The US Department of Transportation has announced a $1 billion funding opportunity with a new focus on sustainability and equity. Previously known as Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants, the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program began back in 2009 and supported innovative projects — including multimodal and multijurisdictional ones, which are difficult to fund through traditional federal programs. Successful BUILD projects are ones that leverage resources, encourage partnership, catalyze investment and growth, and fill a critical void in...

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that contains a new, temporary COBRA subsidy. From April 1, 2021 through September 31, 2021, the ARPA requires employers to cover 100% of an employee’s cost of continuing group health coverage under COBRA if the employee was eligible for COBRA continuation coverage during the indicated period regardless of whether the employee may not have previously elected coverage or discontinued coverage.  Employers that provide such paid coverage may...

On Wednesday, Fabio Panetta, Member of the European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board, presented the European Parliament’s ECON Committee with the ECB’s future approach towards a digital euro following a public consultation on the topic.  “A digital euro can only be successful if it meets European citizens’ needs and expectations”, Panetta said during the hearing. The consultation, which was conducted between October 2020 and January 2021, was designed to inform the ECB’s future approach on a digital euro, with the vast majority...

Cybersecurity expert Praveen Madhavankutty looks at the risks providers face as they try to keep pace with the swift rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. In his inauguration speech on January 20, President Joe Biden promised to “get at least 100 million vaccinations into the arms of the American people in the first 100 days.” Recent evidence indicates he is on track to reach that ambitious goal. The rollout of the vaccine in the United States, and elsewhere for that matter, is a ray...

Seemingly overnight, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded onto the market and into the public consciousness. The eye-popping prices that some have commanded—and their potential to revolutionize the concept of ownership itself—have investors, creators, platforms, and brands champing at the bit for a piece of the action. The concept seems straightforward enough: a digital file—an image, GIF, audio or video file, or even virtual real estate or video game tokens and virtual gear—gets minted as a unique copy on the blockchain,...

What happened? On 2 February 2021, the European Data Protection Board (the “EDPB”) adopted its response to the European Commission’s request for clarification on the consistent application of the GDPR1 in the field of health research (the “EDPB Response”). On several occasions, questions posed to the EDPB have remained partly unanswered or open. The EDPB underlines that it will soon clarify these points in its forthcoming Guidelines on the processing of personal data for scientific research purposes (to be released during 2021). Main...

Patents filed, research and investment are undergoing sustained growth, which is reducing costs in an increasingly mature market Electric vehicles (EVs) have been commercially available for some time, but their popularity has been growing in recent years as greater emphasis has been placed on green alternatives to traditional fuels, and their average cost has come down. Rapid advances in technology to support EV efficiency and charging capabilities look set to make EVs even more attractive, as government targets and regulations...

With President Biden announcing that all adults in the United States should be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine by April 19 and Covid-19 restrictions being lifted or eased throughout much of the country, many businesses that had remained shuttered or remote throughout the pandemic are considering the return of their workforce to the workplace. Along with such considerations, there is one question on many employers’ minds: can they mandate employees get the Covid-19 vaccine? EEOC Guidance Regarding Mandatory Vaccination The...