President Trump is upholding his campaign promise of eliminating Obama-era regulations and limiting the implementation of new ones. An analysis by the American Action Forum (AAF) finds that Trump has cut the output of regulations to just eight percent of the averages under Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
Sam Batkins, the director of regulatory policy for AAF, said in his report that “the ‘Regulatory Freeze’ that took effect on day one of the administration has persisted for roughly the first four months of President Trump’s term. By virtually any measure, dating back through two Democratic presidents and one Republican president, the lack of regulatory output is historic.”
The American Action Forum reviewed Cabinet-level regulatory output recorded by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) from 1994 to 2017. For accuracy and consistency, the organization collected data specifically from January 23 to May 23 during each year and calculated the percentage of economically significant rules for each period and the percentage of withdrawn rules, as well as final regulatory costs from 2005 to the present. The AAF found that the Trump administration has done even better than expected.
“Across the board, the results indicate a significant diminution in the number of regulations approved and a notable uptick in the number of withdrawn measures (previous rules from the Obama administration no longer under consideration),” the report reads.
The AAF report elaborates,
During the period covered, the average administration reviewed 190 rules; the Trump administration reviewed 39. In the average year, there were 33 economically significant reviews; the Trump administration reviewed just 16. On average, there were 30.8 significant rules approved, not just reviewed; this administration has released 10.
According to President Trump’s campaign promise, his administration would eliminate two regulations for every one issued. Just minutes after the inaugural parade ended, President Trump announced a regulatory freeze on all federal agencies. And based on the findings of the study, the administration has gone beyond what was promised, and the results have been dramatic. The cost of new regulations has dropped significantly from an average of $26 billion to $33 million, just 0.12 of the past average.
By contrast, a 2016 report by the Heritage Foundation found that under President Obama, regulatory costs exceeded $100 billion annually. The Heritage Foundation found that there had been 20,642 regulations since Obama took office in 2009.
According to the AAF, this continued well into Obama’s last days in office, in which the Obama administration imposed $11 billion in annual regulatory costs (including proposed and final measures). That figure dropped to $153 million following Trump’s regulatory freeze. The AAF contrasts these figures with Obama’s regulatory freeze, during which time more than $500 million in new regulations were still imposed.
The 2016 Heritage Foundation report revealed that President George W. Bush was no better than Obama in this regard, adding $176 billion in annual regulatory costs.
Some of President Trump’s first tasks in office included repealing expensive Obama-era regulations using the Congressional Review Act, with an estimated savings of $4.1 billion in net present value costs and nearly 45 million hours of paperwork, according to the AAF. Among the Obama-era regulations repealed are privacy rules for Internet providers, limits on gun purchases by those deemed — often speciously — mentally ill, a rule preventing states from withholding funds from Planned Parenthood, and restrictions on mountaintop coal mining, the Daily Signal reports. Other more minor rules that Trump has nullified include a land planning regulation, a hunting rule for animals in Alaska’s wildlife refuges, and an Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordkeeping rule.
“We inherited, this administration, the biggest regulatory burden, we believe, of any president in American history,” Marc Short, director of legislative affairs, told reporters in April.
Besides the cost savings, deregulating will also have a positive impact on job growth. Peter Schiff, an economic expert and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, testified before the House Sub-Committee on Government Reform and Stimulus Oversight on September 13, 2011 on the job-killing nature of regulations. He said, “Regulations have substantially increased the costs and risks associated with job creation. Employers are subjected to all sorts of onerous regulations, taxes, and legal liability.”
A 2014 report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute on the Obama administration’s abundant issuance of regulations noted other problems associated with too many regulations, including the quiet expansion of the federal government, as well as the relegation of what should be congressional powers to unelected agencies.
According to the AAF’s findings, it’s possible that the regulatory freeze is not a fleeting one based on the observed trend. Batkins concluded, “Regardless of the metric employed, there is little doubt regulatory output is at historic lows. The regulatory freeze has not been temporary, but relatively permanent.”
Trump supporters who have thus far been disappointed by his failure to adhere to some of his biggest campaign promises such as a clean repeal of ObamaCare are likely to celebrate the findings of the AAF report.
Image of farm: USDA
