Escape the daily flood of Trump news dominating the Washington headlines with this roundup of big regulatory developments. Zillow is facing CFPB scrutiny, Amazon is mulling a pharmaceuticals play, Democratic state AGs move to defend a key part of Obamacare, and the SEC is boosting its ranks in new hires from Big Law. And here's a story about ducks at the U.S. Capitol.

Blue states move to defend the ACA. A group of Democratic state attorneys general, including California's Xavier Becerra and New York's Eric Schneiderman, on Thursday told a federal appeals court that the Trump administration can't be relied on to defend certain cost-sharing provisions of the Affordable Care Act. A judge rejected the provisions awhile back, and health regulators—then in the Obama administration—took the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Trump's White House win set up a thorny clash: the U.S. House, which brought the suit, against HHS, now represented in the appeal by the Jeff Sessions-led U.S. Justice Department.

Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

“In this litigation, the House of Representatives attacks a critical feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—landmark federal legislation that has made affordable health insurance coverage available to nearly 20 million Americans, many for the first time,” the state AGs wrote in their filing, signed by California Solicitor General Edward DuMont. “If successful, the suit could—to use the president's expression—'explode' the entire act. Until recently, states and their residents could rely on the executive branch to respond to this attack. Now, events and statements, including from the president himself, have made clear that any such reliance is misplaced.” The Washington Post has more here, and Reuters here.

Zillow is facing CFPB scrutiny. Real estate giant Zillow Group Inc. has disclosed in a regulatory filing that the company faces a renewed consumer-finance investigation by the Obama-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “For years many industry participants wondered if allowing their real estate agents or loan officers to engage in co-marketing on Zillow Group applications and websites posed a risk to their companies under RESPA. The industry may soon know the answer,” according to a post at Ballard Spahr's Consumer Finance Monitor blog.

Zillow said in its SEC filing: “We continue to believe that our acts and practices are lawful and that our co­marketing program allows lenders and agents to comply with RESPA.” HousingWire.com has more here on the CFPB's warning.