Situational Awareness
Both the House and Senate are in session this week. In the Senate, lawmakers will hold confirmation votes on several presidential cabinet-nominees, including Russell Vought for OMB director, Christopher Wright for energy secretary and Pam Bondi for attorney general. The House is scheduled to vote on legislation that would strengthen legal punishments for individuals who import fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances across the U.S. border, along with a bill prohibiting federal restrictions on fracking.
After finishing their GOP Conference retreat at Trump National Doral in Florida last week, House Republicans appear to be committed to funding the government before March 14, raising the debt ceiling until after President Trump’s term is over and funding policy priorities not limited to border security and defense, while also addressing President Trump’s tax initiatives. The ambitious timeline set out by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) would give lawmakers until Memorial Day to complete work on all these legislative items.

Trump Announces Tariffs on Mexican, Canadian and Chinese Imports
Over the weekend, President Trump announced that his administration has invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare a national emergency regarding the “the extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl” to the U.S.
In response to this stated emergency, the president announced his intention to impose 25% additional tariffs on all Mexican and most Canadian imports. A 10% tariff in addition to any existing levies would be placed on Canadian energy products and all Chinese goods.
While these tariffs were expected to take effect on Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Mexico tariffs, at the least, have been paused for one month after President Trump announced that he and Mexican President Sheinbaum had reached an agreement on policing the U.S./Mexico border. Leaders from Mexico and Canada have signaled that they will impose retaliatory trade measures on certain U.S. goods if the Trump administration doesn’t back away from the imposition of tariffs. President Trump is also expected to talk with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today.
Trump Signs 10-to-1 Deregulation EO
President Trump signed an executive order requiring that whenever an agency issues a new rule, regulation or guidance, it must identify at least 10 existing rules, regulations or guidance documents to be repealed. The EO further requires that for FY 2025, the total incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, must be less than zero; in other words, they must promote a reduction in the federal deficit. Trump issued a similar EO in 2017, requiring government agencies to eliminate two rules for every new one created.
DOL Delays Oral Arguments on Independent Contractor Lawsuit
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a request from the Department of Labor (DOL) to delay oral arguments scheduled for next month in a lawsuit challenging the agency’s independent contractor rule. The rule generally makes it harder for employers to treat their workers as independent contractors by granting equal consideration to each of the six factors included in the DOL’s “economic realities test” to determine whether a worker should be classified as an employee or an independent contractor. Despite being upheld by several federal judges, the Trump administration could seek to rescind the final rule, which was issued last year.
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys requested 60 days to provide new DOL leadership “with sufficient time to familiarize themselves with these issues and determine how they wish to proceed.” Oral arguments had originally been scheduled for Feb. 5. It is common that a new presidential administration with different policy stances than its predecessor will review any pending litigation in which the federal government is defending such policies and concurrent regulations.
Trump Ousts Biden-appointed NLRB Members
In a break with legal precedent, President Trump ousted National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox—a Democrat whose term was set to expire in 2028. The president can now select three new business-friendly board members who will be tasked with overturning Biden-era decisions that made it easier to unionize and harder to fire protesting workers. However, until more NLRB members are confirmed by the Senate, the Board will lack a quorum and not be able to issue any rulings. He also dismissed two of the three Democrats on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—Jocelyn Samuels and former chair Charlotte Burrows—before their terms expired. The move is consistent with wide-ranging executive actions targeted toward “DEI” hiring initiatives and programs across the federal government.

North Carolina WOTUS Litigation Paused for DOJ Transition
A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Northern Carolina granted a DOJ motion to stay two key waters and wetlands lawsuits involving a North Carolina landowner. The hearing was originally scheduled to begin on Feb. 5, but DOJ lawyers told the court that they would need extra time to brief new agency leadership on the lawsuit.
In the case, United States v. White, DOJ claimed that the plaintiff filled in “waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) without a permit. In response, the landowner challenged the Biden administration’s post-Sackett WOTUS rule. The Trump administration is expected to roll back the Biden-era conforming WOTUS rule. Following the Supreme Court’s July 2023 Sackett ruling, the Biden administration amended its January 2023 wetlands rule by removing the previous significant-nexus standard that was used to decide if a body of water or wetland was federally protected, instead defining an “adjacent” water to mean “having a continuous surface connection” to a navigable, protected WOTUS.
ICYMI
NCA files comments on OSHA’s Heat Injury Illness Protection Plan. NCA requested that OSHA refrain from finalizing the overburdensome regulation that would set unworkable heat standards on businesses in comments filed on January 14.
Supreme Court sets lower standard of proof for overtime exemptions. On Jan. 16, the Supreme Court ruled that employers need only show “a preponderance of the evidence” that an employee is exempt from federal overtime rules. The alternative burden placed by some circuit courts—clear and convincing evidence—would have been significantly harder for employer to achieve.