Administration in Review

The Biden Administration’s Modernization of the Regulatory Process Through Groundbreaking Reforms

January 21, 2025 | Fact Sheet

Many of the Biden-Harris Administration’s most impactful policy accomplishments over the last four years have come from bold action to protect the public through new regulation and improvements to the regulatory process writ large. The Biden-Harris Administration put in place hundreds of regulations that have improved the lives of Americans, protected consumers and workers, made society more fair for marginalized groups and minorities, enhanced public health and safety, and taken action on environmental issues such as the climate crisis.  

Some of the administration’s most important regulatory achievements are the major reforms that the administration made to the regulatory process itself under Executive Order 14094, entitled “Modernizing Regulatory Review” and accompanying guidance. Collectively, these reforms represent the most significant updates to improve and strengthen the regulatory process in decades. By reforming this process to make it more effective at protecting the public, the Biden-Harris Administration has enabled government agencies to fulfill their missions as Congress intended. 

Specifically, the Biden-Harris Administration finalized policy changes in the following areas: 

White House Review

• On April 6, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration issued the groundbreaking Executive Order 14094 on Modernizing Regulatory Review (EO 14094). The EO ushered in the most important and impactful set of reforms to the regulatory process in decades. For example, the EO made significant changes to the regulatory review process at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which had often been criticized as heavily and improperly influenced by corporate special interests and that commonly weakened or delayed regulatory protections. In response, the EO streamlines the OIRA review process and ensures that those who meet with OIRA include members of the public who benefit from new regulatory protections and not just the corporate lobbyists who oppose new regulations.

Public Participation

• On July 19, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration published guidance for federal agencies titled “Broadening Public Participation and Community Engagement in the Regulatory Process.” The guidance directs agencies to use a number of tactics to promote public participation and community engagement in the regulatory process. The guidance calls on agencies to make the rulemaking process more accessible to the public, especially members of underserved communities, people with disabilities, and people with limited English proficiency. 
• On January 15, 2025, the Biden-Harris Administration issued a memorandum on “Broadening Public Participation and Community Engagement with the Federal Government,” which includes additional provisions for improving public participation in all aspects of agency program implementation and decision-making.. 

Economic Analysis

• On November 9, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration issued an updated Circular A-4 on regulatory analysis, a guidance document for federal agencies that provides recommendations on how to assess the costs and benefits of rules they issue. This major reform helps ensure a more balanced approach to regulatory cost-benefit analysis that better accounts for regulatory benefits. The biased approach called for in the previous version of Circular A-4 had long been used to weaken regulations that protect the public by exaggerating the costs of regulations to corporations while disregarding the benefits of regulations to the public that are harder to monetize. The long-overdue changes are also noteworthy for making cost-benefit more attentive to equity concerns for structurally marginalized populations. These reforms also place more emphasis on the disproportionate benefits of new regulations to vulnerable, marginalized, fenceline, and front-line communities, and regulatory benefits that occur in the future such as action on the climate crisis. Overall, the reforms will lead to regulations that are more protective of the public and not just least costly to corporations. 

These much-needed reforms provide a solid foundation to reorient the regulatory process so that it works for Americans and working families who benefit the most from new public protections. This is what is at stake if Trump repeals the Biden executive orders and guidances on Day One.

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