President-elect Joe Biden leaves after speaking at The Queen theater on December 28 in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik)
President-elect Joe Biden will issue an executive order interrupting “midnight regulations” on the first day of his presidency, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.
“We are announcing today that, as other new administrations have done before, the White House Biden-Harris will issue a memorandum to take effect at Eastern afternoon time on January 20, which will interrupt or delay midnight regulations, actions taken by the Trump administration that will not take effect until the day of the inauguration, “Psaki told reporters.
Midnight regulations are rules that administrations leaving service rush through the difficult period.
Psaki cited a pending Labor Department rule that she said would make it easier for companies to classify their workers as independent contractors, rather than employees with benefits.
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Psaki noted that “issuing a regulatory freeze is standard practice for a new government”.
From election day to inauguration day in 2016, the Obama administration has released 145 new regulations, many of which are related to energy and the environment, according to the conservative American Action Forum.
Then, on President Trump’s inauguration day, January 20, 2017, Trump issued an executive order ordering all federal agencies to pause any pending regulations until his new cabinet could review and approve it.
Congress is also suspicious of the Trump administration’s midnight regulations. A group of Democratic congressmen introduced the Midnight Regulations Review Act earlier this month, which would require the United States Government Accountability Office to provide Congress with information about the final regulations that the Trump administration introduced.
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The freeze on midnight regulations is just one of many actions Biden planned for his first day in office. The president-elect also promised that he would join the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization immediately.