HHS Secretary to Sign All Rules in Bid to Stem Litigation

The secretary of health and human services will now sign all rules coming out of the department and its agencies, according to a Sept. 15 memo made public Sunday.

The move requiring the secretary’s signature—in addition to that of the relevant agency head—"minimizes litigation risk for the department’s public health actions, prevents potential future abuse of authority, and is consistent with congressional intent,” the HHS said in a statement Sunday. Some HHS rules have been challenged in court based on the argument that officials who signed the rules didn’t have the proper rulemaking power, so this was intended to stop ...