MONDAY, March 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) — In a policy statement published today in the Federal Register, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has rescinded the current policy of requiring new rules and regulations to be open to public comment before they are implemented by the agency.
It has been the practice of the department, under the Administrative Procedure Act, to allow the public an opportunity to voice their support or opposition to government proposals via submitted comments. Since 1971, the Richardson Waiver has been in place to impose notice-and-comment periods above and beyond those required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The summary of the new policy states: “The Department of Health and Human Services’ (the Department) Immediate Office of the Secretary is rescinding the policy on Public Participation in Rule Making (Richardson Waiver) and re-aligning the Department’s rulemaking procedures with the Administrative Procedure Act.”
The department says it is revoking the little-known waiver because the public participation process imposes too many responsibilities on the department, “beyond the maximum” requirements of the law. Those obligations “are contrary to the efficient operation of the department, and impede the department’s flexibility to adapt quickly to legal and policy mandates,” Kennedy wrote in the document.
However, at the conclusion of the document, Kennedy states that “the Department will continue to follow notice and comment rulemaking procedures in all instances in which it is required to do so by the statutory text of the Administrative Procedure Act.”
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