Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery

Executive Order 13924 of May 19, 2020

Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus known as SARS-
CoV-2 (“the virus”) was first detected in Wuhan,
Hubei Province, People's Republic of China, causing an
outbreak of the disease COVID-19, which has now spread
globally. The Secretary of Health and Human Services
declared a public health emergency on January 31, 2020,
under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act (42
U.S.C. 247d), in response to COVID-19. In Proclamation
9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency
Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
Outbreak), I declared that the COVID-19 outbreak in the
United States constituted a national emergency,
beginning March 1, 2020.

I have taken sweeping action to control the spread of
the virus in the United States, including by suspending
entry of certain foreign nationals who present a risk
of transmitting the virus; implementing policies to
accelerate acquisition of personal protective equipment
and bring new diagnostic capabilities to laboratories;
and pressing forward rapidly in the search for
effective treatments and vaccines. Our States, tribes,
territories, local communities, health authorities,
hospitals, doctors and nurses, manufacturers, and
critical infrastructure workers have all performed
heroic service on the front lines battling COVID-19.
Executive departments and agencies (agencies), under my
leadership, have helped them by taking hundreds of
administrative actions since March, many of which
provided flexibility regarding burdensome requirements
that stood in the way of implementing the most
effective strategies to stop the virus's spread.

The virus has attacked our Nation's economy as well as
its health. Many businesses and non-profits have been
forced to close or lay off workers, and in the last 8
weeks, the Nation has seen more than 36 million new
unemployment insurance claims. I have worked with the
Congress to provide vital relief to small businesses to
keep workers employed and to bring assistance to those
who have lost their jobs. On April 16, 2020, I
announced Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, a
framework for safely re-opening the country and putting
millions of Americans back to work.

Just as we continue to battle COVID-19 itself, so too
must we now join together to overcome the effects the
virus has had on our economy. Success will require the
efforts not only of the Federal Government, but also of
every State, tribe, territory, and locality; of
businesses, non-profits, and houses of worship; and of
the American people. To aid those efforts, agencies
must continue to remove barriers to the greatest engine
of economic prosperity the world has ever known: the
innovation, initiative, and drive of the American
people.

By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United
States to combat the economic consequences of COVID-19
with the same vigor and resourcefulness with which the
fight against COVID-19 itself has been waged. Agencies
should address this economic emergency by rescinding,
modifying, waiving, or providing exemptions from
regulations and other requirements that may inhibit
economic recovery, consistent with applicable law and
with protection of the public health and safety, with
national and homeland security, and with budgetary
priorities and operational feasibility. They should
also give

businesses, especially small businesses, the confidence
they need to re-open by providing guidance on what the
law requires; by recognizing the efforts of businesses
to comply with often-complex regulations in complicated
and swiftly changing circumstances; and by committing
to fairness in administrative enforcement and
adjudication.

Sec. 2. Definitions. (a) “Emergency authorities”
means any statutory or regulatory authorities or
exceptions that authorize action in an emergency, in
exigent circumstances, for good cause, or in similar
situations.

    (b) “Agency” has the meaning given in section
3502 of title 44, United States Code.
    (c) “Administrative enforcement” includes
investigations, assertions of statutory or regulatory
violations, and adjudications by adjudicators as
defined herein.
    (d) “Adjudicator” means an agency official who
makes a determination that has legal consequence, as
defined in section 2(d) of Executive Order 13892 of
October 9, 2019 (Promoting the Rule of Law Through
Transparency and Fairness in Civil Administrative
Enforcement and Adjudication), for a person, except
that it does not mean the head of an agency, a member
of a multi-member board that heads an agency, or a
Presidential appointee.
    (e) “Pre-enforcement ruling” has the meaning
given it in section 2(f) of Executive Order 13892.
    (f) “Regulatory standard” includes any
requirement imposed on the public by a Federal
regulation, as defined in section 2(g) of Executive
Order 13892, or any recommendation, best practice,
standard, or other, similar provision of a Federal
guidance document as defined in section 2(c) of
Executive Order 13892.
    (g) “Unfair surprise” has the meaning given it in
section 2(e) of Executive Order 13892.

Sec. 3. Federal Response. The heads of all agencies are
directed to use, to the fullest extent possible and
consistent with applicable law, any emergency
authorities that I have previously invoked in response
to the COVID-19 outbreak or that are otherwise
available to them to support the economic response to
the COVID-19 outbreak. The heads of all agencies are
also encouraged to promote economic recovery through
non-regulatory actions.

Sec. 4. Rescission and waiver of regulatory standards.
The heads of all agencies shall identify regulatory
standards that may inhibit economic recovery and shall
consider taking appropriate action, consistent with
applicable law, including by issuing proposed rules as
necessary, to temporarily or permanently rescind,
modify, waive, or exempt persons or entities from those
requirements, and to consider exercising appropriate
temporary enforcement discretion or appropriate
temporary extensions of time as provided for in
enforceable agreements with respect to those
requirements, for the purpose of promoting job creation
and economic growth, insofar as doing so is consistent
with the law and with the policy considerations
identified in section 1 of this order.

Sec. 5. Compliance assistance for regulated entities.
(a) The heads of all agencies, excluding the Department
of Justice, shall accelerate procedures by which a
regulated person or entity may receive a pre-
enforcement ruling under Executive Order 13892 with
respect to whether proposed conduct in response to the
COVID-19 outbreak, including any response to
legislative or executive economic stimulus actions, is
consistent with statutes and regulations administered
by the agency, insofar as doing so is consistent with
the law and with the policy considerations identified
in section 1 of this order. Pre-enforcement rulings
under this subsection may be issued without regard to
the requirements of section 6(a) of Executive Order
13892.

    (b) The heads of all agencies shall consider
whether to formulate, and make public, policies of
enforcement discretion that, as permitted by law and as
appropriate in the context of particular statutory and
regulatory

programs and the policy considerations identified in
section 1 of this order, decline enforcement against
persons and entities that have attempted in reasonable
good faith to comply with applicable statutory and
regulatory standards, including those persons and
entities acting in conformity with a pre-enforcement
ruling.
    (c) As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,
the Department of Health and Human Services, including
through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
and other agencies have issued, or plan to issue in the
future, guidance on action suggested to stem the
transmission and spread of that disease. In formulating
any policies of enforcement discretion under subsection
(b) of this section, an agency head should consider a
situation in which a person or entity makes a
reasonable attempt to comply with such guidance, which
the person or entity reasonably deems applicable to its
circumstances, to be a rationale for declining
enforcement under subsection (b) of this section. Non-
adherence to guidance shall not by itself form the
basis for an enforcement action by a Federal agency.

Sec. 6. Fairness in Administrative Enforcement and
Adjudication. The heads of all agencies shall consider
the principles of fairness in administrative
enforcement and adjudication listed below, and revise
their procedures and practices in light of them,
consistent with applicable law and as they deem
appropriate in the context of particular statutory and
regulatory programs and the policy considerations
identified in section 1 of this order.

    (a) The Government should bear the burden of
proving an alleged violation of law; the subject of
enforcement should not bear the burden of proving
compliance.
    (b) Administrative enforcement should be prompt and
fair.
    (c) Administrative adjudicators should be
independent of enforcement staff.
    (d) Consistent with any executive branch
confidentiality interests, the Government should
provide favorable relevant evidence in possession of
the agency to the subject of an administrative
enforcement action.
    (e) All rules of evidence and procedure should be
public, clear, and effective.
    (f) Penalties should be proportionate, transparent,
and imposed in adherence to consistent standards and
only as authorized by law.
    (g) Administrative enforcement should be free of
improper Government coercion.
    (h) Liability should be imposed only for violations
of statutes or duly issued regulations, after notice
and an opportunity to respond.
    (i) Administrative enforcement should be free of
unfair surprise.
    (j) Agencies must be accountable for their
administrative enforcement decisions.

Sec. 7. Review of Regulatory Response. The heads of all
agencies shall review any regulatory standards they
have temporarily rescinded, suspended, modified, or
waived during the public health emergency, any such
actions they take pursuant to section 4 of this order,
and other regulatory flexibilities they have
implemented in response to COVID-19, whether before or
after issuance of this order, and determine which, if
any, would promote economic recovery if made permanent,
insofar as doing so is consistent with the policy
considerations identified in section 1 of this order,
and report the results of such review to the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget, the Assistant
to the President for Domestic Policy, and the Assistant
to the President for Economic Policy.

Sec. 8. Implementation. The Director of the Office of
Management and Budget, in consultation with the
Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and the
Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, shall
monitor

compliance with this order and may also issue memoranda
providing guidance for implementing this order,
including by setting deadlines for the reviews and
reports required under section 7 of this order.

Sec. 9. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
    (c) Notwithstanding any other provision in this
order, nothing in this order shall apply to any action
that pertains to foreign or military affairs, or to a
national security or homeland security function of the
United States (other than procurement actions and
actions involving the import or export of non-defense
articles and services).
    (d) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.

    (Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    May 19, 2020.