Tag Archive for: opinion letters

President Trump limits informal agency guidances

Federal law requires administrative agencies to go through a rulemaking process before implementing regulations. To avoid that process, agencies have increasingly begun using informal “guidances,” often issued in the form of memorandums, letters and bulletins. By two Executive Orders, the President has ordered administrative agencies, among other things, to include in any such document a disclaimer that it does not carry the force of law and further to make all such documents available to the public via a searchable database on the Internet. It is not yet clear whether the Executive Orders reach opinion letters, such as the Department of Labor’s well known opinion letters.