President Trump signs executive order containing “Regulatory Bill of Rights”

Washington, D.C.; May 20, 2020: President Trump signed a historic order yesterday that bolsters basic due process protections for Americans caught up in agency regulatory proceedings. Section 6 of the order contains 10 principles of “fairness in administrative enforcement and adjudication” — dubbed the Regulatory Bill of Rights. The order instructs all agencies to revise their existing enforcement procedures and practices to conform to these principles.

“If properly implemented, the 10 principles in the Regulatory Bill of Rights will go a long way toward ensuring the due process protections that Americans rightly expect and should always receive from federal agencies,” said Todd Gaziano, director of the Center for the Separation of Powers at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The president’s order is an impressive statement of ideals that should guide agencies to revise decades of unfair regulatory procedures and practices that violate core constitutional rights.”

For decades, PLF has worked with everyday Americans who find themselves victims of abusive regulatory investigations and proceedings. On March 16, Pacific Legal Foundation submitted a 46-page comment to the Office of Management and Budget providing examples from its years of public interest litigation regarding regulatory due process violations and recommending due process principles that included every one of the 10 the President listed yesterday.

A report published by PLF today, The Regulatory State’s Due Process Deficits, compiles the stories of nine PLF clients who faced shortfalls in their due process rights from regulatory agency investigations and other actions.

“While we are excited that the administration took our recommendations seriously, it now falls on the individual agencies and the OMB to change their current practices to conform to the principles the president has reaffirmed,” Gaziano said. “PLF will continue to fight until the aspirational goals of the Regulatory Bill of Rights become a reality.”

Documents

• Report: The Regulatory State’s Due Process Deficits
• PLF’s comment to OMB: Improving and Reforming Regulatory Enforcement and Adjudication
• President Trump’s executive order: Executive Order on Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery