| June 7, 2016 |
| New Developments |
| Driverless Cars and the Law By Mark Pratzel As driverless car technology evolves, questions continue to arise regarding its legal repercussions. Google, one of the leading forces behind autonomous cars, predicts that they will be available to the public by 2020. Nissan and Tesla are also developing self-driven car technology. And |
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On April 20, 2016, the U.S. Senate passed the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 (the Act) by a vote of 85-12. If signed into law, the bipartisan bill would impact manufacturing operations across industries by promoting energy efficiency; encouraging renewable energy development; facilitating improvements in infrastructure, including grid storage; removing certain hurdles to the development and export of oil and gas, critical minerals, and other resources; and making other changes intended to keep pace with the nation’s rapidly changing energy industry.
On April 11, 2016, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed an Executive Order that immediately implemented a “Ban the Box” policy for Missouri state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions. Under this Order, state employers must amend their initial employment applications to remove questions relating to an individual’s criminal history unless a criminal history would render an applicant ineligible for the position. State employers may still request information about an applicant’s criminal past and may still conduct a criminal background check as a condition of employment, but the Order requires that state agencies wait until later in the application process to procure that information. The Order does not specify exactly when in the application process employers may make these criminal history inquiries.
On March 9, 2016, the Senate introduced the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S. 2658), and it contains the following provisions related to unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”) regulation and consumer protection:
What is “Ban the Box?” Generally speaking, it is an international campaign seeking to eliminate the question—“Have you ever been convicted of a crime?”—from employment applications. “Ban the box” laws usually provide that an employer must wait to ask applicants about their criminal histories until after a conditional offer of employment is made AND that an employer must consider how the individual criminal history is job-related for the position in question.
There currently are 21 states and over 100 cities and counties that have a “ban the box” law. Further, 7 states have statewide “ban the box” laws that apply to private employers—Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island.
On February 3, 2016, Husch Blackwell Labor and Employment attorneys Terry Potter and Robert Rojas presented a webinar on Workplace Safety vs. Workplace Gun Rights. The webinar focused on the legal landscape of current gun legislation, how certain legislation affects employers and the workplace, and how to minimize any risks associated with that legislation. Specifically, the presentation covered state-specific parking lot laws and posting requirements, both of which regulate where and how an employer may prohibit weapons on its property. Parking lot laws make it illegal for employers to prohibit the possession of firearms in personal vehicles on employer-owned property while posting laws require employers to use certain signage to notify employees, customers, and others that firearms are prohibited inside an employer’s buildings or worksite.
On February 11, 2016, H.R. 4441 – the Aircraft Innovation Reform and Reauthorization Act (“AIRR Act”) passed out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (“T&I Committee”). According to T&I Committee chairman, Representative Bill Shuster, “[t]he committee considered approximately 75 amendments during today’s meeting and more than half of them were approved.” Of the amendments…
On February 3, 2016, Representatives Bill Schuster of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced H.R. 4441, the Aviation Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2016 (“AIRR Act”). The AIRR Act is a six year re-authorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) and addresses, for example, reforms to air traffic control, FAA’s certification processes, and funding for airport infrastructure. The full text of the AIRR Act can be found here, and a summary prepared by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee can be found here. Importantly, the AIRR Act also contains a number of proposed reforms to facilitate the greater introduction of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (“UAS”) into the national air-space system.
House and White House negotiators have agreed to two provisions of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, which may provide an incentive for business aircraft owners. Under the act, which is expected to pass Congress and be signed by the President, “bonus deprecation” is extended and the “expensing” provisions of the Internal Revenue Code are made permanent.
On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed legislation authorizing the federal government to revoke, deny, or limit passports for individuals with a “seriously delinquent tax debt.” The law defines “seriously delinquent tax debt” as owing the IRS more than $50,000 in tax, penalties, and interest. The measure, slipped into the enormous–more than 1,300 pages–highway funding bill [Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (“Fast Act”)], gives the State Department the authority to revoke, deny or limit passports for anyone the IRS certifies as owing more than $50,000 in tax debt. Taxpayers with current installment agreements with the IRS, whereby they have agreed to pay their tax debt over time, are exempted from the law.
