The (Almost) Daily Brief

Proclamation Extends $100,000 H-1B Payment Through September 2027

By Megan Dayton · 9/23/2026

WORKFORCE  An executive order makes an employer’s layoffs a factor in H-1B decisions. Executive Order 14431, signed the same day and published Sept. 23, directs the Secretaries of State, Labor, and Homeland Security to take into account, in any labor condition application, petition, visa, or entry, whether the sponsoring employer directly or indirectly engaged in layoffs within the previous year or plans future layoffs that negatively affect similarly situated United States workers. It also directs the Labor Department, through the Wage and Hour Division, to begin reviewing data on previously submitted labor condition applications within 30 days, to determine whether action against sponsoring employers is warranted under section 212(n)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Those three departments must coordinate with the Commerce and Education Departments and the Small Business Administration, which are to supply wage, employment, academic, industrial, and other economic information. The order also delegates authority under section 215(a) of the act to the Secretaries of State, Commerce, Labor, and Homeland Security, including the authority to issue rules, policies, and operational guidance to carry it out.

Source: Federal Register, 91 FR 60501

ENG  Five utilities want a second 345-kV circuit on 100 miles of Minnesota towers already built to carry it. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the Court of Administrative Hearings set four public hearings on a certificate of need and a route permit amendment for the Bison to Alexandria Second Circuit 345 kV Transmission Line Project. Xcel Energy, Great River Energy, Minnesota Power, Otter Tail Power, and Missouri River Energy Services, on behalf of Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, propose to string a second 345-kV circuit on mostly existing structures running from the Bison Substation near Fargo, North Dakota to the Alexandria Substation in Douglas County. Those structures were permitted and built as double-circuit capable under the CapX2020 Fargo to Saint Cloud 345-kV project. The Minnesota work covers 100 miles from Alexandria to the North Dakota border in Holy Cross Township, Clay County, inside the existing 150-foot right of way. The applicants plan 107 new monopole structures, 86 of them in Minnesota, at required turns and highway crossings. Hearings are Oct. 6 in Barnesville at 11am and Fergus Falls at 6pm, Oct. 7 online at 6pm, and Oct. 7 in Alexandria. Administrative Law Judge Nicholas Lienesch will preside and summarize the testimony for the commission. Written comments close Oct. 27 at 4:30pm. The dockets are CN-25-116 and TL-09-1056.

Sources: EQB Monitor, Sept. 22; Minnesota PUC, Energy Infrastructure Permitting

ENG  A fourth solar project at Sherco has a complete permit application. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission found Xcel Energy’s joint site and route permit application for Sherco Solar 4 sufficiently complete to begin the permitting review, and set two public information and scoping meetings. The application covers a solar facility rated to 200 megawatts AC on 1,161 acres north of Clear Lake in Sherburne County, with permanent infrastructure on 1,013 acres. It also carries 2.7 miles of single-circuit 345-kV transmission and a new switching station to connect the solar facility to the grid along the future Minnesota Energy Connection line. The transmission line needs a 150-foot right of way inside a route width of 420 to 660 feet, wider at the endpoints for interconnection facilities. Meetings are Oct. 6 at 6pm in Saint Cloud, with an open house at 5pm, and Oct. 7 at 6pm online. Comments close Oct. 20. The dockets are E002/GS-26-213 and E002/TL-26-214.

Source: EQB Monitor, Sept. 22

ENG  Three Minnesota environmental assessment worksheets close for comment on the same day. All three reached the public through the Sept. 22 EQB Monitor and take comment through Oct. 22. Otsego carries the largest: Darkenwald Corporation proposes 431 residential units, 34,000 square feet of institutional space, and 60,000 square feet of commercial space across 137 acres on three parcels in Wright County, starting with 122 single-family homes and running five to eight years. That public meeting is Oct. 26 at 7pm. In Duluth, the Environmental Protection Agency proposes to mechanically dredge shallow areas of Tallas Bay between Knowlton Creek and Tallas Island to remove excess sediment and improve depth diversity, wetland connectivity, and recreational access, with a meeting Oct. 15 at 5pm at city hall. In Winona County, Minnesota Trout Unlimited proposes to reconnect Garvin Brook with its floodplain at Stockton, reshape eroded banks, and install rock riffles and woody material to limit channel incision, funded through the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Fund, with a meeting Oct. 6 at 6pm. Separately, the Department of Natural Resources recorded a negative declaration on Sept. 10 for a stream and wetland restoration in the Skandia Wildlife Management Area in Murray County, so that project needs no environmental impact statement.

Source: EQB Monitor, Sept. 22

POLICY  California put water and grid-cost conditions on data center permitting. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed seven bills on Sept. 21. SB 1168 directs the California Public Utilities Commission to examine data centers’ energy use and to ensure they pay for transmission and distribution upgrades and load increases. SB 886 and SB 887 require data centers to pay all infrastructure upgrade and generation costs, to carry a larger share of wildfire mitigation and liability costs, and to undergo environmental review, ending their eligibility for blanket exemptions. AB 1577 requires monthly reporting of energy consumption and efficiency metrics to the California Energy Commission, and estimated energy use to local agencies as part of permitting. AB 2469 and AB 2619 require a developer to complete a water supply assessment and a water scarcity plan during permitting, and add a statewide water reporting requirement for obtaining and renewing a business license. AB 2383 incentivizes onsite clean energy. Los Angeles County’s planning director separately ordered a temporary ban on large-scale AI data center development in unincorporated areas. California has 296 data centers, the third most of any state.

Source: Construction Dive, Sept. 23

POLICY  Federal regulators cut the link between two sets of state highway safety targets. A final rule effective Sept. 23 amends 23 CFR 1300.11 to waive, for fiscal 2027, the requirement that a state’s targets for total fatalities, the rate of fatalities, and total serious injuries in its triennial Highway Safety Plan be identical to the targets in the Highway Safety Improvement Program annual report its transportation department filed Aug. 31. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued the waiver without notice and comment, finding good cause under the Administrative Procedure Act, on the ground that the two programs answer to different statutes. The 2021 infrastructure law requires every performance target submitted to the agency to demonstrate constant or improved performance, and the highway safety improvement program carries no equivalent requirement. The agency granted the same waiver for fiscal 2024 and asks state highway safety offices and state transportation departments to keep coordinating on a Safe System approach. RIN 2127-AN12, 91 FR 60300.

Source: Federal Register, 91 FR 60300

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