HHS wipes out 36,000 pages of ‘regulatory dark matter’ in sweeping child welfare office purge
EXCLUSIVE: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overseeing the well-being of children, eliminated thousands of pages of regulatory...
By Fox News · Fox News
EXCLUSIVE: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overseeing the well-being of children, eliminated thousands of pages of regulatory guidance that had been languishing on the books as far back as 1976, Fox News Digital learned. The Administration for Children and Families is a Health and Human Services agency charged with promoting the economic and social well-being of kids and their families via overseeing programs such as the Head Start school readiness program, child support enforcement, foster care and adoption services, and managing unaccompanied minors. The office rescinded 35,781 pages of guidance documents after an agencywide review found 74% of its "sub-regulatory footprint" was obsolete. The documents included technical bulletins, program instructions, action transmittals and dear colleague letters — letters from federal agencies or members of Congress that typically inform colleagues on new guidance or legislation — that had accumulated across the past 50 years. The Administration for Children and Families emphasized that the rescinded documents were not erased, but instead archived online along with a detailed list of current guidance documented on the Department of Health and Human Services' website . DOGE ERA OVERHAUL: GSA TOUTS $60B IN SAVINGS AS TRUMP SHRINKS GOV'T FOOTPRINT: 'RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES' The Administration for Children and Families officially was established in 1991, but its origins and work stretch back decades, inheriting programs and guidance from earlier Health and Human Services offices — including major initiatives that date to the mid-1970s. "President Trump's regulatory reform agenda is unparalleled in U.S. history," the Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "ACF is proud to do our part to advance the President’s agenda by taking the first of many planned actions, nam…