On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum (Memo) ordering all executive departments and agencies to temporarily pause certain regulatory actions until they can be reviewed and approved by designated officials in the Trump Administration and to consider temporarily postponing the effective dates of certain previously-adopted regulations.

Specifically, the Memo orders all executive departments and agencies to:

• Refrain from proposing or issuing any new rules, including by sending a rule for publication in the Federal Register, until a department or agency head appointed or designated by President Trump reviews and approves the rule;
• Immediately withdraw any rules that have been sent for publication but have not yet been published in the Federal Register, so that they can be reviewed and approved as described above; and
• Consider postponing for 60 days (i.e., until March 21, 2025) the effective date for any rules that have been published in the Federal Register, or any rules that have been otherwise issued but have not taken effect, and consider opening a comment period to “allow interested parties to provide comments about issues of fact, law, and policy raised by the rules.”

The Memo authorizes the Director or Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Director) to exempt any rule deemed necessary to “address emergency situations or other urgent circumstances, including rules subject to statutory or judicial deadlines that require prompt action.” The Memo also designates the OMB Director as the individual responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Memo.

The Memo is available here.