Trump Acts To Roll Back Regulations On Businesses

By Brian Naylor

Jan 30, 2017, 10:22am CT

President Trump signs an executive action in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, in Washington, D.C., saying he will "dramatically" reduce small business regulations overall. Alex Brandon/AP

Trump Acts To Roll Back Regulations On Businesses

By Brian Naylor

Jan 30, 2017, 10:22am CT

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President Trump’s latest executive action, fulfilling another campaign pledge, will eliminate two regulations for every new one enacted.

Trump signed the action during an Oval Office photo op, saying, “We’re cutting regulations massively for small business and large business,” adding, “This will be the biggest such act our country has ever seen.”

The White House has not yet released the formal paperwork.

Trump said earlier on Monday that he wants to eliminate “a little more than 75 percent” of the regulations now on the books, but it’s not going to be easy, as we’ve reported.

There are some 80,000 pages in the Federal Register, where all federal rules are published. But in order to repeal a regulation, a federal agency has to go through the same notice and comment rule making process used to formulate new regulations. And that generally takes at least a year.

There is a workaround for newly enacted regulations, the Congressional Review Act. It gives lawmakers the opportunity to repeal regulations approved in the last 60 days of the congressional session. But that too is a time-consuming process, and given the Senate’s need to act on Trump’s nominations, it’s likely that only a relatively few regulations will be repealed in this manner.