More Withdrawn Rulemakings – 1-22-25

Yesterday, in accordance with the President’s order on regulatory reviews (still no EO number), 25 rulemakings were reported (EO Review Search Criteria: Agencies=All;   Review Status=Concluded;   Concluded from 01/20/2025)‘Withdrawn’ by the OMB on their Reginfo.gov website. This includes three rulemakings of potential interest here:

There are still 24 ‘active’ rulemakings listed on the RegInfo.gov site. One of those, a DOE notice of proposed rulemaking on “Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program” may be of interest here. It is not clear at this point whether or not any of the remaining rules will be withdrawn today.

Technically, Trumps order did not require any action on rulemakings sent to the OMB for review, only on rulemakings sent to the Office of the Federal Register. Still, it is clear that agency review by Trump Administration appointees of these rules would be expected. It is not clear from the information on this web site if these rulemakings were withdrawn at the submitting agency’s request or whether they were directed to be withdrawn by the OMB.

The most concerning withdrawal, in my opinion, is the FAA rule that would have established the criteria and procedures for the operator or proprietor of eligible fixed site facilities to apply to the FAA for an unmanned aircraft-specific flight restriction. This rule was congressionally mandated {§2209 of the the FAA Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016 (PL 114-190, 130 Stat. 634)} to be in place almost eight years ago. The chemical industry (and many others, to be sure) has been begging the FAA to issue this rule so that they could get some protection of their airspace from UAS intrusions. While I have not seen the language submitted to OMB, I would think that allowing this rulemaking to continue would have been under the discretionary authority provided to the OMB Director or Acting Director under Trump’s order.

Trump’s Regulatory Freeze

One of the ‘Executive Orders’ that President Trump issued with much public fanfare yesterday was “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review”. This is a relatively normal pause in the Federal rulemaking process when a change in Administration occurs. This allows for the incoming administration start putting their stamp on the regulatory process from day 1. Trump’s order is not significantly different than the one issued by Biden’s OMB Director in 2021.

Federal agencies were told to stop sending new rulemakings to the Office of the Federal Register, until such time as Trump appointees in that Agency have had a chance to review the rulemaking. Trump would allow the OMB Director (or Acting Director) to “exempt any rule that he deems necessary to address emergency situations or other urgent circumstances, including rules subject to statutory or judicial deadlines that require prompt action.

For rules that have already been sent to the OFR, but not yet published, agencies would be required to pull those rules pending similar reviews. These are rules that the OMB (through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OIRA) would have already approved, but have not yet been published in the FR. The Director of the OMB would similarly be allowed to intervene to allow publication.

Rules already published in the Federal Register, but prior to their effective date, would have their effective dates extended until 60-days from January 20^th, 2025 (March 2^nd by my count) to allow for a review of those rules by Trump appointees. If any of these reviews “raise substantial questions of fact, law, or policy, agencies should notify and take further appropriate action in consultation with the OMB Director.”