Since our last post on February 14, President Trump has issued three more Executive Orders. The pace is slowing, so we are posting less often, but we will continue to keep you updated. Click the link below for summaries of each action.

2/28

• Presidential Executive Order on The White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  • Establishes a White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (“HBCUs”). The Initiative aims to work with agencies, private-sector employers, educational associations, philanthropic organizations, and other partners to increase the capacity of HBCUs to provide the highest-quality education to an increasing number of students.

• Presidential Executive Order on Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the "Waters of the United States" Rule
  • Calls on the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to “review all orders, rules, regulations, guidelines, or policies implementing or enforcing the final rule” and says the agencies shall “rescind or revise, or publish for notice and comment proposed rules rescinding or revising” such issuances. The executive order also asks the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to consider interpreting the term "navigable waters" in a manner consistent with the opinion of Justice Antonin Scalia in Rapanos v. United States. In his Rapanos plurality opinion, Scalia concluded:  “[i]n sum, on its only plausible interpretation, the phrase ‘the waters of the United States’ includes only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water ‘forming geographic features’ that are described in ordinary parlance as ‘streams[,] . . . oceans, rivers, [and] lakes.’ See Webster's Second 2882. The phrase does not include channels through which water flows intermittently or ephemerally, or channels that periodically provide drainage for rainfall. The Corps’ expansive interpretation of the 'the waters of the United States’ is thus not “based on a permissible construction of the statute.”

2/24

• Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda
  • Requires all federal agencies to create task forces to help “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people.” Within two months, agencies must designate an agency official as its Regulatory Reform Office (“RRO”). Each RRO shall oversee the implementation of regulatory reform initiatives and policies to ensure that agencies effectively carry out such regulatory reforms.