Statement of CSPI president Dr. Peter G. Lurie

In response to a recent lawsuit filed by a coalition of localities, associations and advocacy groups including CSPI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it “anticipates issuing, in the coming months, a notice of proposed rulemaking repealing the SUNSET Rule.” The rule—proposed and finalized in the Trump administration’s lame-duck period—would have established automatic expiration dates for more than 18,000 regulations issued by HHS and its sub-agencies. If effectuated, this rule would have set a ticking time bomb of sweeping deregulation.

These were not trivial rules that the Trump administration tried to sabotage on its way out the door. Some of these important consumer protections literally keep Salmonella and E. coli off our dinner plates. They assure drugs and vaccines are reviewed appropriately. But with the stroke of a pen, the Trump administration threatened all of them. We are very glad that the Biden administration’s response to our litigation is to begin to end this ill-intentioned SUNSET Rule.

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