Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, WHITE HOUSE NEWS—Executive orders seek to limit reach, ease removal of federal regulations, (May 12, 2025)

By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

One of the EOs states that strict liability regulatory offenses are “generally disfavored.”

The Trump administration issued an executive order (EO) seeking to limit criminal penalties for regulatory violations to individuals who know or can be presumed to know what is prohibited or required by the regulation and willingly chose not to comply. The administration also issued an EO seeking to shorten the process for removing a regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations through rulemaking, eliminating purported inefficiencies in the processes of the Office of the Federal Register.

Publication in the Federal Register. An EO issued on May 9, 2025, seeks to shorten the process for removing a regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations through rulemaking. The EO states that the Office of the Federal Register frequently takes days or even weeks to publish new regulatory actions and that such delay is unwarranted. The documents received by the OFR are fully executed by the relevant decision makers, with only publication remaining. Further, executive departments and agencies are charged $151 - $174 per column of text in the Federal Register. The EO states that these inefficiencies inhibit the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda and waste taxpayer money.

Within 15 days of the EO’s issuance, the Archivist of the United States must submit a report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reflecting average publication times for different categories of documents. Within 45 days of issuance, the Archivist must review fee schedules for publication in the Federal Register and take steps to ensure the fees are based on the actual costs of publication and account for increased efficiencies achieved under the order. The Archivist is required to file a report with the director of the OMB calculating the percentage difference in fees between any proposed new fee schedule and the prior one. Finally, by August 22, 2025, the Archivist must submit a second report to the director of OMB reflecting average publication times between July 15, 2025, and August 15, 2025.

Overcriminalization in federal regulations. An EO issued on May 9, 2025, seeks to ease the regulatory burden on Americans caused by purported overcriminalization in federal regulations. The EO states that many federal regulations carry potential criminal penalties for violations. Further, the EO states that many of these “regulatory crimes” are strict liability offenses requiring no guilty mental state for an individual to be convicted of a crime. The EO states that criminal enforcement of criminal regulatory offenses is disfavored and that such prosecution is most appropriate for persons who know or can be presumed to know what is prohibited or required by the regulation and willingly choose not to comply, thereby causing or risking substantial public harm. The EO instructs agencies to consider civil rather than criminal enforcement of strict liability regulatory offenses. Further, agencies promulgating regulations potentially subject to criminal enforcement should explicitly describe the conduct subject to criminal enforcement, the authorizing statutes, and the applicable mens rea standard applicable to those offenses.

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