CEI Backs Sen. Johnson’s Call for President Biden to Re-Instate Transparency in Agency Guidance Executive Order
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and 20 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Biden, requesting he reverse his decision to overturn Executive Order 13,891, which directed agencies to catalogue and either rescind or make all informal guidance searchable on a webpage. Signed in October 2019, EO 13,891 was intended to bring transparency to thousands of informal agency guidance documents, which are treated as enforceable by regulated entities, by requiring the agencies to declare or rescind all guidance and make the active guidance available in a single portal for the public.
The Senators wrote to President Biden:
“Your revocation of Executive Order 13891 is also contrary to sound policy. The purpose of the executive order and the GOOD Act is to promote transparency and ensure that Americans affected by Federal agency guidance know what those guidance documents are so they can more easily comply with them. This policy addresses real problems with the growing administrative state that affect both everyday Americans and other regulated entities, like states and local governments. It is only fair that people, businesses and local governments know what is required of them.”
CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews created a one-stop page for the guidance document portals here.
“In the spirit of transparency and that of President Biden’s own ‘unity’ appeal to be a president for all, he should re-instate the executive order demanding transparency from agencies when it comes to guidance they expect Americans to follow,” said Crews. “The public has a right to know the rules their government has asked them to follow and it is hard to imagine a president who promised to govern for all wants the agencies he leads to keep their directives hidden from the public.”
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