), consular officers may require covered applicants for B-1/B-2 visitor visas to post a bond of up to $20,000 as a condition of visa issuance, designed to ensure the visitor “maintains his or her nonimmigrant status and departs as required,” according to the rule’s summary.
The pilot launched August 20, 2025, and the department’s decision to finalize it signals that visa bonds are now a durable feature of consular practice rather than an experiment. The rule gives consular officers discretion over both whether to require a bond and its amount. Travel and immigration practitioners will want to review the rule’s text for the criteria governing which applicants are covered; the filing indicates bond determinations are made case-by-case at the consular level.
Commerce restricts exports of battery “black mass” and tungsten scrap under the Defense Production Act
The Bureau of Industry and Security published a temporary final rule on August 6 that, effective August 27, 2026, requires U.S. persons selling black mass — the shredded, metals-bearing material recovered from recycled batteries — and tungsten waste and scrap to allocate 100% of monthly sales to U.S. persons unless BIS grants an adjustment or exception in advance. Exports without a license are restricted.
The order is issued under Section 101 of the Defense Production Act and a Presidential Determination on Recoverable Critical Minerals and Materials dated July 30, 2026, which, according to the rule, authorized Commerce “to address the scarcity of recoverable critical minerals and materials.” The action effectively reserves domestic battery-recycling feedstock and tungsten scrap for U.S. buyers — a notable use of DPA allocation authority in the critical minerals supply chain. BIS is inviting public comment on whether additional sales requirements are necessary, giving recyclers, traders, and battery manufacturers a window to weigh in on a rule that directly reorders their export markets.
FCC proposes major expansion of its communications equipment security rules
The FCC published a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on August 7 seeking comment on a broad set of measures to tighten its equipment authorization program against national-security threats in the communications supply chain. Among the proposals: splitting the Covered List of equipment deemed to pose unacceptable national security risks into producer-based and production-location-based categories; addressing “white labeling,” in which covered equipment is rebranded and sold under another name; requiring hardware and software bill-of-materials disclosures; prohibiting authorization of equipment containing Covered List components or software; and requiring a U.S.-based party to accept liability for FCC-certified equipment.
The filing indicates the Commission is also weighing term limits on equipment authorizations, streamlined revocation procedures, registration requirements for devices sold under Supplier’s Declarations of Conformity, and codified definitions for drones and routers. Comments are due September 8, 2026 — a short window for a proposal of this breadth, and one that equipment manufacturers, importers, and retailers with exposure to covered supply chains should not miss.
PHMSA publishes 16-rule deregulatory package for hazardous materials transport
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration published 16 final rules on August 4 — by TIJ’s count of the agency’s Federal Register docket — trimming hazardous materials regulations the agency describes as obsolete, overly burdensome, or duplicative. The package includes rules removing rail reporting requirements (effective September 3, 2026), reducing training burdens for farmers, cutting recordkeeping and paperwork requirements for domestic carriers, easing rules for aerosol shippers and limited-quantity shipments, and adopting several longstanding special permits into the general regulations so companies no longer need individual authorizations.
Individually, each rule is modest; collectively, the package is one of the largest single-day deregulatory actions by a DOT agency this year and a clear marker of the administration’s regulatory-relief agenda in freight transportation. Shippers and carriers should review the effective dates rule by rule, as several take effect in early September.
Interior proposes easing Arctic offshore exploratory drilling requirements
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management jointly published a proposed rule on August 6 revising the 2016 Arctic Exploratory Drilling Rule (RIN 1082-AA05). According to the proposal, the bureaus would modify real-time monitoring requirements for blowout preventers on the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, add provisions for crane operations on artificial islands and for suspensions of operations and production, and revise portions of the exploration plan and development plan regulations — changes the Department of the Interior says would “reduce unnecessary burdens on stakeholders while ensuring that energy exploration on the Arctic OCS is safe and environmentally responsible.”
The proposal is a significant step in reopening the regulatory path for Arctic offshore exploration, an area where the 2016 requirements have been cited by industry as a barrier to activity. Comments are due October 5, 2026.
Banking regulators propose loosening insider-lending limits
The FDIC published a proposed rule on August 6 that would raise the thresholds governing loans banks may extend to their own executives and insiders (RIN 3064-AG26). The proposal would increase the cap on certain extensions of credit to executive officers from $100,000 to $400,000 and raise the threshold requiring prior board approval for insider loans from $500,000 to $2,000,000, with an indexing methodology to update the figures over time. The Federal Reserve published companion proposals on August 4 addressing loans to executive officers, directors, and principal shareholders of member banks and regulatory relief for mutual holding companies.
The agencies frame the changes as modernization: the existing dollar thresholds date to earlier eras and have not kept pace with inflation. Consumer advocates and community bank watchdogs will likely scrutinize whether a fourfold increase in insider lending caps weakens a guardrail written after past self-dealing scandals. Comments on the FDIC and Federal Reserve proposals are due October 5, 2026.
Also notable this week
The Treasury Department published a final rule rescinding portions of its Title VI civil rights regulations to eliminate disparate-impact liability, effective August 3 — implementing the executive order “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” and, according to the department, aligning its rules “with Title VI’s original public meaning.” The Mine Safety and Health Administration reopened the rulemaking records on its proposed ventilation plan and roof control plan approval criteria rules and scheduled virtual public hearings, with comments now due September 30, 2026. The Department of Transportation extended enforcement discretion on four provisions of its airline wheelchair rule to April 30, 2027, while it completes a new rulemaking. And the Administration for Children and Families proposed reducing federal requirements for Head Start programs, with comments due October 6, 2026.
Comment deadlines to watch
- September 8, 2026 — FCC communications equipment security FNPRM.
- September 30, 2026 — MSHA ventilation plan and roof control plan proposals (reopened records).
- October 5, 2026 — Interior Arctic OCS drilling proposal; FDIC insider-credit proposal; Federal Reserve insider-lending and mutual holding company proposals.
- October 6, 2026 — HHS Head Start burden-reduction proposal.
On TIJ’s beats
Two actions this week sit squarely on The Investigative Journal’s supply-chain and foreign-influence beats. The FCC’s equipment authorization proposal — particularly its measures on white-labeled equipment, component-level prohibitions, and a required U.S.-based liable party — is aimed at closing the pathways by which covered foreign equipment reaches American networks under unfamiliar brand names, an issue TIJ has tracked in the logistics and consumer-device sectors. And the BIS allocation order on black mass and tungsten scrap is a direct federal intervention in the critical minerals trade, keeping recyclable battery material inside U.S. borders rather than flowing to overseas processors. Readers with information about how these rules affect their industries can reach the newsroom through our contact page. All documents cited above are available in full at the Federal Register and via Reginfo.gov’s Unified Agenda.
Featured image: The Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building, headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Washington, D.C. Photo by ajay_suresh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
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