Biden to Rescind Trump's Last-Minute Rulemaking

President-elect Joe Biden plans to act quickly upon taking office to block pending regulations issued by his predecessor and to rescind executive orders issued in the past four years that contradict his energy and environmental agenda.

"The Biden White House will issue a memo to take effect afternoon, eastern time on 20 January that will halt or delay midnight regulations actions taken by [President Donald] Trump's administration that will not have taken effect by the inauguration day," the Biden transition office said today. The "regulatory freeze" memo would apply to regulations and guidance documents that have either not been published in the Federal Register or set an effective date after 20 January.

Blocking last-minute regulations issued by predecessors is a practice both Trump and former president Barack Obama used. Unlike them, Biden may not be able to take advantage of another venue to overturn regulations issued in the preceding six months under the Congressional Review Act — a statute that allows Congress to disapprove recent rules by a majority vote. The Democrats have a small majority in the new House of Representatives but their best hope for winning an even narrower control of the Senate would involve picking both seats being contested in the state of Georgia on 5 January. Both Biden and Trump plan to campaign in Georgia on behalf of their parties' candidates in coming days.

A proposed rule that aims to stop banks from cutting back loans to coal mines, arctic oil drilling and other fossil fuel projects could be put on hold by Biden's regulatory freeze. The proposal from US Treasury's Office of Comptroller of the Currency has a comment deadline of 4 January, meaning the OCC will have just two weeks to review comments and release a final rule before Biden takes office.

The outgoing administration before the November election had outlined ambitious plans for further cuts in regulations affecting energy and environment. Trump's electoral defeat has forced his administration to attempt to pass many of the contemplated rules in the few weeks left in his term.

The Biden administration will also take swift action to rescind executive orders issued by Trump that contradict the Democrats' energy agenda, the Biden transition office said. The plans involve "reinstating protections for rejoining the Paris Climate accord and reversing President Trump's environmental rollbacks that have made our air and water dirtier," the transition office said.

The Biden team said today it has received little visibility into planned actions for the remainder of Trump's term because of obstruction by the White House Office of Management and Budget, an agency tasked with preparing budgets and overseeing the administration's regulatory efforts. Sabotage by the agency's political leadership is preventing career staff at the agency from providing support to the incoming administration and "there have been no signs that it will be forthcoming in the days to come," the Biden transition office said. The Trump administration denies lack of cooperation and says any lapses in communications are due to the holidays.