DOT Sends Administrative Procedures Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from the DOT’s Office of the Secretary (OS) on “Administrative Rulemaking, Guidance, and Enforcement Procedures”. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published on May 16^th, 2025. Interestingly, even though the NPRM was published before the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda (published in September 2025), that NPRM was listed as being projected for publication in July 2025.

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“This rulemaking would reinstate and expound upon procedural reforms for the Department’s rulemakings, guidance documents, and enforcement actions rescinded by a final rule published by the Department on April 2, 2021, Administrative Rulemaking, Guidance, and Enforcement Procedures (86 FR 17292) [link added]. Accordingly, this proposed rule would revise and update the Department’s internal policies and procedures relating to the issuance of rulemaking documents. In addition, this rulemaking would update the Department’s procedural requirements governing the review and clearance of guidance documents, and the initiation and conduct of enforcement actions, including administrative enforcement proceedings and judicial enforcement actions brought in Federal court.”

That 2021 rulemaking was part of the Biden Administration’s effort to remove much of 45’s regulatory agenda. Specifically, that Biden Administration rulemaking addressed an earlier DOT/OS rulemaking (84 FR 71714) from the previous administration. The preamble to the 2021 rulemaking noted that:

“Many of the policies and procedures codified at 49 CFR part 5 were prompted by Executive orders that have since been revoked by E.O. 13992.^[1] As a result, the Department will rescind those policies and procedures, or portions thereof, that implemented or enforced any of the revoked orders. This final rule removes from 49 CFR part 5 those provisions that reflect revoked policies and procedures that are no longer in effect.”

This is one of the problems with relying on executive orders as the authority for issuing regulations. It is relatively easy for the next administration to come in and revoke/change those regulations. In this case, since this rule only directly impacts internal DOT processes, this is more of a storm in a tea pot issue, but it does reflect significant changes in regulatory intent, and those changes are already in place and are already affecting DOT policy and rulemaking regardless of the presence or absence of this rule.

I will not be covering this final rule in any detail, but I would expect to report its publication in the appropriate Short Takes post.