HHS Child Welfare Agency Removes 35,000 Pages of Outdated Regulatory Guidance

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, has eliminated over 35,000 pages of regulatory guidance documents that had accumulated since 1976, Fox News Digital has learned exclusively.

After conducting an agencywide review, ACF determined that 74% of its “sub-regulatory footprint” was obsolete. The purged documents included technical bulletins, program instructions, action transmittals, and “dear colleague” letters that had built up over five decades.

“President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda is unparalleled in U.S. history,” said ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams. “ACF is proud to do our part to advance the President’s agenda by taking the first of many planned actions, namely removing 36,000 pages of obsolete sub-regulatory guidance that had quietly accumulated over decades and shining a brighter spotlight on what remains.”

The agency emphasized that the rescinded documents were not erased but instead archived online along with a detailed list of current guidance available on the HHS website. This transparency measure allows stakeholders to distinguish between current and historical guidance.

ACF, officially established in 1991 but with program roots stretching back decades earlier, oversees critical initiatives including the Head Start school readiness program, child support enforcement, foster care and adoption services, and the management of unaccompanied minors. The agency’s primary mission is promoting the economic and social well-being of children and their families.

The review process was extensive. ACF’s Office of Legislation and Budget spent three weeks compiling a comprehensive inventory of guidance documents considered active, producing a list of more than 4,000 documents totaling approximately 55,776 pages dating back to 1976.

Each program office was required to review individual documents and provide written justification for whether they should be retained or discarded. Documents were deemed obsolete if they related to expired funding cycles, had been superseded by newer rules, duplicated existing statutes, or pertained to programs that no longer exist.

Among the rescinded guidance were documents like a memo on filing the June 1999 Child and Family Services Plan and Final Report, 2005 avian flu guidance, and a 2010 staffing-change notice for the now-defunct Division of Energy Assistance.

According to ACF officials, the cleanup aims to reduce confusion and allow grant recipients to focus resources on “delivering outcomes for American children and families” rather than navigating thousands of pages of outdated documentation.

This regulatory pruning aligns with the Trump administration’s broader efforts to reduce bureaucratic red tape across federal agencies. Similar initiatives have been undertaken at other federal departments, including the Federal Communications Commission, which recently eliminated outdated policies on telegraphs, rabbit-ear TV receivers, and phone booth rules.

The move represents one of the most significant regulatory housecleaning efforts at HHS in recent years. By archiving rather than simply deleting these documents, the agency maintains historical records while creating clearer guidance for current program participants and stakeholders.

Government efficiency experts have long noted that regulatory accumulation can create compliance challenges, especially for smaller organizations and service providers who must navigate complex and sometimes contradictory guidance documents. This initiative appears designed to address those concerns while maintaining the agency’s core mission of supporting vulnerable children and families.