Repeal of rules won’t be speedy
Trump, Congress face a long slog to overturn Obama regulations
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a vow to repeal what he claims are job-killing federal regulations, including rules limiting power plant emissions, protecting rivers and streams, and preventing banks from reckless lending. Easier said than done. The same deliberate process used to enact the Clean Power Plant rule, the “waters of the U.S.” Clean Water Rule, or regulations under the Dodd-Frank law designed to clamp down on Wall Street usually requires the same long slog to undo them, making quick repeal unattainable.
In general, rule changes originate from the agencies who must offer a legal, scientific or other legitimate reason in defense of the proposed change, and solicit public comments first before a new rule or its repeal can take effect. In most cases, the final rule may not become effective until at least 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.
“The process is laborious, but that shouldn’t stop every agency head from setting it in motion,” Andy Koenig, vice president of policy at the Koch-affiliated Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a recent column on the group’s website. “The very fact that it is so time-consuming makes it essential for agencies to start the process immediately.”
But a Republican president and a compliant Congress con- trolled by Republicans can still do quite a bit in short order to block a host of proposed regulations or reverse rules that were recently implemented. Overall, critics say regulations pose a $4 trillion drag on to the U.S. economy every year, according to some estimates, though agencies also design rules to maximize economic benefits.
Stakeholders have been weighing in about the rules they’d like to see tossed.
Among them is the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right faction of House lawmakers who have clashed with congressional leaders in recent years. The group Wednesday asked the incoming Trump administration to jettison 227 rules its members view as burdensome, costly or unworkable, including ones setting nutrition standards for school lunches, requiring certain animal and plant inspections, and development of alternative fuels. Here’s what Trump and Congress can do:
Incoming presidents can prevent regulations that have yet to be finalized from ever taking effect.
It’s standard practice for a new administration to freeze any regulations that are in the pipeline until the incoming regime can review them, said Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.
President Obama did just than when he came into office in 2009, as did his predecessors.
“If it’s something that the current administration has finished and sent to the Federal Register but it isn’t published before Inauguration Day, then it’s easy for a new administration to pull those rules back,” he said.
Many could still go forward after the review is complete.
Congress has a limited window by which it can undo rules with a simple majority vote that can’t be filibustered.
Such “resolutions of disapproval” must be passed and signed within 60 legislative days from their publication in the federal register and their insertion into the Congressional Record.
Under the Congressional Review Act, agencies must report on their rulemaking activities to Congress and provide lawmakers a legislative roadmap to overturn those rules if they oppose them, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The Mercatus Center lists 172 Obama administration rules adopted since June 9 that could be subject to the review act. They include rules on implementing school wellness policies, regulating municipal solid waste landfills and food labeling guidelines.
But the incoming Congress will have to be picky because the law requires that rule reversals can only be done one at a time. With all the other priorities facing them, there’s may not be much floor time for wholesale regula- The Homer City Generating Station in Pennsylvania. The owners of the coal-fired have sued the Environmental Protection Agency over an Obama administration rule cutting sulfur dioxide pollution. tory rollback, Ellig said.
That hurdle helps explain why the Congressional Review Act has been used only once since it became law 20 years ago. In 2001, Congress and the George W. Bush administration overturned a Clinton administration rule setting an ergonomics standard for the workplace.
Agencies can decide not to enforce certain regulations because they ’re focused on other priorities. Or the Trump administration could choose to stop defending rules if they are the subject of a court challenge.
That passive approach “is a pretty easy way to undermine laws that are already around and public protections that already exist,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, a watchdog group.