Senate Confirmation Vote Results in Three-Member Republican Bloc at NLRB. Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed a package of seventy-four executive branch nominees. The package includes National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominees James Macy and David Prouty, a fact that is significant for two reasons. First, if the Senate left for its five-week August recess before confirming Macy or Prouty, then the Board would have lost its quorum upon the expiration of Prouty’s term at the end of this month. Second, for the first time in this second Trump administration, it presents the Board’s Republican majority with an opportunity to revisit and reverse Biden-era precedent relating to bargaining orders, employer speech, and workplace rules.
State Department Makes Visa Bond Program Permanent. On August 3, 2026, the U.S. Department of State published a final rule establishing a permanent visa bond program. The rule follows on the heels of a twelve-month pilot program, begun in August 2025, which “provided sufficient data to suggest that a visa bond program [was] an effective tool for enforcing compliance among bonded visa holders.” The final rule requires a covered applicant for a business visitor/tourist (B-1/B-2) visa to post a bond of “either $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000, based upon the applicant’s circumstances as determined by the consular officer, unless the bond requirement is waived.” Pursuant to the final rule, bonds will be required from applicants who are “nationals of...
[Sportschosun Jang Jong-ho] A total of 34.789 billion won in false National Health Insurance claims was detected at 839 health care institutions over the past four years (2022-2025). According to d...