Three Things to Know: June 2

This week's information compiled by your SC Chamber team includes: 
Supreme Court Provides Clarity on EPA Wetlands' Authority, Congress Advances Debt Ceiling Agreement & Avoids Default, AI Transforming the Workplace

 1. Supreme Court Provides Clarity on EPA Wetlands' Authority

Last week, the United States Supreme Court released its long-awaited decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency regarding the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the EPA’s authority to regulate wetlands. Under the CWA, the EPA has the authority to regulate the discharge of pollutants into “navigable waters”, defined as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). Historically, the EPA has broadly interpreted this authority to include some wetlands that aren’t directly connected to a body of water, which caused significant debate and dispute between the regulated community and the agency over its jurisdiction and perceived regulatory overreach.

In 2004, the Sackett family purchased land near a lake in Idaho and began backfilling the lot to prepare for building a home, only to have the EPA suddenly fine them $40,000/day for destroying wetlands under the presumption that the discharge of rocks and sediment into a ditch on their property fed into a non-navigable creek that then led to the lake. A district court ruled in favor of the EPA’s decision, and, on appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision on the basis that the CWA covers wetlands with an ecologically “significant nexus” to traditional navigable waters.

The Supreme Court decision reversed the Ninth Circuit’s ruling and removed the expansive and confusing "significant nexus" test, instead ruling that the CWA applies to a particular wetland only if the wetland 1) is adjacent to "a relatively permanent body of water connected to traditional interstate navigable waters" and 2) “has a continuous surface connection with that water, making it difficult to determine where the ‘water’ ends, and the ‘wetland’ begins.” The majority opinion described the “significant nexus” rule established by the Rapanos v. United States case and asserted by the EPA in the Sackett case, as “particularly implausible” and having the ability to create extreme ambiguity for property owners as to whether the CWA applies to their land or not.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the Supreme Court’s decision and shared that the court “…has provided long overdue relief for companies and landowners across our nation.”

2.  Congress Advances Debt Ceiling Agreement & Avoids Default

A bipartisan bill to lift the debt ceiling and cut federal spending, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, is headed to President Joe Biden’s desk ahead of the June 5^th default deadline. On Wednesday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling compromise with a final vote count of 314-117. The deal reached by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Biden restricts spending for the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025, imposes new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid, includes reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and greenlights the Mountain Valley Pipeline project. The bill also strengthens funds for military defense and veterans but cuts new money for Internal Revenue Service Agents.

Speaker McCarthy explained how his party was working to “give America hope” and touted how the bill’s budget cuts were going to help curb Washington’s “runaway spending.” After the vote President Biden said, “I have been clear that the only path forward is a bipartisan compromise that can earn the support of both parties. This agreement meets that test.” He also added that the passage was “good news for the American people and the American economy.”

Late Thursday evening, the U.S. Senate approved the bill by a vote of 63-36 sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk for his signature. A number of Republican senators expressed concerns with the bill’s cap of $886 million on defense spending and worked with Senate leadership on a commitment to advance the twelve annual appropriations bills before the end of the government’s fiscal year to avoid the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s mandatory automatic spending cuts. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pledged that the bill does nothing to limit Congress’ ability to allocate supplemental funds to the Pentagon for defense related needs or emergency funds in response to “…various national issues, such as disaster relief, combating the fentanyl crisis or other issues of national importance.”

3. AI Transforming the Workplace

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm, from transforming job recruiting to modernizing the workforce. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report for 2020 estimates that AI will replace 85 million jobs by 2025, and 97 million new jobs will be created by AI. Forbes reported that AI-powered tools are transforming work environments to be more adaptive to workers' individual needs, reducing barriers and promoting accessibility for many jobs. AI Chatbot programs like OpenAI's ChatGPT [backed by Microsoft], Google's LaMDA, and Amazon's ScienceQA are specifically transforming the workforce by acting as virtual assistants that can learn from supervised training and reinforcement by users. According to BBC, these products take a given prompt and expand using natural language processing to provide informed responses and analysis.

As AI continues to crawl further into everyday life and operations, organizations and businesses will need to take note of policies and practices. Fox Business asked Jennifer Morehead, owner and CEO of Flex HR, about how AI is reshaping the workforce, and she shared that companies will need to look at updating their handbooks to account for AI tools. Morehead said, "AI can greatly enhance worker performance and can be used to augment, not replace, human interaction and expertise." She also noted the importance of businesses being aware of emerging tech to make informed decisions about what to use and avoid.

Congressional leaders are also looking at the emergence of AI and considering the responsibility of the government to regulate the industry to provide safeguards for American users and workers. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said to NPR, "Our goal is to maximize the good that can come of [artificial intelligence]… And there can be tremendous good but minimize the bad that can come of it... But to do it is easier said than done." NPR also reported on Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) who introduced the first piece of federal legislation written by AI. Lieu asked ChatGPT how to write a resolution for AI regulation and concluded that the future holds all sorts of harms, and Congress needs to step up and start looking at ways to regulate against them before introducing the piece of legislation.

Want to learn more about how artificial intelligence is shaping the workforce? We asked ChatGPT for you. Click here to see what it said.