Stay Up to Date on Regulations

Use these links to stay up to date on regulatory changes that affect your business.

Red Flags Rule
The Federal Trade Commission has developed rules intended to address identity theft. Financial institutions and creditors will be required to implement programs to detect, prevent and mitigate instances of identity theft. The programs must be in place by May 1, 2009 and must provide for the identification, detection and response to patterns, practices, or specific activities - known as "red flags" - that could indicate identity theft.

New Georgia Lien Laws
Busch & Reed Law provides a detailed explanation of the new Georgia Lien Laws that took effect on March 31, 2009. There is a new sample claim of lien form that you can customize for your own available. To obtain that via email, email lisagolden@gocsa.com .

COBRA
The recent stimulus legislation contained some important changes to COBRA health care coverage originally passed in 1986. COBRA provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates by paying their employer the premium plus some administrative costs. Group health plans for employers with 20 or more employees on more than 50 percent of its typical business days in the previous calendar year are subject to COBRA, although some states have COBRA-like requirements too with different thresholds. The new law includes an enhancement - a temporary 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premium payments for nine months. (Read the full article)

Weatherization Grants
The Department of Energy recently announced it will invest nearly $8 billion in state and local weatherization and energy efficiency efforts as part of the recent stimulus legislation (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). The funds will be divided between the Weatherization Assistance Program, which will receive nearly $5 billion, and the State Energy Program, which will receive up to $3 billion. DOE says this will help families save hundreds of dollars every year on their energy bills, while creating approximately 87,000 jobs. To jump-start the job creation and weatherization work, DOE is releasing $780 million in the next few days, and will release more as the states demonstrate that they are using the funding effectively.