United States: Government, Public Sector

On October 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) announced that it had, in July 2026, issued its first civil enforcement penalty under the Outbound Investment Security Program, often referred to as the Outbound Investment Rule (the “OIR”). Treasury levied a $200,000 penalty against Amidi, LLC (“Amidi”) for failing to submit a required notification of an investment by its controlled foreign entity into a “Chinese embodied artificial intelligence company.”

The Department of Energy has released an Expression of Interest seeking input on transferring surplus critical minerals and rare earth elements from five former nuclear weapons production and energy research sites. These materials, including aluminum, lithium, tungsten, and other strategic resources, could help reduce US dependence on foreign mineral imports while supporting domestic advanced manufacturing and defense industries.

On Oct. 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the first civil penalty under the Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP), which prohibits or requires notification of certain U.S.

One comment can change the entire meeting. Under Maryland's new Worker Freedom Act, effective October 1, 2026, employees may walk out of certain mandatory meetings without fear of discipline. With such an expansive law, employers are bound to have a few questions.

A federal judge has ruled New York's Climate Change Superfund Act unconstitutional, marking the second such decision in under a month. The ruling permanently enjoins enforcement of the law that sought to retroactively hold fossil fuel producers liable for $75 billion in climate adaptation costs based on historical emissions. This decision adds to growing legal uncertainty around state and local efforts to pursue climate damages through the court system.

The Trump Administration has issued two executive orders that fundamentally reshape how the federal government refers to and deploys advanced AI systems, introducing the term "Super Intelligence" to replace "artificial intelligence" across official communications and establishing America.gov as a unified, AI-powered portal for accessing federal services.

With the ever-growing barrage of rhetoric over just how, when, and if, AI will kill us all, the conversation also lends itself to, do we believe it will be AI that kills us, or a bad actor using AI? If I showed you a picture of East Asia at night from space and pointed out that you can’t see North Korea for the lack of available electricity, (It’s 99% blacked out, and only Pyongyang shows a small cluster of light) would you think for a minute that they would have the tech savvy, and high end software, or even hardware, necessary to steal $6.7 billion in crypto since 2017?

On October 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), published a proposed rule (91 FR 65119; DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0529) that would remove...

On October 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) announced that it had, in July 2026, issued its first civil enforcement penalty under the Outbound Investment Security Program, often referred to as the Outbound Investment Rule (the “OIR”). Treasury levied a $200,000 penalty against Amidi, LLC (“Amidi”) for failing to submit a required notification of an investment by its controlled foreign entity into a “Chinese embodied artificial intelligence company.”

On September 28, 2026, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued a new clause for incorporation into government contracts of artificial intelligence systems, 552.239-7001, Basic Safeguarding of Data within Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence Systems, as a GSA Regulation Deviation (the Final Clause).

As Congress enters its October recess and shifts into campaign mode, a growing fight over executive spending authority is complicating year-end funding negotiations. The Trump Administration's repeated testing of congressional control over federal funding has prompted bipartisan pushback from appropriators, raising the prospect of new guardrails in future appropriations bills to protect grant-making processes and prevent pocket rescissions.

On Sept. 30, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum creating Project Agincourt, formally directing the Department to establish a pathway to AUTOWARCOM by Oct. 1, 2027. The effort will be led by the direct reporting portfolio manager for unmanned systems (DRPM-UxS) under Owen West, currently director of the Defense Innovation Unit, and Max Strasiser, currently at DRPM-UxS.