Additional Executive Directives Underscore Trump Administration’s Broad Deregulatory Agenda

This overview is excerpted from , Manatt’s subscription service that provides in-depth insights and analysis focused on the legal, policy and market developments. For more information on how to subscribe and to activate a complimentary one week trial to Manatt on Health, please reach out to .

Building on prior executive actions to shrink the federal bureaucracy and minimize federal regulations, President Trump issued several new executive orders (EOs) this week aimed at eliminating or minimizing various aspects of the “administrative state” and further empowering the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—led by Trump ally Elon Musk—to act on behalf of the Administration. Indeed, one of the recent EOs explicitly states, “Ending Federal overreach and restoring the constitutional separation of powers is a priority of my Administration.” These latest EOs are:

• (February 19), which directs federal agencies to identify existing regulations that should be repealed—and also to cease enforcing certain requirements in the interim—based on the Supreme Court’s evolving interpretations of executive authority or a misalignment with the Administration’s priorities.
  • Agencies are instructed to prepare a list of regulations for repeal within 60 days for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) withing the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), except for regulations addressing subjects such as immigration or national security. In the next Unified Agenda, which is typically released in June or July, stakeholders should expect to see a number of anticipated rulemakings to repeal or relax existing requirements due to the combined effect of President Trump’s deregulatory EOs.
  • In addition, before those repeals are effectuated through the rulemaking process, the EO directs agencies to “de-prioritize” enforcement actions based on regulations targeted for repeal, potentially including terminating existing investigations and enforcement actions.
• (February 19), which calls for the elimination of government bodies such as a advisory committees on long covid (housed within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)) and health equity (housed within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)).
• (February 18), which establishes heightened presidential authority over “independent regulatory agencies” like the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (but exempting the Federal Reserve). The EO includes directives for OMB to review proposed rules and modify the agencies’ allocation of funding across required functions.

As a reminder, EOs cannot provide agencies with new authorities, modify requirements established in federal statutes or federal regulations, or waive the standard processes for agency rulemaking (including rulemakings to repeal or relax existing rules). These latest EOs emphasize Administration priorities, restructure internal federal operations, and preview future rulemaking. They advance the Administration’s twin aims of, on the one hand, reducing both the size of the federal workforce and the volume of federal regulations, and on the other, enhancing White House supervision and control over all remaining agency staff and executive functions, with DOGE and OMB playing central roles. 

For more information on how to subscribe and to activate a complimentary one week trial to , please reach out to .