The Trump administration has dramatically slowed the pace of federal regulations to historically low levels, saving businesses billions every year, according to a Tuesday analysis.
Trump’s administration has finalized fewer rules in the first six months than any of the past three administrations, according to analysis from the conservative think tank America Action Forum (AAF).
“The results are substantial,” said Dan Goldbeck, an AAF analyst that prepared the study. “New regulatory burdens are a fraction of those established under President Obama’s first six months; overall regulatory volume has slowed to historically low levels; and a number of notable deregulatory measures have been initiated.”
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the White House office that finalizes rules from executive agencies, approved 41 new rules since January 20, and only 16 of those were marked as having a significance of more than $100 million. The next lowest six-month term was under former President George W. Bush’s first term in 2001, with 180 rules passed, 16 of which were economically significant.
The cost of the regulations passed by President Donald Trump are dramatically smaller than former President Barack Obama’s first six months in office.
The Trump administration’s rules enacted in the first six months impose $1.2 billion in regulatory costs, far smaller than the $24.4 billion in regulatory costs enacted during Obama’s first six months in office, according to AAF. The annual costs of the Trump administration’s rules so far is around $378. During Obama’s first six months, businesses were saddled with $4.2 billion annually, AAF reports.
Deregulation is one of Trump’s policy objectives that has been successful. The objective that require large legislative measures have not come to fruition, like the failure of Congress to repeal Obamacare.
The administration has rescinded or delayed a total of 860 regulations. Put another way, 16 regulations have been repealed for every one passed, exceeding Trump’s order that agencies repeal two rules for every one approved.
Congress has also worked to remove regulatory burdens by passing 14 bills repealing rules under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows the legislative branch to vote down rules imposed by executive agencies.
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