The Obama administration is extending rules that allow the government to set the salaries and severance packages for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Treasury Department's criminal enforcement agency is withdrawing a clarification to a proposed rule that will require financial institutions to report information about international wire transfers, including the senders' and receivers' Social Security numbers.

The original proposal, which is still pending at the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) was designed to target money laundering by drug cartels and terrorist groups by requiring institutions to provide a record of wire transfers and taxpayer identification numbers, which are often Social Security numbers, for all foreign monetary transmissions.

The supplement was designed to "clarify some aspects" of the proposal, and was under review by the White House when the FinCEN withdrew it on Friday, according to agency spokesman Steve Hudak.

"It doesn't indicate a change in policy or a cancellation of any program," he added.

Currently, institutions need only to keep records of wire transfers of more than $3,000, and only report them if asked by the FinCEN.

Agencies will announce a series of meetings throughout the summer in Tuesday's Federal Register. Here they are:

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is meeting on May 16 at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., to discuss a number of new and proposed rules. 

New rules will be published in Tuesday's Federal Register on immigration, agriculture, housing issues and more. Here's what to expect:

Immigration:
The Department of Justice is creating an electronic database of attorneys who practice before immigration courts. 

An Affordable Care Act tax on health insurance providers “scares the daylights” out of some small-business owners, The Washington Post reports.

Some states are also lining up in opposition to the health insurance providers fee, according to The Hill's RegWatch. Read more...

The Obama administration’s historic overhaul of Cold War-era export controls should go even further to lighten the burden on companies who sell there wares overseas, a coalition of business groups said.

The Coalition for Security and Competitiveness, a group of 18 trade associations, said a massive regulatory undertaking now under way “should not be the final step” toward loosening the flow of items deemed sensitive under outdated rules.

Read more...

Chief executives are urging President Obama to preserve a "wellness program" in ObamaCare that they say is critical for improving public health.

The Business Roundtable said on Friday it has been in talks with the White House since last week about an ObamaCare provision requiring workers to provide “wellness programs” for employees, in an attempt to lower overall healthcare costs.

The group – which boasts members such as the chief executives of Boeing, Dow Chemical, 3M, JPMorgan Chase, Time Warner Cable, among others – told the president it wants the rules to contain both participation and “contingent-based” wellness programs.

President Obama is nominating the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq to serve as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

Ryan Crocker, who spent 37 years in the foreign service before leaving government to teach at Yale University, would oversee broadcasting organizations like the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which are supported by the government but run by civilians and offer news to international audiences.

The BBG, which is an independent agency that requested $731 million for fiscal 2014, has been responsible for non-military government broadcasting since 1999. Its network of seven broadcasters reach more than 165 million people each month, the agency claims.

The president is asking federal officials for a new strategy to reduce the discrepancy between what men and women earn.