Summary of Trump’s first-term executive orders on the administrative state that Biden repealed in 2021

By

Annelise Reinwald

Donald Trump (R) is set to be sworn in as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. 

After succeeding Trump in 2021, President Joe Biden (D) signed 42 executive orders in his first 100 days in office, 21 of which directly aimed at revoking Trump administration actions.

Ballotpedia tracked five Biden executive orders, enacted in the first five months of his presidency, that revoked 14 Trump executive orders that aimed to reform the administrative state. Trump’s 2024 campaign agenda said that a day-one priority would be to reissue one of those revoked 2020 executive orders designed to allow the president to remove federal employees who would have otherwise had civil service job protection. Here is a look at that revoked executive order and several others.

Two Biden executive orders, 13992 and 14003, revoked the following eight Trump executive orders, among others, regarding hiring and removing of federal employees, regulatory reduction, and reducing costs for administrative efforts:

  • Executive Order 13957: Created a new Schedule F in the excepted service for competitive service employees serving in policy-related roles, making it easier to remove those employees.
  • Executive Order 13771: Established regulatory budgets for federal agencies and required agencies to eliminate two old regulations for each new regulation issued.
  • Executive Order 13777: Established new regulatory reform officers and regulatory reform task forces to oversee the implementation of E.O. 13771.
  • Executive Order 13875: Directed agencies to eliminate non-statutory advisory committees whose missions have been accomplished, whose subject matter has become obsolete, whose primary functions have been assumed by another entity, or whose costs outweigh benefits.
  • Executive Order 13891: Prohibited federal administrative agencies from issuing binding rules through guidance documents.
  • Executive Order 13892: Required federal administrative agencies to provide the public with fair notice of regulations.
  • Executive Order 13893: Required agencies to consider cost reduction efforts in administrative actions.
  • Executive Order 13839: Aimed to expedite the discipline and dismissal processes for federal employees deemed to be poor-performing.

Biden’s Executive Order 13992 also abolished “any personnel positions, committees, task forces, or other entities” established pursuant to the revoked executive orders. These include the regulatory reform officer positions and task forces established under Trump’s Executive Order 13777.

In addition to executive orders, Biden signed into law three resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that repealed Trump administration rules. The CRA and executive orders are two mechanisms that, once in office, presidents and elected officials can use to repeal rules and shift regulatory priorities with their administration.

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