On Inauguration Day, the Trump Administration issued a memorandum to heads of federal agencies and departments outlining how President Donald Trump would like to manage the federal regulatory process going forward. In the memo, Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, effectively put a freeze on pending and new regulations until the president's appointees or designees have the opportunity to review them.
This type of regulatory freeze is standard practice for a new administration. It is meant to halt the issuance and effect of midnight regulations from the previous administration until the new White House appointees can approve them, but the impact can be far-reaching.
Specifically, the memorandum asks departments and agencies to:
- Send no regulations to the Federal Register until a department or agency head appointed or designated by the president has reviewed and approved them;
- Immediately withdraw regulations that have been sent to the Federal Register prior to January 20, 2017, but not yet been published; and
- Temporarily postpone the effective date of regulations that have been published in the Federal Register but have not yet taken effect. The postponement will be for 60 days, allowing the administration to review questions of fact, law and policy and possibly open for further review.
Several regulations with significance to the dairy industry will be reviewed by the Trump Administration, including the recently issued National Organic Program regulations, changes to Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Management Plan and the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.
“IDFA looks forward to working with the Trump Administration on these and other regulations to ensure that regulatory requirements are sensible and not overly burdensome to the dairy industry,” said Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel.
Regulations subject to statutory or judicial deadlines are excluded from these requirements as well as regulations for emergency situations or other urgent circumstances relating to health, safety, financial or national security matters.
For more information, contact Emily Lyons, IDFA’s director of regulatory affairs and counsel, at elyons@idfa.org.