HHS, OK, Team Trump, on its way out the door, is trying to automatically sunset healthcare regulations that don’t get reviewed within two years by the incoming Biden administration.
We’re talking roughly 18,000 regulations that would be impacted here, including those involving Medicaid, food safety, pharmaceutical research.
“The Trump Administration’s new rule would severely limit HHS’ ability to implement critical programs and services nationwide,” said Virginia Attorney General Herring, who has joined a coalition of attorneys general opposing the HHS proposal.
“Jeopardizing the important work that HHS does, in the middle of a deadly pandemic that continues to devastate every corner of the country, is just plain dangerous. I will do everything I can to stop the Trump Administration from putting trillions of dollars in federal funding for important programs and services at risk with this dangerous rule,” Herring said.
The coalition argues in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar that the proposed rule:
- is unprecedented and dramatic in scope and poses a threat to the States’ healthcare systems and as a result, the health and safety of the states’ residents.
- is legally questionable since it claims to implement the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), which Congress enacted to minimize the impact regulations have on small entities with limited resources. Instead, the rule would add expiration dates to all 18,000 HHS regulations. Further, HHS lacks the legal authority for such action.
- will drain agency resources and create significant uncertainty for state programs that would have to deal with the consequences if the federal regulations they rely on suddenly expired.
- is deeply problematic given it was proposed just a month before a new president takes office and while the country continues to weather the pandemic, and gives the public only 30 days to comment, in spite of the fact that it impacts 18,000 regulations.
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