The federal government's consumer finance watchdog is relaxing a rule on international money transfers that was seen to be overly restrictive.

On Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a change to its regulation of the tens of billions of dollars that Americans send abroad each year. The rule, as required by the Dodd-Frank law, was first published in February 2012, and then supplemented later that year.

The revision relaxes some requirements for processors of the money transfers that banks and consumer advocates alike warned could prevent institutions from processing the remittances. 

Officials from the fertilizer industry fear the accident could trigger a flood of new regulations.

A Washington-area think tank with ties to the Koch brothers and a record of criticizing burdensome government rules said Tuesday that listing President Obama’s proposed regulatory chief as a resident expert was a mistake.

Howard Shelanski, tapped to serve as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has no affiliation with the Mercatus Center, apart from a 2011 speech he gave at an event hosted by the organization, according to center spokeswoman Leigh Harrington.

A federal court on Tuesday swatted down complaints from financial and tech giants who demanded a regulatory intervention by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on stock market fees.

Draft federal rules on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, will be released in a matter of “weeks, not months,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday.

The draft rules have undergone “sufficient change,” Jewell said during a media call. They’ll go through a public comment period once revealed.

Interior decided in January to rewrite the rules that would govern fracking on federal lands.

The Treasury Department is unfreezing the assets of more than a dozen Colombian citizens who petitioned the government to reenter the American financial system.

Sixteen individuals and one company, some designated as narcotics traffickers since 2010, asked the Treasury Department to reevaluate their cases. The department concluded that the petitioners had cut ties with their former partners, and on Tuesday deleted their names from its list of sanctioned people and companies.

The federal environmental regulator has established limits for residues of the chemical weed-killer commercially known as Roundup on fruits and vegetables.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing tolerances for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's popular herbicide brand, on agricultural crops.

The new rule, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, establishes different limits for various crops including carrots, canola seeds and citrus fruits. For instance, the EPA is setting the limit for sweet potatoes at 3 parts per million of the chemical, while most oilseeds have a limit of 40 parts per million.

A new bill meant to ease the burden of new federal regulations on community banks is winning praise from a key industry group, which contends that the flurry of rules crafted in response to the economic crisis would disproportionately harm smaller institutions.

Introduced in recent days by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), the legislation would exempt community banks from a variety of new mortgage reforms – including escrow rules – designed to rein in the risky lending practices blamed for the crisis.

In addition to rules and regulations, Wednesday's Federal Register will announce a series of upcoming meetings of agencies and their advisory committees. Here are the new events:

On May 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a meeting to discuss possible new rules on swaps.