When Congress passes legislation, it often explicitly authorizes federal agencies to implement provisions of the law through rulemaking. While agency rulemaking authority comes from Congress, the president sets priorities for agencies, often through Executive Orders. An incoming administration decides which existing federal rules to target with recission or replacement and directs agencies on what new rulemakings to undertake.
We expect the Trump administration to attempt to roll back many of the rules promulgated under the Biden administration. In the first Trump administration, EELP detailed the administration’s deregulatory goals and the strategies used to try to implement them. The actions taken by the administration: (1) undermined agency expertise, (2) restricted public participation in agency action, (3) took actions that minimized regulation-triggering events, and (4) re-interpreted statutes in novel ways to limit agencies’ authority to regulate.
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) governs how agencies conduct rulemakings and recissions. This paper explains the specific steps agencies must take to promulgate, alter, or repeal regulations, and the exemptions provided in statute that agencies can use in certain circumstances.