Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies; Regulatory Freeze Pending Review, 8346 [2017-01766]

Agencies

• Management and Budget Office

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 24, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 8346]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-01766]



[[Page 8345]]

Vol. 82

Tuesday,

No. 14

January 24, 2017

Part IV





Office of Management and Budget





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Regulatory Freeze Pending Review; Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 82 , No. 14 / Tuesday, January 24, 2017 / 
Notices

[[Page 8346]]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies; 
Regulatory Freeze Pending Review

January 20, 2017.

FROM: Reince Priebus, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff.

SUBJECT: Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.

    The President has asked me to communicate to each of you his plan 
for managing the Federal regulatory process at the outset of his 
Administration. In order to ensure that the President's appointees or 
designees have the opportunity to review any new or pending 
regulations, I ask on behalf of the President that you immediately take 
the following steps:
    1. Subject to any exceptions the Director or Acting Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget (the ``OMB Director'') allows for 
emergency situations or other urgent circumstances relating to health, 
safety, financial, or national security matters, or otherwise, send no 
regulation to the Office of the Federal Register (the ``OFR'') until a 
department or agency head appointed or designated by the President 
after noon on January 20, 2017, reviews and approves the regulation. 
The department or agency head may delegate this power of review and 
approval to any other person so appointed or designated by the 
President, consistent with applicable law.
    2. With respect to regulations that have been sent to the OFR but 
not published in the Federal Register, immediately withdraw them from 
the OFR for review and approval as described in paragraph 1, subject to 
the exceptions described in paragraph 1. This withdrawal must be 
conducted consistent with OFR procedures.
    3. With respect to regulations that have been published in the OFR 
but have not taken effect, as permitted by applicable law, temporarily 
postpone their effective date for 60 days from the date of this 
memorandum, subject to the exceptions described in paragraph 1, for the 
purpose of reviewing questions of fact, law, and policy they raise. 
Where appropriate and as permitted by applicable law, you should 
consider proposing for notice and comment a rule to delay the effective 
date for regulations beyond that 60-day period. In cases where the 
effective date has been delayed in order to review questions of fact, 
law, or policy, you should consider potentially proposing further 
notice-and-comment rulemaking. Following the delay in effective date:
    (a) For those regulations that raise no substantial questions of 
law or policy, no further action needs to be taken; and
    (b) for those regulations that raise substantial questions of law 
or policy, agencies should notify the OMB Director and take further 
appropriate action in consultation with the OMB Director.
    4. Exclude from the actions requested in paragraphs 1 through 3 any 
regulations subject to statutory or judicial deadlines and identify 
such exclusions to the OMB Director as soon as possible.
    5. Notify the OMB Director promptly of any regulations that, in 
your view, should be excluded from the directives in paragraphs 1 
through 3 because those regulations affect critical health, safety, 
financial, or national security matters, or for some other reason. The 
OMB Director will review any such notifications and determine whether 
such exclusion is appropriate under the circumstances.
    6. Continue in all circumstances to comply with any applicable 
Executive Orders concerning regulatory management.
    As used in this memorandum, ``regulation'' has the meaning given to 
``regulatory action'' in section 3(e) of Executive Order 12866, and 
also includes any ``guidance document'' as defined in section 3(g) 
thereof as it existed when Executive Order 13422 was in effect. That 
is, the requirements of this memorandum apply to ``any substantive 
action by an agency (normally published in the Federal Register) that 
promulgates or is expected to lead to the promulgation of a final rule 
or regulation, including notices of inquiry, advance notices of 
proposed rulemaking, and notices of proposed rulemaking,'' and also 
covers any agency statement of general applicability and future effect 
``that sets forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical 
issue or an interpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue.''
    This regulatory review will be implemented by the OMB Director. 
Communications regarding any matters pertaining to this review should 
be addressed to the OMB Director.
    The OMB Director is authorized and directed to publish this 
memorandum in the Federal Register.

[FR Doc. 2017-01766 Filed 1-23-17; 2:00 pm]
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