The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House GOP says Trump should scrap 228 rules
Push is certain to trigger partisan fights in Congress.
WASHINGTON — House conservatives have a message for President-elect Donald Trump: Use your first 100 days to scrap regulations on everything from catfish to ceiling fans to the Export-Import Bank.
The House Freedom Caucus wish list, sent by Chairman Mark Meadows to Trump’s transition team, includes 228 federal regulations to examine or revoke. It’s designed to hold Trump to his campaign promise to use his presidential pen to loosen rules on businesses. It’s also certain to trigger partisan fights in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is also on board.
“The president-elect has made it clear he’s going to move on as many regulatory changes as he can make as soon as he takes office,” McConnell said at a news conference this week.
High on the Freedom Caucus’ agenda are ending President Barack Obama’s executive actions protecting undocumented immigrants who arrived as children and ending the Export-Import Bank, of which Boeing is the biggest beneficiary. The list also calls for undoing the 1905 law that created the Overseas Private Investment Corp., which helps U.S. businesses gain a foothold in emerging markets.
In addition, the list targets first lady Michelle Obama’s initiative against childhood obesity, rules requiring for-profit colleges to teach employable skills and regulations intended to make ceiling fans and washing machines more energy efficient. Net neutrality rules that benefit internet content providers over broadband providers are included as well.
The caucus also included Southern lawmaker-authored protections for the domestic catfish growers and alcohol transport regulations that hit the kombucha tea industry. It wants the federal rule barring the transport of drinks with more than 0.5 percent alcohol to be raised, “in order to support the growing kombucha industry.”
For Wall Street, the group has targeted a new fiduciary rule for advisers on retirement plans as well as Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules for swaps dealers.
The caucus wants paid sick leave and minimum wage increases for federal contractors to be reversed, along with President Barack Obama’s increase in the threshold for overtime pay nationwide.
In the area of agriculture, the group would weaken National School Lunch Program standards that require low salt, whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables, arguing that “schools are throwing food away that students are not eating.” The change could help processed food companies such as PepsiCo, Kellogg and Hormel Foods.
To the benefit of the tobacco industry, the group would end recent rules requiring new per-market approval for cigars and restricting smoking in public housing.
The list includes for elimination a spate of regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, ranging from pollution standards for power plants to ozone reduction requirements estimated to cost billions of dollars a year.
In addition, the list proposed the elimination of the renewable fuel standard, the EPA program that requires refiners such as ExxonMobil and Chevron to use billions of gallons of ethanol and other biofuels. Revoking the rules would hurt ethanol makers like Green Plains.
A slew of Energy Department rules requiring that household products use less electricity would be voided, including new standards for ceiling fans opposed by companies such as Lowe’s and Home Depot Inc., which fear the rules could more than double the price of some fans.