Trump's First Executive Order Goes After ObamaCare

Gives agencies leeway to stop enforcing some provisions
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 20, 2017 8:28 PM CST
Trump's First Executive Order Goes After ObamaCare
President Trump speaks after being sworn in as the 45th president.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Trump quickly assumed the mantle of the White House on Friday, making his first executive order one aimed at his predecessor's signature health care law. Hours after delivering a stinging rebuke of the political status quo in his inaugural address, Trump sat at the president's formal desk in the Oval Office as he signed the order that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said was aimed at "minimizing the economic burden" of the "ObamaCare" law, per AP. The order notes that Trump intends to seek the "prompt repeal" of the law. But in the meantime, it allows the Health and Human Services Department and other federal agencies to delay implementing any piece of the law that might impose a "fiscal burden" on states, health care providers, families, or individuals.

That includes enforcement of the penalty for those who don't carry insurance, notes the Washington Post. At this point, however, it remains unclear how much effect the order will have, the newspaper adds. Priebus' memo says that agencies shouldn't submit any regulations to be published in the Federal Register unless a Trump-selected agency head approves it. That appears to mean that some regulations that had been approved by President Obama's administration would be halted. It also freezes any regulations that are already in the pipeline to be published and allows time for other pending regulations to be reviewed by Trump's administration. The memo is similar to one that Obama's chief of staff issued the day Obama was inaugurated in 2009. (More President Trump stories.)

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