President-elect Joe Biden will issue a memo on inauguration day stopping or slowing down any midnight regulations put in place by the Trump Administration that will not yet have taken effect.
So-called “midnight regulations” are any rules or guidance issued by the executive branch of the American federal government in the lame-duck period between the election and the inauguration of a new President.
The memo will take effect after noon eastern time on January 20, incoming Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
Psaki said that “this freeze will apply not only to regulations but also guidance documents that can have enormous consequences on the lives of the American people.”
Every administration since when Jimmy Carter left office in 1981 has scrambled to put forward new regulations before they leave the White House, according to the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University. It’s often a struggle between the two parties. In 2016, House Republicans passed a law giving themselves the authority to invalidate any midnight regulations coming out of the Obama White House.
As the Trump Administration has tried this time round to muddy the waters, Mr Biden slammed outgoing Trump officials for not cooperating with the transition.
“Right now we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas,” Mr Biden said. “It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility.”
The official start of the administration was delayed for weeks after Mr Trump refused to concede, something he still has not done, baselessly claiming that he lost because the election was fraudulent. (Ndependent/UK)
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