Merchant Discount, Interchange, and Other Transaction Fees in the Retail Electronic Payment System
Recent policy discussions around faster payments, cryptocurrencies, and other financial innovations have highlighted some of the costs and fees associated with the retail payment system. In the past, ...
Health Equity and Disparities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Brief Overview of the Federal Role
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During the COVID-19 Pandemic response, communities with different demographics, geographies, resources, and network sup...
Surprise Billing in Private Health Insurance: Overview of Federal Consumer Protections and Payment for Out-of-Network Services
The term surprise billing typically refers to individuals receiving large, unexpected medical bills for out-of-network care. Generally, surprise billing occurs when consumers are unknowingly, and pote...
De-Dollarization Efforts in China and Russia
For more than a decade, China and Russia have sought to reduce their use of the U.S. dollar, or “de-dollarize” their economies, in an effort to shield their economies from U.S. sanctions, reduce expos...
Craft Alcoholic Beverage Industry: Overview and Regulation
American production of craft alcoholic beverages—whether beer, wine, liqueurs, distilled spirits, cider/perry, mead, or fermented drinks—has increased in recent years in response to rising demand. In ...
Supreme Court Holds Alaska Native Corporations Are “Indian Tribes” Entitled to CARES Act Funds
On June 25, 2021, in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Indian Reservation (Chehalis), the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) decision to dist...
Title I of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): A Summary of the Statute
In 1976, Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; P.L. 94-469) to direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate the lifecycle (i.e., manufacture, importation, proce...
Voting Rights Act: Supreme Court Provides “Guideposts” for Determining Violations of Section 2 in Brnovich v. DNC
For the first time, the Supreme Court has issued a decision interpreting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in the context of state voting rules. On July 1, 2021, the Court in Brnovich v. Democr...
The CARES Act: Selected Data on Coronavirus-Related Distribution and Loan Usage in 2020
To try to assist those who may have faced financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Section 2202 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act; P.L. 116-136) waived t...
Supreme Court’s Decision in CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service Impacts Pre-Enforcement Challenges to IRS Reporting Mandates
On May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service, narrowing the reach of the tax Anti-Injunction Act (AIA). The AIA provides that “no sui...