President Trump issued an executive order directing the heads of all executive departments and agencies to identify categories of unlawful regulations within 60 days and begin plans to repeal them. He emphasized that this review-and-repeal effort will prioritize evaluating each existing regulation’s lawfulness under certain United States Supreme Court decisions, including the following:
1. Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (2004)
2. United States v. Mead Corp. (1985)
3. American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA (2015)
The order directs agency heads to finalize rules without notice and comment, where doing so is consistent with the “good cause” exception in the Administrative Procedure Act. It also states that maintaining unlawful regulations is contrary to the public interest and unnecessary when repeal is required as a matter of law to ensure consistency with Supreme Court rulings. Accordingly, President Trump directs:
1. The heads of all executive departments and agencies to comply with this order by identifying categories of unlawful regulations within 60 days and beginning plans to repeal them.
2. Agencies to finalize rules without notice and comment when doing so is consistent with the “good cause” exception in the Administrative Procedure Act.
Read the full text of the order at the whitehouse.gov website.