Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery

The order directs heads of all federal agencies to use available emergency authorities to support economic recovery from COVID-19, to identify regulatory requirements that may inhibit that recovery, and to consider rescinding, modifying, waiving, or granting exemptions from those requirements on either a temporary or permanent basis. It also instructs agencies to accelerate procedures for issuing pre-enforcement rulings — official agency statements telling businesses whether proposed conduct is lawful — and to adopt formal policies of enforcement discretion favoring entities that made good-faith compliance efforts, including those following COVID-19 public health guidance.

Agencies must also review all regulatory flexibilities already granted during the pandemic and determine which, if any, should be made permanent, then report findings to the Office of Management and Budget and senior White House policy advisers. The order sets ten fairness principles governing administrative enforcement and adjudication — such as placing the burden of proof on the government and requiring penalties to be proportionate — and instructs agencies to revise their procedures in light of them. It does not itself rescind or amend any specific regulation; every operative change requires future agency action.

All federal agencies and their regulated communities — especially small businesses, non-profits, and employers seeking to reopen. Businesses subject to federal enforcement actions gain new procedural protections, and entities that acted in good-faith compliance with COVID-19 guidance gain a formal basis to seek enforcement discretion.

Businesses facing federal enforcement during the economic reopening get a clearer pathway to obtain pre-enforcement guidance and a formal good-faith defense. Regulations that were waived during the pandemic emergency could be permanently eliminated if agencies recommend it, affecting long-term compliance burdens across many industries.

Agency heads act first — identifying regulatory burdens, issuing waivers, and formulating enforcement discretion policies at their own pace. The Office of Management and Budget, working with the White House Domestic Policy and Economic Policy offices, monitors compliance and can issue guidance including setting specific deadlines for the Section 7 review and report requirement. There are no fixed statutory deadlines in the order itself; OMB sets the pace. The order expressly excludes foreign and military affairs and national security functions, and creates no privately enforceable rights.