Trump Orders Agencies to Identify Unnecessary Regulations--Update
February 24 2017 - 1:49PM
Dow Jones News
By Ted Mann
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday
requiring each federal agency to form a task force to review
existing regulations and recommend whether to repeal or simplify
those deemed to harm the economy and job creation.
Mr. Trump signed the order shortly after noon in the Oval
Office, with a group of corporate executives who have advised the
administration on business issues arrayed behind him. They included
Dow Chemical Co. Chief Executive Andrew Liveris, Lockheed Martin
Corp. CEO Marillyn Hewson, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky,
and United Technologies Corp. CEO Gregory Hayes.
Mr. Trump said the order, the text of which wasn't immediately
released, would direct every federal agency to form "a real team of
dedicated people to research all regulations that are unnecessary,
burdensome and harmful to the economy and therefore harmful to the
creation of jobs and business."
The president signed the order shortly after a speech to the
Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he criticized
government regulations and said that 75% of existing rules were
unnecessary.
On Thursday, the administration convened meetings of a group of
manufacturing executives, led by Mr. Liveris, to develop
recommendations for improving the business climate, including by
rolling back regulations that are already in place.
In the Oval Office Friday, Mr. Trump said the task forces would
be required to report on their findings "every once in a
while."
Mr. Trump said the new order, combined with a previous order
aimed at curbing federal regulations, would "unleash" economic
growth. He also suggested, in an aside to Ms. Hewson, that his
administration has already succeeded in preventing the loss of
American jobs to other countries.
A previous Trump executive order requires that federal agencies
identify two rules to be repealed for every new regulation they
promulgate. It isn't yet clear how that order will work in
practice.
Some business leaders who have consulted with the administration
have recommended practices that are already part of the federal
regulatory process. Executives at Mr. Trump's Thursday meeting
called for the cost of new regulations to be reviewed before they
are issued. The Office of information and Regulatory Affairs,
formed in 1980, already issues cost-benefit analyses of new
regulations.
Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 24, 2017 13:34 ET (18:34 GMT)
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