Not quite a year after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its January 2025 report urging states to strengthen state-level consumer protections, New York enacted the Fostering Affordability and Integrity through Reasonable (FAIR) Business Practices Act into law. The FAIR Act amends New York’s general business law to prohibit unfair and abusive business acts and practices beyond deceptive conduct.

On December 18, 2025, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act (HFIAA) was signed into law. The HFIAA amends Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require directors and executive officers of foreign private issuers with a class of equity securities registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act to comply with the same insider reporting rules that apply to U.S. domestic issuers. Beginning in March 2026, covered FPI insiders must publicly disclose their equity ownership and transactions on the same forms used by U.S. issuers—Forms 3, 4, and 5.

On December 5, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) issued an internal policy memorandum^[1]that sets a “compliance first” directive for EPA’s enforcement programs.