Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to abandon a 54-year-old policy that allowed public comment on a variety of health department decisions stands to open the door to sweeping policy changes but will likely face legal challenges.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ plan abandons the “Richardson Waiver,” a policy adopted in 1971 that allowed for notice-and-comment rulemaking despite an exemption from the process in the Administrative Procedure Act for “rules and regulations relating to public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts.”
Kennedy’s Feb. 28 policy statement said the waiver—which had never been formally adopted as rulemaking—was “contrary to the clear ...