Energy, environment and natural resources

Executive Order 13296: Amendments to Executive Order 13045, Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks

President: George W. Bush

Updated the interagency process for identifying and addressing environmental health and safety risks to children.

Status: In effect as amended.

Is Executive Order 13296 still in effect? Yes. Active as amended; children’s environmental-health review continues.

What does Executive Order 13296 do?

The order assigned these duties: EPA, OMB, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and federal rulemaking agencies — Updated the interagency process for identifying and addressing environmental health and safety risks to children.

Checked the amendments to EO 13045 against the signed order and children’s environmental-health framework. The guide does not overstate the order as an independent health standard or a substitute for agency statutes.

Administration position: The order’s policy rationale is described in its text and administration records. Implementation and legal observations below are based on the cited official sources.
SignedApril 18, 2003
IssuerPresident George W. Bush
Lead agencies or officialsEPA, OMB, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and federal rulemaking agencies
Express timingImmediate; agencies consider children’s risks in covered regulations and reporting

Before and after

Before the order

EO 13045 required special attention to children’s risks, but agency assignments needed conforming changes after government reorganization.

After the order

Agencies continued risk assessment and regulatory review under the amended order alongside statutes such as the Toxic Substances Control Act and Clean Air Act.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
EPA, OMB, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and federal rulemaking agenciesUpdated the interagency process for identifying and addressing environmental health and safety risks to children.Immediate; agencies consider children’s risks in covered regulations and reporting

What happened next

EO 13296 signed.

2003–present — Agencies retained children’s-risk assessments in applicable regulatory reviews; later administrations continued the framework.