The Bulletin: The FCC Just Bifurcated the Device Certification Supply Chain

The FCC just made device testing slower and more expensive for anyone who certifies wireless equipment, and the Labor Department quietly backed away from the overtime rule that never was.

The week, in three lines.

The FCC tightened national security vetting of wireless devices, adding delays and labs to the supply chain

The Labor Department reverted to 2019 overtime thresholds after federal courts vacated the 2024 expansion

Three states moved on environmental reviews, indoor heat mitigation, and housing conversion protections

The FCC's new trusted-lab regime will ripple through electronics supply chains

The Federal Communications Commission finalized a rule on May 15 that overhauls how companies get wireless devices approved to sell in the United States. The change will land hardest on small manufacturers who rely on speed to market. The rule creates a two-tier system: devices flagged under the FCC's Pre-Approval Guidance (PAG), a confidential national-security watch list, now get priority review only if tested in what the FCC calls "Trusted Test Labs." Everyone else waits in the standard queue, which the rule does not speed up.

The mechanism. PAG covers devices the FCC believes pose national security or data-privacy risk: IoT gear with cloud connectivity, certain radio modules, equipment with processors made in non-allied countries. The new rule does not publish the PAG list. It gives manufacturers an incentive: use a Trusted Lab, get faster Equipment Authorization. Skip the trusted lab, and your certification sits in the slower lane. The FCC also formalized post-market surveillance, meaning certified devices can now be pulled and re-examined if the agency suspects a supply-chain compromise after approval.

Who gets hit. Any small-business hardware maker importing wireless components, especially those sourcing from Asia, will now face a choice: pay Trusted Lab rates (typically higher than non-trusted facilities, because the trusted designation requires U.S. or Mutual Recognition Agreement accreditation plus added security audits) or accept longer time-to-market. The FCC simultaneously proposed a second rulemaking to stop recognizing test labs in countries outside MRA or trade-agreement territories. If that passes, manufacturers currently using labs in China, India, or other non-MRA states will have to re-route all testing to U.S., EU, or other MRA-recognized facilities, adding weeks and costs to every product cycle.

The FCC's preamble frames this as "encouraging reciprocity," but the practical effect is supply-chain bifurcation. A connected-home device maker in Austin told us off the record they are already re-negotiating with a Taiwan lab that has U.S. MRA status, because their usual Shenzhen testing partner will likely lose FCC recognition if the second proposed rule goes final. That is a five-figure compliance hit for a product line doing mid-six-figure revenue.

What to watch. The second rulemaking closes for comment in 60 days. If you certify wireless products and use non-MRA labs, file now. The FCC is explicitly soliciting industry input on transition timelines. The Trusted Lab list is maintained by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology; no public roster exists yet, but expect accreditation bodies like A2LA and ANSI-ASQ to start labeling which labs meet the trusted criteria. Budget 10 to 20 percent more lead time for certifications starting this quarter.

The overtime salary floor just dropped back to $35,568. Permanently, for now

The U.S. Department of Labor published a final rule on May 15 reversing the salary threshold for overtime exemptions to the 2019 level of $684 per week ($35,568 annually), erasing the 2024 rule that had raised it to $43,888 and planned a jump to $58,656 by January 2025. Federal courts in Texas vacated the 2024 rule in November and again in February; this publication makes the reversion official and ends any lingering confusion about which threshold applies.

The stakes. If you reclassified salaried employees as non-exempt when the 2024 rule took effect in July, you are not required to reverse that decision. But you are now allowed to. The new rule does not compel reclassification; it simply removes the regulatory floor that forced it. Employers who moved workers to hourly in mid-2024 to comply with the short-lived higher threshold can choose to restore exemptions, as long as those employees still meet the duties test (executive, administrative, professional work as primary function).

What changed in practice. The 2024 rule had a two-stage implementation: $43,888 took effect July 1, 2024; $58,656 was set for January 1, 2025. Courts blocked the January increase in November, then vacated the entire rule in February. Many employers kept the July reclassifications in place, unsure whether the rule would survive appeal. This final technical amendment removes the regulatory text of the 2024 rule from the Code of Federal Regulations and reinstates the pre-2024 language: $684/week, no automatic updates, no planned increases. The preamble is blunt: "Through this technical amendment, the Department is removing from the CFR the regulatory text from the now-vacated 2024 rule and republishing in its place the regulatory text as it existed prior to the effective date of the 2024 rule."

Second-order effects. Businesses that budgeted for the January 2025 threshold and held off on raises or bonuses to offset the exemption loss now have fiscal room they did not expect. Retailers and hospitality operators (the sectors that lobbied hardest against the 2024 rule) can re-exempt assistant managers and shift leads who were earning $45,000 to $55,000 and got moved to hourly last summer. That is a payroll-systems cost to reverse, but it is one-time, and it eliminates ongoing overtime liability for those roles. The flip side: employees who were reclassified and have been earning time-and-a-half for months may resist a return to salaried status, even if their total comp does not change. Expect retention headaches in the $40,000 to $50,000 band.

Labor Secretary Julie Su's statement accompanying the rule was procedural: "The Department implements the judgments of the federal courts." No signal of a new rulemaking. The Biden administration proposed the 2024 increase; the Trump administration is not rushing to replace it. If you are planning comp structures for 2027, plan around $35,568 as the floor, barring Congressional action, which is not on the horizon.

Three states tightened oversight this week: heat, housing, and environmental justice

New York finalized a heat mitigation mandate for state prisons and jails. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision adopted Part 1706 on May 13, effective immediately, requiring every state facility to file an annual heat mitigation plan addressing extreme-heat events. The rule does not set a temperature cap. It requires assessment of vulnerable staff and incarcerated individuals, cooling measures (fans, hydration stations, schedule adjustments), continuous temperature monitoring, and consideration of capital improvements for sustainable cooling. It is silent on enforcement benchmarks, but the "annual plan" language implies yearly audits. Facilities must submit plans by September 1 for the following calendar year.

For operators in the corrections-services or facilities-management space contracting with New York, this becomes a line-item: every RFP for HVAC, construction, or food service at a state facility will now include heat-plan compliance as a bidder qualification. The rule came out of advocacy around heat-related deaths in custody; it is narrow (state facilities only, not county jails unless they contract for state overflow), but it sets a precedent. Expect counties with aging jail infrastructure to face similar mandates within 18 months, either through regulation or through litigation settlements.

New York also finalized SEQRA amendments integrating environmental justice into permit reviews. The Department of Environmental Conservation adopted changes to 6 NYCRR Part 617 on May 13, effective 30 days after publication. The amendments implement the 2022 Environmental Justice Siting Law, which requires lead agencies reviewing projects in disadvantaged communities to assess whether those projects will cause disproportionate pollution or health burdens. The new Environmental Assessment Form includes questions on air emissions and climate resiliency; Type 2 exemptions (projects that categorically do not require environmental review) were expanded to include certain affordable housing and renewable energy projects.

Implications for project applicants. If you are filing for a DEC permit or a local land-use approval in a disadvantaged community (DEC publishes the list; it covers parts of every major metro area), your EAF just got longer. The air-emissions questions are granular: diesel truck trips, particulate sources, proximity to schools or hospitals. The resiliency questions ask whether the project accounts for flood risk, heat-island effects, and storm-water capacity under future climate scenarios. These are not deal-breakers, but they are new disclosure obligations, and they lengthen comment periods because environmental justice organizations now have codified standing to intervene. Budget 60 to 90 extra days for projects in EJ communities, and plan on hiring an EJ consultant if you do not already have one. The rule took effect quietly, but it will show up in every industrial, logistics, and energy buildout in the state's urban cores.

New York's third major move: tenant-protection regs for co-op and condo conversions. The Department of Law proposed amendments to Title 13 NYCRR on May 13, updating rules that govern conversion of occupied rental buildings to cooperative or condominium ownership in New York City. The changes implement the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act and a 2022 follow-up law, tightening sponsor disclosure requirements, lengthening notice periods for tenants, and adding new restrictions on eviction-plan conversions (where the sponsor plans to evict non-purchasing tenants). The comment period runs through mid-July; adoption is likely by September.

For building owners exploring exit strategies, this narrows the window. The proposed rule extends the non-eviction plan requirement (where current tenants get to stay even if they do not buy) to buildings where 15% or more of units are rent-stabilized. Previously it was 35%. That is a big shift: it means most pre-war buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx will be locked into non-eviction plans, which depress unit values because buyers know sitting tenants are not leaving. The rule also requires sponsors to provide tenants with a plain-language summary of their rights and a disclosure of all fees, assessments, and capital-reserve projections for the next five years. That is new. Sponsors used to bury reserve estimates in the offering plan; now they go in the summary, and tenants get 90 days to review instead of 60.

If you are a sponsor or a lender financing a conversion, this is a deal-structure reset. Non-eviction plans already trade at a discount because cash buyers avoid them; the new 15% stabilization trigger will push more buildings into that category. Lenders should assume longer hold periods for conversion inventory and adjust advance rates accordingly. The rule is not final, but the comment record from tenant advocates is running 10:1 in favor. The Attorney General's office is not going to back off.

What's binding this week

May 22. Coast Guard special local regulation takes effect for Miami Beach Air and Sea Show, closing portions of the Atlantic Ocean off Miami Beach through May 24. Vessels prohibited without COTP authorization.
May 26. Florida Board of Governors holds public meeting via Zoom at 2:00 p.m. ET to conduct regular business of the state university system. Public comment instructions at flbog.edu.
June 4. Comment period closes on FCC's proposed rulemaking to cease recognition of test labs in non-MRA territories. Wireless device manufacturers using labs outside the U.S., EU, or trade-agreement countries should file.
June 12. Board of Medicine Probable Cause Panel South meets in Florida at 2:30 p.m. ET via GoToMeeting to review public disciplinary cases.

The bottom line

The FCC's lab rule and the Labor Department's overtime reversion are both supply-chain events. One tightens the front end (device certification); the other loosens the back end (wage classification). Both land in May, both change planning assumptions for the next 18 months. New York's environmental justice and heat-mitigation rules are the start of a pattern: watch for similar state-level mandates in California, Illinois, and Washington by year-end. The regulatory center of gravity is moving from federal floors to state ceilings.

Forward this to whoever on your team tracks certification timelines or comp structures. They will want to know the floor moved.

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