Presidential Transitions: The New Rules

The author contends that the 'norm-breaking' regulatory tools used by the Trump Administration to undo previous policies—such as Congressional Review Act disapprovals and suspensions of final regulations—have been adopted and in some cases used more aggressively by the Biden Administration. This shift suggests that the ability of a president to implement durable regulatory policy has decreased, with the window of protection from a successor's undoing shrinking from approximately three-and-a-half years to about two years. This trend is critical because presidents currently rely on regulations as their primary means of implementing domestic policy due to congressional gridlock.

• The Biden Administration has aggressively utilized the same regulatory rollback toolkit employed by the Trump Administration, suggesting these tactics are now standard components of the administrative state rather than an aberration.
• The period during which a president's regulations are likely to be protected from being undone by a successor of the opposite party has decreased from roughly three-and-a-half years to approximately two years.
• Due to congressional gridlock, presidents are increasingly dependent on regulations as the main mechanism for implementing domestic policy programs.

APA

Revesz, B. A. D. N. &. R. L. (2022). Presidential Transitions: The New Rules. Institute for Policy Integrity. https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/presidential-transitions-the-new-rules

Chicago

Revesz, Bethany A. Davis Noll & Richard L. Presidential Transitions: The New Rules. Institute for Policy Integrity, 2022. https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/presidential-transitions-the-new-rules.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Revesz |first1=Bethany A. Davis Noll & Richard L. |title=Presidential Transitions: The New Rules |publisher=Institute for Policy Integrity |date=22 August 2022 |url=https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/presidential-transitions-the-new-rules |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{revesz2022presidential, author = {Revesz, Bethany A. Davis Noll \& Richard L.}, title = {{Presidential Transitions: The New Rules}}, institution = {Institute for Policy Integrity}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/presidential-transitions-the-new-rules}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }