Biden administration freezes regulations, orders review

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden and his staff signed a series of orders intended to halt, freeze, and, where possible, roll back Trump-era regulations across the board.

Regulatory halt, withdraw, or freeze

On January 20, 2021, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain issued a memo to all federal agencies directing them to take a series of actions that would have the effect of halting all regulations published by the Trump administration that had not yet become effective.

The memo first ordered all work on pending regulations to stop "until a department or agency head appointed or designated by the President after noon on January 20, 2021, reviews and approves the rule." Next, all final rules not yet published in the Federal Register were to be withdrawn. Finally, the memo instructed agencies to "consider" imposing a 60-day "freeze" on the effective dates of any rules already published in the Federal Register but not yet effective so the regulations can be reviewed.

Following the memo, President Biden specifically froze the Trump administration's independent contractor rule, published on January 6, 2021, and its tip-pooling regulation, published on December 22, 2020, both of which were to become effective in March. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on February 3 extended the effective date for 60 days so that it could review both rules. In addition, the DOL revoked three opinion letters that referenced the now-suspended rules. Significantly modified regulations are expected from the new administration once its own personnel are in place at the Wage and Hour Division.