Tuesday’s Federal Register runs 330 pages, and two of its notices carry most of the weight. One asks passengers boarding any foreign flight to the United States to swear they have not been to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The other cancels a visa-free travel program for Chinese visitors to the Northern Mariana Islands, with three days of warning.
Both are executive actions. Both arrive with short fuses and long explanations. The rest of the issue has its own curiosities, including a notice that announces a meeting four days after it happened.
Sign Here if You Have Not Been to the Congo
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an order (91 FR 67582) that takes effect just before midnight on Nov. 3 and runs through Dec. 18. It bars boarding any aircraft bound for the United States from abroad unless the passenger presents a signed attestation of no presence in the DRC during the previous 21 days, and connecting flights count while overflights do not.
Airlines must keep each form for 42 days. Knowingly false statements fall under 18 U.S.C. 1001.
The companion paperwork notice shows the scale. CDC seeks emergency approval and estimates 135.3 million traveler responses a year, plus an equal number of airline staff responses, at five minutes apiece. That is 22,550,200 burden hours annually, or about 11.3 million on each side of the check-in counter.
This is not CDC’s first measure. By the same notice’s account, an Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus was detected in the DRC and Uganda on May 17.
CDC then suspended entry of foreign nationals present in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan, most recently continued on Oct. 11. DHS has restricted air travel since July 14 for anyone, citizens included, who was in the DRC in the prior 21 days.
So what does a signature add? One inference, resting on that July 14 restriction and the order’s reference to the false statements statute, is that the form’s practical job is to turn a lie at the gate into a prosecutable offense. That is a reading of the documents, and neither one says it.
The order describes itself as not a rule under the Administrative Procedure Act, resting instead on existing CDC regulations. The notice does not say where the 135.3 million figure comes from, and it does not say why it names only the DRC when the May measures also reached Uganda and South Sudan.
Three Thousand Visitors and One Casino
DHS suspended (91 FR 67595) the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program, known as EVS-TAP, which let prescreened Chinese nationals visit the islands without a visa. The suspension takes effect at 2 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 30, and it also cancels travel authorizations already issued.
The justification is a judgment call, and the notice says so. DHS says it judges the program is almost certainly being exploited, citing more than 3,000 entries in fiscal 2025 drawn from internal CBP data that outsiders cannot check.
The risks it lists are espionage near the Tinian Air Base restoration and Guam’s installations, smuggling from the CNMI to Guam, and birth tourism. It then spends a long stretch on Saipan’s casino history, including a temporary casino that reportedly booked more than $2 billion in monthly VIP bets and executives who were later indicted under the racketeering statute.
Here is the catch. By the notice’s own description, the incidents it cites involved the former parole process or other streamlined travel, and the March 2024 smuggling case predates the program outright. The notice does not tie any of them to a traveler admitted under EVS-TAP.
The legal framing is equally frank. The notice says the statute commits good cause to the Secretary’s “broad and sole discretion” and requires no balancing of economic interests, then says the Secretary considered CNMI businesses and travelers anyway.
DHS concludes the security risks outweigh any countervailing personal or economic interests, and notes that visitors can still apply for a nonimmigrant visa. The notice ties the suspension to an evaluation with the State and Interior departments, sets no end date, and invites no comment. It is signed by Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, the Rest of the Register
Helium. The Energy Department announced that it added helium to its Critical Material List (91 FR 67558), citing semiconductor manufacturing, natural gas leak testing and quantum computing. The justification sits in an assessment on DOE’s website rather than in the notice.
The notice also calls helium essential to “SI and data center supply chains” and never defines the abbreviation. An inference, resting on the Oct. 2 executive order that renamed AI as Super Intelligence, is that SI means exactly that.
Firearm dealers and NICS. Justice finalized a rule (91 FR 67460) letting licensed firearm dealers voluntarily run FBI background checks on certain current or prospective employees, effective Nov. 27. The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act authorized it, the 2024 proposal drew 25 comments, and ATF dropped its planned consent form along the way.
HAVANA Act. Justice also finalized its April 2024 interim rule (91 FR 67476) on payments to employees and dependents with qualifying brain injuries, effective Nov. 27. It drew no comments in two comment periods, and the changes are official titles and an eligibility date.
Mahan Airways. Commerce renewed a temporary export denial order (91 FR 67542) against the Iranian airline and a web of affiliates abroad. The order first issued in March 2008, and Commerce cites a pattern of repeated, ongoing apparent violations to justify the extended renewal.
Somalia. The Coast Guard added Somalia to its Port Security Advisory (91 FR 67594), effective Tuesday, finding that the country is not maintaining effective antiterrorism measures in its ports. The list now stands at 24 countries, and the notice offers no specifics about Somalia’s ports.
The FCC. The Enforcement Bureau suspended Richard Bernstein from the E-Rate program and all universal service support and opened debarment proceedings (91 FR 67572). The notice states no grounds, pointing instead to a suspension letter, and opposition is due within 30 days or by Nov. 27, whichever comes first.
Health insurance exchanges. CMS proposed a 62-page rule on Exchange eligibility verification (91 FR 67656), with comments due Nov. 27, about a month. The notice implements section 71303 of Public Law 119-21, which it calls the Working Families Tax Cut legislation.
Hazardous materials. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration proposed adopting the latest international shipping standards (91 FR 67720), with comments due Dec. 28. The agency expects the benefits to justify the costs.
Notice after the fact. The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board’s Appointments Panel announced an Oct. 23 meeting in a notice published Oct. 27, blaming major IT issues for the short notice.
What the Short Fuses Have in Common
The two lead notices share a structure. Each lands as an executive action with immediate or near-immediate effect, and each leans on existing authority (public health regulations in one case, the Immigration and Nationality Act in the other) in place of a comment period.
That is legal, and the notices say so at length. It also means the public learns the reasoning only after the decision is made.
Three questions stand out. Where does the 135.3 million traveler figure come from? Which incident ties to a traveler admitted under EVS-TAP? And why does the CDC attestation stop at the DRC when earlier measures reached Uganda and South Sudan?
