Trump puts regulation monitors in US agencies
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to place “regulatory reform” task forces and officers within federal agencies in what may be the most far reaching effort to pare back US red tape in recent decades.
Trump signed the directive in the Oval Office with CEOs of major US corporations standing behind him including Dow Chemical Co, Lockheed Martin Corp. and US Steel Corp.
The sweeping order directs every federal agency to establish a task force to ensure each has a team to research all regulations and take aim at those deemed burdensome to the US economy and designate regulatory reform officers within 60 days and must report on the progress within 90 days.
“Excessive regulation is killing jobs, driving companies out of our country like never before,” Trump said before signing the order. “Every regulation should have to pass a simple test; does it make life better or safer for American workers or consumers?”
The effort is part of a Republican push to undo many of the actions of former President Barack Obama, who left office last month after two four-year terms.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan created a presidential task force on regulato- ry relief but that effort did not establish task forces at the Cabinet level. Other presidents including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, carried out attempts to reduce or streamline government regulations.
Trump’s order requires agencies to “measure and report progress in achieving the president’s directives.” Each task force will make recommendations on which regulations to repeal or simplify, Trump said.
The order says agencies should seek to repeal regulations that “inhibit job creation,” are “ineffective,” impose costs that exceed benefits or “create a serious incon- sistency or otherwise interfere with regulatory initiatives and policies.”
Trump said the US does not need “75 percent of the repetitive, horrible regulations that hurt companies, hurt jobs.”
The Republican has vowed a sweeping cut in US regulations and previously ordered agencies to repeal two rules for every new one adopted.
Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon told a gathering of conservatives on Thursday that deregulation, which he called “the deconstruction of the administrative state,” was a top priority for the administration.
Scott Slesinger, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said “this order is a directive to kill the safeguards Americans depend on for clean air, drinkable water and safe food.”
The Trump administration says executive orders from the previous government cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The Obama administration said the benefits of those regulations to the public far outweighed the costs.
The White House said the Obama administration finalized more than 3,000 regulations. Many of those were required by Congress.