EO 14215 places independent agencies under presidential review

On 18 February 2025 President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14215, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.”¹ Section 2(b) defines the covered “independent regulatory agency” by reference to 44 U.S.C. § 3502(5), sweeping in approximately twenty agencies — including the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Federal Maritime Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.¹² The order amends Executive Order 12866 to extend OIRA pre- publication review of “significant regulatory actions” to those agencies, requires OMB-set performance standards and clearance of strategic plans, directs OMB to adjust apportionments under 31 U.S.C. § 1513, requires each agency to establish a Grade-15-equivalent White House Liaison position, and provides in § 7 that “[t]he President and the Attorney General … shall provide authoritative interpretations of law” for the executive branch.¹³⁴ The Federal Open Market Committee’s conduct of monetary policy is expressly exempt; the order reaches the Board of Governors only as to its supervision and regulation of financial institutions.¹

1. The order asserts the unitary-executive premise without removing any commissioner. The Supreme Court held in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602, 629 (1935), that “illimitable power of removal is not possessed by the President” as to officers “occupying no place in the executive department” and “charged with the performance of quasi legislative or quasi judicial functions”; the doctrine was narrowed in Seila Law LLC v. CFPB, 591 U.S. 197 (2020), and Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, 561 U.S. 477 (2010), but Humphrey’s Executor has not been overruled as to multimember commissions exercising quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial functions.⁵⁶⁷

2. Rulemaking at covered agencies passes through OIRA review under § 3 of EO 12866 before publication. The added step lengthens promulgation timelines and gives the White House substantive input on agency rules.³

3. Apportionment adjustments under 31 U.S.C. § 1513 allow OMB to meter the rate at which covered agencies obligate appropriated funds; the Antideficiency Act prohibition at 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)(B) bars obligation in excess of an apportionment.⁴ Whether apportionment adjustments under § 5 of the order cross the line into deferrals or rescissions reportable under the Impoundment Control Act, 2 U.S.C. §§ 683–684, is a question the order does not address.⁸