Government and Policy Sector

Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement with U.S. state attorneys general to resolve a sweeping child-safety lawsuit over Instagram and Facebook. The deal, which requires court approval, includes a $17 billion multi-state settlement alongside a separate $1 billion agreement with Texas. The payout will be distributed over 10 years, blunting its immediate financial impact for a company that reported more than $200 billion in total revenue in 2025. Under the terms, Meta must overhaul its platform design for users under 18 by implementing a default two-hour daily screen-time limit, overnight account blocks from midnight to 6 a.m., and muted notifications during school hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The agreement also mandates the development of reliable age-assurance technology and a non-personalized feed option. The settlement includes a clause reducing Meta's payment by $5 billion if competing social platforms do not adopt similar restrictions. Meanwhile, New Mexico and Florida declined to join the nationwide coalition, with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier dismissing the payouts as peanuts.

Canada will impose counter-tariffs of up to 50% on approximately $20 billion of U.S. imports starting September 8, matching duties enacted by the Trump administration after bilateral trade negotiations collapsed. Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced that Ottawa will levy retaliatory rates of 15%, 25%, and 50% on roughly $27.6 billion Canadian dollars of American goods, covering sectors including steel, aluminum, dairy, appliances, and electronics. The tit-for-tat escalation follows the Trump administration's enforcement of 50% tariffs on Canadian exports over the weekend, alongside a presidential threat to raise tariffs on cars, trucks, auto parts, and steel to 50% on January 1, 2027. Prime Minister Mark Carney defended the retaliation after trade talks broke down, stating that U.S. negotiators demanded concessions that were uneconomic and unfair. Alongside the tariffs, Ottawa unveiled a $7.5 billion support package to assist domestic workers and businesses affected by the cross-border dispute. Major logistics corridors including Detroit, Port Huron, and Buffalo face severe disruption as the two nations manage a commercial relationship where trucks carry more than half the value of bilateral freight.

The Small Business Administration proposed a comprehensive rewrite of its size standards methodology that would consolidate nearly 1,000 industry standards into 338 and raise thresholds across the board. The overhaul replaces the prior seven-factor framework with a simplified three-factor formula and shifts employee counts ahead of revenue as the default metric where discretion permits. SBA estimates the changes will newly classify approximately 114,541 firms as small businesses, including 37,002 companies that held over 105,000 federal contracts worth roughly $71 billion in fiscal year 2025. In select industries, the higher limits create pathways for multibillion-dollar public corporations to qualify for small business set-asides and loan programs. The structural shift aims to curb status fluctuations driven by inflation and revenue volatility by prioritizing headcount over receipts. Established small contractors face an influx of larger competitors in procurement auctions, compressing margins and altering bidding dynamics. Comments on the proposed rules are open until September 21, 2026.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Revolution Medicines' Rasonque, known generically as daraxonrasib, as the first targeted therapy for the most common form of advanced pancreatic cancer. The once-daily oral RAS inhibitor achieved a median overall survival of 13.2 months in a clinical trial of 500 adult patients, compared to 6.7 months for standard chemotherapy. Rasonque targets the RAS protein, a genetic driver present in 90% to 100% of pancreatic adenocarcinomas that has historically resisted pharmaceutical intervention. The agency granted the approval 6.5 months ahead of its Prescription Drug User Fee Act deadline using its National Priority Voucher pilot program. Revolution Medicines secured the clearance following clinical data that also demonstrated doubled progression-free survival in pretreated patients.

The Department of Homeland Security proposed a $103,265 fee for H-1B visas, replacing an earlier six-figure levy struck down by a federal judge. Under the proposal, employers seeking to hire skilled foreign workers must pay the surcharge on top of existing filing costs before applications are approved. The administration argues the fee recovers the roughly $8.8 billion annual cost of running the immigration system and encourages companies to hire domestic workers. The policy follows a September 2025 executive proclamation by President Donald Trump requiring a $100,000 fee that was vacated in June by U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, who ruled the measure amounted to an unlawful tax requiring congressional approval. By using the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process, the administration aims to bypass the legal hurdles that defeated its previous attempt. The proposed fee threatens to severely impact small businesses, with internal estimates projecting that 11,051 small firms would experience significant economic disruption. While tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft can absorb the costs or shift hiring to foreign affiliates in countries like Canada, startups face diminished prospects for patents, financing, and successful exits.

Ivanhoe Electric secured a preliminary project letter from the Export-Import Bank of the United States for $1.1 billion in potential debt financing to develop its Santa Cruz Copper Project in Arizona. The preliminary letter raises potential funding by one-third from an April 2025 letter of interest and marks the completion of the bank's preliminary due diligence. The financing is processed through the federal Make More in America Initiative, which directs public capital toward domestic resource production rather than traditional export credit guarantees. The project is designed to produce 99.99% pure copper cathode over a 23-year lifespan without employing a traditional smelting process. Final board consideration by the bank is anticipated during the spring of 2027.

The Federal Trade Commission launched a regulatory enforcement push against personalized pricing by issuing a proposed enforcement policy statement and opening a public comment period. While the agency lacks the statutory authority to ban the practice outright, it intends to use Section 5 of the FTC Act to penalize businesses that fail to disclose how personal data drives variable pricing. AI has supercharged these pricing models, allowing companies to draw on device types, purchase history, and location data to set individualized rates. Consumer Reports investigations revealed grocery price variations as high as 23% for identical items and median rideshare price gaps of about 42% between lowest and highest groupings. Two-thirds of U.S. consumers oppose variable pricing, and over two dozen states have already introduced more than 40 surveillance pricing bills.

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