Administration

The overpayment is the lowest in a decade, but the Treasury estimates $132.6 billion was improperly distributed since 2003.

Thirty-two Republican senators on Monday warned President Obama that he does not have the authority to require that federal agencies consider the impact of their actions on climate change. 

Led by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the senators cautioned the administration against including greenhouse gas emissions in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews.

If Obama instructs federal agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through NEPA, it would amount to “a backdoor method to pursue a policy preference that cannot be passed through Congress,” the Republican senators said in a letter sent Monday.

HHS initiates a rulemaking process aimed at removing legal barriers that are keeping states from sharing records.

Animal rights groups are meeting with the White House to ensure that regulations protecting an endangered whale species do not expire in December.

The rule says that large boats traveling in specific areas along the Eastern Seaboard need to travel 10 knots — or 11.5 miles per hour — to avoid hitting the North Atlantic right whale, a relatively slow-moving animal that eats by filtering small organisms through its open mouth.

The IRS is having issues routing and screening the forms it asks people to submit if they suspect tax fraud, according to a new audit.

The Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration said that two separate IRS divisions — one for wage and investments, the other for small businesses — did not have routines for reviewing the tens of thousands of forms they receive every year.

According to the inspector general, the IRS’s accounts management function also wrongly sent referrals to the small business and wage divisions around a third to 40 percent of the time.

“The IRS must ensure that it makes effective use of information from those individuals who report suspected tax fraud,” Russell George, the tax administration inspector general, said in a statement. “This is a critical component of the IRS’s enforcement efforts.”

Thursday's Federal Register will include a number of new meeting announcements:

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board is meeting April 22 in Washington, D.C., to discuss investment, planning and activity reports.

The National Science Board's Task Force on Administrative Burdens is also meeting April 22, and will discuss proposed guidance on federal awards from the Office of Management and Budget.

A slew of new rules are set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday. Here are the highlights:

Energy and Environment:
The Department of Energy is adopting more stringent energy conservation standards for electric power distribution transformers.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is withdrawing a February rule that excluded a compound from the definition of volatile organic compounds.

The EPA is also proposing to require that manufacturers, importers and processors of eight chemical substances notify the agency before the chemical is used for a new activity.

The Farm Credit Administration is adopting a regulation to strengthen the system's banks' liquidity.
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The Obama administration is delaying Tax Day for all of those affected by the bomb attacks in Boston on Monday.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has until further notice blocked flights under 3,000 feet within a 2.3-mile radius centered on the location of Monday’s explosions, The Associated Press reports.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) plans to issue a cease-and-desist order JPMorgan Chase & Co. for failing to report suspicious activity during the Bernie Madoff affair, according to an exclusive report from Reuters. The order would require JPMorgan to put an end to failures in its anti-money laundering practices.

The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) are pushing back their deadline for large banks to submit their “living wills” to the financial regulators, The Wall Street Journal reports. (subscription required)

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The Obama administration is relaxing certain U.S. sanctions on the war-torn country of Sudan, the Treasury Department announced on Monday.

The new regulations provide exemptions for academic travel or non-profit work and noncommercial research in the country. It represents a shift in policy since President Clinton first installed sanctions on Sudan in 1997. Every president thereafter has renewed or strengthened them, including President Obama.