The US Department of Health and Human Services has reversed an obscure requirement called the Richardson Waiver, which requires a period of notice and an opportunity for public comment on a wide range of decisions related to “agency management or personnel or to public property,

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is closing the main avenue for members of the public to weigh in on pending health regulations and policy changes. | The HHS secretary said the public feedback mechanism is an obligation that imposes burden on the department.

The move comes during a time of major upheaval across federal health agencies, and as the public waits to see how Kennedy will enact his pledge of “radical transparency” at the department.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking to eliminate public participation in many of his department's policy decisions, a move that appears to contradict his pledge to Congress of "radical transparency.