Executive Order 14122 · Signed Apr 12, 2024

89 FR 27355 · Published Apr 17, 2024 · Effective on signing

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COVID-19 and Public Health Preparedness and Response

pandemic preparednesspublic healthCOVID-19 policyexecutive branch reorganization

Signed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Revokes three COVID-era executive orders — including those requiring mask-wearing and anti-hoarding measures — and formally transfers the COVID-19 Response Coordinator's duties to the Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), terminating the Coordinator position.

Establishes the OPPR as the permanent institutional hub for pandemic preparedness inside the Executive Office of the President, closing out the emergency coordination structure stood up in January 2021.

What this order does

What it orders

The order revokes three earlier executive orders: EO 13910 (preventing hoarding of health and medical resources), EO 13991 (requiring mask-wearing in the federal workforce), and EO 13998 (promoting COVID-19 safety in domestic and international travel). It transfers all responsibilities previously held by the COVID-19 Response Coordinator — including duties defined across EOs 13987, 13994, and 13996 — to the Director of the OPPR, a body Congress established in December 2022. The positions of COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator are terminated.

The order does not alter the underlying authority of any executive department or agency, does not itself change any federal mask or travel rule still in place through other means, and is conditioned on the availability of appropriations. It creates no new enforceable rights or benefits for any party.

Who it affects

Senior White House and executive-branch officials formerly holding COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator positions, the Director of the OPPR who absorbs those duties, and federal agencies that previously coordinated pandemic response through the Coordinator's office.

Why it matters

The emergency coordination structure built at the start of the Biden administration is formally dismantled, and pandemic preparedness authority is consolidated in the OPPR. Federal workers and travelers are no longer subject to executive-order-based mask and safety mandates, to the extent those remained operative.

What must happen and when

How the order is supposed to work

All transfers and terminations take effect immediately upon signing — no rulemaking, report, or future agency action is required. The OPPR Director absorbs the Coordinator's responsibilities by operation of this order; the three revoked orders cease to have force at the same moment. Ongoing work under EOs 13987, 13994, and 13996 continues, now routed through the OPPR Director rather than a separate Coordinator. The standard appropriations-availability and severability clauses limit scope but impose no further steps.

Agencies directed to act

Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy

Authority and reach

Authorities cited

Article II

Constitutional grant of executive power to the President.

Public Law 117-328, § 2104

2022 legislation that created the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy.

What this order changes

Revokes Executive Order 13910

Executive Order

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Executive Order 14122: COVID-19 and Public Health Preparedness and Response | EO Reporter