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The Morning Risk Report: Biden to Boost Vaccine Requirements for Large Employers, Federal Workers to Combat Covid-19
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President Biden discusses plans to stop the spread of the Delta variant and boost Covid-19 vaccinations at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. PHOTO: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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All employers with 100 or more employees would have to require that their workers be vaccinated or undergo at least weekly Covid-19 testing under a new plan by President Biden to curb the spread of the pandemic, senior administration officials said.
The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the coming weeks plans to issue an emergency temporary standard implementing the new requirement, which will cover 80 million private-sector workers, officials said. Businesses that don’t comply can face fines of up to $14,000 per violation, they said. The employers will also have to give workers paid time off to get vaccinated or to recover from any side effects of getting vaccinated.
[Continued below...]
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The new requirement, announced by Mr. Biden in a speech Thursday, is part of a six-point initiative to boost vaccinations, improve access to testing and make Covid-19 treatments more widely available. The heightened push to combat the pandemic comes amid a surge in infections and increase in hospitalizations and deaths.
The president also said the administration plans to require vaccinations for workers in most healthcare settings that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement. The president will also require federal employees in the executive branch and government contractors to be vaccinated against Covid-19, stepping up the requirements for these workers after Mr. Biden earlier said federal workers and contractors who work on-site must be vaccinated or face regular testing and other measures.
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WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum
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Join us on Oct. 12 for the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum. The virtual program includes sessions on anti-money laundering laws, emerging risks, compliance and cryptocurrencies, lessons from Wirecard and workshops on ESG reporting and responding to ransomware. You can register here.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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U.S. Treasury to Finish Sanctions Policy Review This Fall
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The Biden administration expects to complete its ongoing sanctions policy review this fall, a U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman told Risk & Compliance Journal's Mengqi Sun, as some human rights and humanitarian groups express concern about how long the review is taking and the level of engagement with nongovernmental organizations.
This week, a coalition of 46 peacebuilding, humanitarian and human rights groups sent a letter to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, asking the administration to swiftly conclude the review, make its findings public and implement changes to U.S. sanctions policy, according to a copy of the letter seen by The Wall Street Journal.
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Video Production Equipment Company Settles Apparent Iran Sanctions Violations
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A video production equipment maker has agreed to pay $189,483 to settle apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday.
NewTek Inc., a San Antonio-based developer of live production and 3-D animation systems, exported equipment and services to two distributors that it had reason to know were intended for a reseller in Iran, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said.
Between 2013 and 2018, the company exported a total of 49 products to the two distributors, OFAC said. Three of the products were sold by the Iranian reseller to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, an entity on OFAC’s blacklist.
NewTek, which voluntarily disclosed the apparent violations, didn’t have a sanctions compliance program in place at the time, but has since taken steps to establish one, including by hiring a compliance director, according to OFAC. A company spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
—Dylan Tokar
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People waiting at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston last month. PHOTO: BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES
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Airlines warned Thursday of another pandemic-driven hit to profits in the months ahead, as the Delta variant interrupts a rebound in air travel.
Major carriers said new travel bookings have slowed in recent weeks and cancellations have increased, tempering airlines’ outlook after less than two months earlier some had projected the recovery would continue to strengthen.
“The crystal balls have been a little bit foggy to say the least, as we’ve gone through this crisis,” Andrew Nocella, chief commercial officer for United Airlines Holdings Inc., said at an investor conference Thursday.
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The flooding damage wrought by Hurricane Ida last week is expected to send car owners back to dealerships to replace vehicles. The timing couldn’t be worse.
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Democrats have included a provision in their $3.5 trillion healthcare, education and climate bill that would require companies without retirement plans to automatically enroll workers in individual retirement accounts.
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Filings for jobless benefits last week fell and reached a pandemic low, extending a downward trend as demand for labor remains high and employers hold onto workers despite the Delta variant of Covid-19.
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The Biden administration plan doesn’t say whether there would be any projected costs to taxpayers, or savings. PHOTO: JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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A Biden administration plan to lower prescription-drug prices offers the first detailed road map of administrative actions the White House would support in addition to legislation aimed at driving down costs.
The plan, released Thursday, backs legislation from congressional Democrats, including a push to empower the federal government to negotiate for drug prices in Medicare and pass those lower costs along to the private sector. The road map goes further, however, by outlining administrative actions by agencies and departments that could come in concert with possible legislative changes.
The plan also calls for reducing regulatory barriers that may impede or slow the approval of lower-priced generics or licensing of biosimilars—near-identical versions of drugs that can be made once an original patent expires, as well as promoting the lower-cost alternatives.
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The Food and Drug Administration said it needed more time before deciding whether e-cigarettes made by Juul Labs Inc. and others can remain on the U.S. market. The FDA faced a Thursday deadline to respond to applications from Juul and other e-cigarette makers that had to submit their products.
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DoorDash Inc., Grubhub Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc.’s Eats division are suing New York City over its law permanently capping the amount of commissions the apps can charge restaurants to use their services, the latest move in a growing clash between the platforms and local regulators.
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Regulators fined Wells Fargo & Co. $250 million for lack of progress in addressing longstanding issues in its mortgage business. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the lender had failed to fix problems it first identified in a 2018 order, in which the bank was found to have harmed home lending customers.
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The Biden administration said it would nominate Willie L. Phillips, a utility regulator for the District of Columbia, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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One of the three remaining members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday he plans to resign, leaving the five-person panel that regulates derivatives evenly split between one Republican and one Democrat.
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Chinese authorities summoned videogame giants Tencent Holdings Ltd. and NetEase Inc. and ordered them to follow new rules for the online-gaming industry.
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The ConocoPhillips Teesside Terminal on the River Tees in Teesside, U.K., in November 2020. PHOTO: IAN FORSYTH/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Fund companies are rebranding their out-of-fashion investment offerings as green, hoping to grab a portion of the cash pouring into sustainable products. In some cases, the rebranding has been in name only.
Last year, companies that manage mutual funds and exchange-traded funds rebranded a record 25 funds as sustainable, according to Morningstar. They say these funds have adopted investment strategies that utilize data on companies’ environmental, social and governance performance to pick stocks. Since 2013, fund companies have rebranded 64 funds, which had $35 billion in assets as of June.
Many of these funds are actively managed and were experiencing chronic outflows prior to rebranding, said Morningstar Head of Sustainability Research Jon Hale. “You have big fund companies with an inventory of funds, a lot of which aren’t really attracting assets anymore, saying ‘OK, here’s this new investment trend happening; what do we do?’” Mr. Hale said.
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