The US Department of Health and Human Services is on its way to stop executing the controversial SUNSET rule, proposed by the former President of the USA Donald Trump. HHS said that to implement the rule would need the department to reexamine thousands of its regulations while the rule undergoes judicial review.
- The Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely (SUNSET)was first proposed in November 2020 and was enacted on January 2021, just a day before present President Joe Biden’s inauguration. This dubious rule would sunset most HHS regulations after 10 years if they are not properly obtained and reviewed based on the criteria set out in the Regulatory Flexibility Act.Ø This rule also permitted the HHS secretary to extend the inspection, the deadline for regulations by up to one year, and required the department to publish a monthly list of the assessment.
- However, HHS didn’t raise any interest in the rule. It said that it understood, that if the rule is implemented then some regulations would expire without undergoing any sort of administrative process.
- HHS wrote, “ That outcome could raise interrelated administrative law questions regarding whether regulations promulgated through notice and comment rulemaking can be terminated through an umbrella rule without individualized consideration of the expiring regulations, including any reliance interest of the parties affected by them; and if so, whether the proposed rule provided an adequate justification for implementing a process of automatic expiration”.