Fact Sheet: ACF's Approach to Streamlining Sub-Regulatory Guidance

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) rescinded 35,781 pages of sub-regulatory guidance, representing 74% of ACF’s total sub-regulatory footprint. This decision demonstrates ACF’s commitment to regulatory efficiency, transparency, and accountability to the American taxpayer.

Decades of Bureaucracy to Overcome 

Over the past 50 years, the ACF has accumulated an enormous array of sub-regulatory documents including technical bulletins, program instructions, action transmittals, and dear colleague letters. These documents are broadly designed to help clarify and supplement statute and regulation for ACF grant recipients. However, in practice, this accumulation of guidance documents over five decades created confusion and significantly increased the administrative burden for ACF grant recipients.

At the beginning of this fiscal year, ACF leadership could not grasp the full scope of enforceable sub-regulatory guidance. This lack of visibility prevented effective oversight and made it impossible to ensure that guidance was current, accurate, and aligned with statutory requirements and Trump administration priorities. Consequently, ACF directed the Office of Legislation and Budget (OLAB) to compile a comprehensive list of all ACF's sub-regulatory documents that were considered active. 

This directive launched the most thorough review of ACF’s guidance in the agency's history. Due to the immense volume of documents accumulated over 50 years, it took three weeks to simply catalog all the files. Once cataloged, the results were staggering. OLAB uncovered a total of over 4,000 documents consisting of some 55,776 pages dating back to 1976. 

Conducting an Agency-Wide Review

After establishing ACF’s sub-regulatory guidance baseline, ACF required each program office to justify the continued necessity of every sub-regulatory document under its purview. Each program office was assigned a spreadsheet containing the complete list of all sub-regulations published and overseen by that office. Program offices had three weeks to categorize whether each sub-regulation was "obsolete" or "necessary." For each document, offices were required to provide a rationale explaining how they reached their conclusion.

Program offices were instructed to classify documents as "obsolete" if the guidance was:

• From funding cycles and no longer applicable
• Duplicative of statute, regulations, or notices of funding opportunities
• Superseded by more recent guidance
• Addressed programs or initiatives that no longer exist.

 Documents were “necessary” if they:

• Provided current, non-duplicative guidance essential for grantee compliance
• Clarified complex statutory or regulatory requirements in ways not available elsewhere
• Addressed ongoing program operations
• Could not be readily incorporated into other existing guidance or resources.

Review Findings

The program offices’ review revealed the extent to which outdated and unnecessary guidance had accumulated across ACF. While the results varied by program office, the overall findings demonstrated a clear pattern: the vast majority of ACF's sub-regulatory guidance was no longer needed.

• 11 of 13 offices identified over 50% of their sub-regulations as obsolete.
• Overall, program offices concluded that 74% of ACF's sub-regulations—some 35,781 pages—were obsolete and could be rescinded.

Following the completion of the review process, ACF approved the rescission of all documents identified as obsolete by program offices. 

Improving Transparency
Importantly, all rescinded documents have been archived and clearly marked as such. They remain publicly accessible for transparency and historical reference, but they no longer constitute active guidance.

For additional transparency, all active ACF guidance is now readily available at HHS.gov/guidance, in addition to remaining accessible on individual program offices’ webpages. Centralizing active guidance in one location is intended to bring more light to current guidance and make it easier for grantees to identify what is in effect.

Delivering Clearer Sub-Regulatory Expectation for Grant Recipients

The goal of this review was to remove unnecessary and outdated guidance to provide clarity and reduce confusion for grant recipients. By eliminating 74% of its sub-regulatory guidance—35,781 pages—ACF has significantly reduced the administrative burden on grant recipients while ensuring that remaining guidance is current, accurate, and aligned with statutory requirements and administration priorities.

Going forward, grant recipients will be able to navigate tens of thousands fewer pages of documentation to find how best to conform with federal regulations and expectations. This will allow grant recipients to focus more time and resources on what matters most: delivering outcomes for American children and families.