USD has sent the Office of Management (OMB) an interim final rule regulating the foods, snacks and beverages sold in schools outside of cafeterias. Link to rule.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is working on a final white paper looking at renewable identification numbers (RINs). Meanwhile, Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said the plan is to hold at least one hearing on the renewable fuels mandate this summer, but a decision has not been made to try to move a bill through the panel. Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) told Politico Pro that “Maybe we can work at more of a leadership level to make sure that if there is going to be some biofuel bill on the floor it just not be an emotional 'Let's kill ethanol because we hate it.'” Link to Politico Pro article.

European Union countries authorized the start of talks with the US on a free-trade agreement after bowing to French demands to exclude the film industry. EU governments gave the European Commission, the bloc’s regulatory arm, a mandate for negotiations with the Office of the US Trade Representative to expand the world’s biggest economic relationship. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, said she would throw her “full political weight behind” a free-trade pact between the EU and the US. An accord between the EU and the US would outrank all others because both sides already have goods and services trade valued at $2 billion a day. A deal, which might take at least two years to reach, could bring annual economic benefits of 119 billion euros ($159 billion) to Europe and 95 billion euros to the US, the Brussels-based commission said. Beyond that, the world economy would get a 100 billion-euro boost through extra demand and governments around the globe would be encouraged to embrace EU-US models for everything from regulatory cooperation to technical standards, says the commission. The US said it would aim for “as broad and deep an agreement as possible” when negotiations with the EU get under way in the coming weeks. EU trade ministers carved the audiovisual industry out of the mandate to win French support while leaving the commission the right to request permission to negotiate for this issue at a later stage. French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq had said she would “refuse any mandate that doesn’t include protection of cultural services and the clear and explicit exclusion of the audiovisual sector.” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the concession to France was acceptable because he is free to raise the issue again with European governments after sounding out US officials on it.

Foreign investors sold a record level of $30.8 billion in long-term US Treasury notes and bonds during April as they continued to see improving US economic data and amid growing expectations the US Fed would temper its asset purchase programs, according to US Treasury data. Foreign official holders of long-term debt sold $23.7 billion, the biggest amount since November 2008.