By Beth Wang
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden took immediate action to freeze all agency rules and guidances issued under the Trump administration that have not yet taken effect, sending out a memo from White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain that also asks agency heads to postpone and reconsider any rules that have yet to be published in the Federal Register.
Biden also plans to reverse Trump administration regulatory executive orders and will sign an executive order requiring every executive branch appointee to sign an ethics pledge, the new administration announced Wednesday morning (Jan. 20).
Biden’s regulatory freeze will bring to a halt a spate of HHS regulations that were pushed out in the last weeks of the Trump administration
On Wednesday, just hours after Biden was sworn into office, Klain sent out a memo to all agency heads saying any rules that have been sent to the Federal Register but not yet posted should be immediately withdrawn until they can be further reviewed and approved by department or agency heads or any other person to whom the agency head delegates authority to review rules.
For any rules that have been published in the Federal Register or issued in any manner but have not yet taken effect, agency heads should consider postponing the rules’ effective data for 60 days from the date of Klain’s memo.
The memo also suggests that during the 60-day effective date delay, agencies should consider opening a 30-day comment period to let interested parties provide input on “issues of fact, law, and policy raised by those rules.” Agencies also should consider any pending petitions that ask for those rules to be reconsidered.
“As appropriate and consistent with applicable law, and where necessary to continue to review these questions of fact, law, and policy, consider further delaying, or publishing for notice and comment proposed rules further delaying, such rules beyond the 60-day period.
After the 60-day delay, agencies should notify the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget of any rule that raises substantial questions of fact, law or policy and take further appropriate action in consultation with the OMB director, the memo says. Biden has nominated Neera Tanden to be director of OMB, but until she is confirmed, Rob Fairweather will serve as acting director.
In his memo, Klain also says that if the White House identifies any actions that were undertaken by the prior administration to frustrate the purpose of the Biden regulatory freeze, he will modify or extend the memo to request that agency heads consider taking steps to address those actions. Read more via Inside Health Policy