White House Introduces Rule To Cancel Biden Paper Straw Mandate

The Trump administration officially introduced a rule to end former President Joe Biden’s paper straw mandate across the federal government, cutting waste and reversing the cultural weakness pursued by Democrats for years.

The official rule finalized by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and published July 21 will end the mandate forcing every executive agency to purchase paper straws for use in all their installations across the country, including for military bases and Veterans’ Affairs (VA) facilities, according to OMB Senior Adviser Dr. Kevin Rhodes.

The new rule would require government contractors to only offer straws that “have the strength and durability of plastic,” Rhodes, the nominee for Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, told The Federalist. That does not necessarily mean plastic, but it does mean straws that function in an equivalent way would be required.

The Biden administration intended on “phas[ing] out” the use of plastic straws and other “single-use” plastic items by 2027.

As the executive order, signed in February by President Donald Trump, that got the ball rolling on ending the paper straw mandate, states, “An irrational campaign against plastic straws has resulted in major cities, States, and businesses banning the use or automatic inclusion of plastic straws with beverages. Plastic straws are often replaced by paper straws, which are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws.”

The official rule will only impact federal installations. However, the pressure campaign to implement paper straws has observably trickled down to small coffee shops and other establishments across the country. Perhaps this signal from the government will encourage restaurants, coffee shops, and the rest to stop their faux environmental justice virtue signaling and return a simple pleasure back to American life.

Most Americans understand the practical reality that paper straws are awful. It is something of a seemingly minor issue that has garnered so much public outcry to the point that it has its own dedicated executive order. And, as the fact sheet for the order indicates, the paper straw campaign was pioneered by “woke” activists who prioritized “symbolism over science.”

Similar to the grotesque Brutalist and communist-style architecture that the federal government decided to build in the nation’s capital in the middle of the 20th century, paper straws represent another form of the everyday cultural degradation intended to make Americans hate the country in which they live.

Dr. Rhodes told The Federalist that “Paper straws were mandated to a whole bunch of veterans” and “the VA was mandated to use paper straws” under Biden.

“I was in the service for 25 years as a military member, and now as a veteran … you have an expectation that your straw works. We’re asking folks to go out and do arduous things and put their life on the line, and then they come home and as veterans and receive service. Don’t you think at the most fundamental, basic level, [when] they go to take a sip of their drink, their damn straw works?” he added.

Rhodes noted how the new rule is, in part, a symbolic effort offering a touchstone from the state-imposed loserdom of the Obama-Biden era. But it is still consequential — the U.S. government is reversing course, not to mention the fact that plastic straws cost less and do not come with the same potential risk of poisoning their users as paper straws.

“It is symbolic, but it also is at a fundamental level,” he said. “We’re getting back to basics. Straws that work, an economy that works, a country that works.”

The February executive order noted that “Paper straws use chemicals that may carry risks to human health – including ‘forever chemical’ PFAS … which are known to be highly water soluble and can bleed from the straw into a drink.” However, “[a] study found that while PFAS were found in paper straws, no measurable PFAS were found in plastic straws.” 

“People would give them to kids and stuff and then say, ‘Here, this is a paper straw, it’s supposed to be better for the environment. Meanwhile, you’re sucking in toxins.”

For those worried about environmental impacts, Rhodes said, “It’s not binary. You can have biodegradable materials that have the strength of plastic that still break down and work.” Under the new rule, government contractors providing the straws would need to certify that they do not use paper straws in business, as well as not take punitive actions against plastic straws, Rhodes said.

Logistically, once the rule is published in the Federal Register as part of a formal rulemaking process for the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), it will be subject to 60 days of public comment followed by potential alteration informed by those comments.

It will then move to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within OMB to ensure the rule makes sense after a cost-benefit analysis and from an economic and regulatory standpoint, Rhodes explained.

Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.