SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The interim final rule, “Practices Before the Department of the Interior,” published on January 10, 2025, at 90 FR 2332, included a 30-day public comment period that ends on February 10, 2025. The effective date of the interim final rule is February 10, 2025. The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) is taking this action in response to Memorandum M-25-10 of January 20, 2025, from the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Implementation of Regulatory Freeze, regarding the postponement of effective dates of certain published regulations. The memorandum directed the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies to consider postponing for sixty days from the date of the memorandum the effective date for any rules that have been published in the Federal Register , or any rules that have been issued in any manner but have not taken effect, for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy that the rule may raise. OHA is delaying the effective date of the interim final rule published at 90 FR 2332 to March 21, 2025.

OHA is delaying the effective date of the interim final rule without opportunity for public comment and making the delay effective immediately, based on the good cause exemptions in 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and 553(d)(3), in that seeking public comment on the delay is impracticable, unnecessary, and contrary to the public interest. The delay in effective date until March 21, 2025, is necessary to give Department officials the opportunity for further review and consideration of new regulations, consistent with the memorandum of the President, dated January 20, 2025. Given the imminence of the effective date of the interim final rule, seeking prior public comment on this delay is impractical, and contrary to

the public interest in the orderly promulgation and implementation of regulations. For the foregoing reasons, the good cause exception in 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) also applies to OHA's decision to make this action effective immediately.