Inside Authority

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Human Foods Program (HFP) published its 2026 Priority Deliverables, outlining a broad agenda under the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) strategy to advance food chemical safety, nutrition, and microbiological risk oversight.

On January 7, 2026, the president issued an Executive Order titled “Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting” (the “Order”).

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (RAISE Act) (S6953B /A6453B) on December 19, 2025, establishing New York as the second U.S. state after California to enact comprehensive legislation regulating the safety and governance of frontier AI models.

Though there have been few clear signals about the second Trump administration’s approach to enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a handful of recent advisory opinions offer a glimpse into the administration’s priorities, including continued efforts to narrow key exemptions and breathe new life into rarely used statutory provisions.

A growing list of lawsuits filed in the Court of International Trade (CIT) reflects the increasing urgency facing importers that have paid duties on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)-based Trafficking Tariffs and Worldwide Retaliatory Tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration in early 2025.

On December 11, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors”, which directs the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Labor to take significant steps aimed at increasing oversight of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC.