FTC Announces Rule Changes Designed to Increase Oversight Effectiveness Over Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a number of changes and additions to the rules governing its oversight of the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority. The changes and additions are designed to provide increased transparency over the Authority’s operations, establish clear guidelines about conflicts of interest, and ensure the Authority is following best practices for prudent financial and operational management.

In a notice of proposed rulemaking, the FTC lays out a number of proposed changes to the Commission rules addressing the FTC’s oversight of the Authority, including:

• Updated reporting requirements: The revised rule would require the Authority to submit annual financial and performance reports to the Commission, including full, audited financial statements, as well as mid-year reports on spending levels and any corrective actions. The revised rule would also require the Authority to submit a multi-year strategic plan to the FTC. Annual reports and the strategic plan would also be published on the Authority’s website.

• Risk management requirements: The revised rule would require the Authority to take steps to prevent conflicts of interest, waste, fraud, embezzlement, and abuse, as well as ensure data security and privacy in its systems and those of its third-party contractors.
• Other best practices: The revised rule would recommend a number of organizational best practices at the Authority, including regular monitoring interactions with the FTC, recordkeeping practices, compensation and personnel policies and practices, travel policies, and the development of a customer service process.

In addition to the notice of proposed rulemaking, the FTC is also publishing a final rule making changes to the approval process for the Authority’s budget. The changes streamline the process by which the Authority submits, and the FTC approves, the Authority’s annual budget.

The FTC will publish both the notice of proposed rulemaking and the final rule in the Federal Register shortly. The notice of proposed rulemaking will be open to public comment for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Once processed, comments will be posted on Regulations.gov. Instructions for filing comments appear in the published notice.

The Commission votes approving the publication of the notice of proposed rulemaking regarding oversight and the final rule regarding the budget submission process were 3-0.