20 Ways Trump Unraveled the Administrative State

President Donald Trump campaigned to reduce regulations and unleash American jobs. He has unraveled the administrative state in 20 ways.

The 20 measures are:

1. In January, Trump signed an executive order that would cut two regulations for every new regulation proposed. Trump stated, “If there’s a new regulation, we have to knock out two.”
2. President Trump signed an executive order advancing construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, previously blocked by the Obama administration. Subsequently, the Trump administration approved the construction of both pipelines.
3. Trump signed an executive order in February known as “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda.” The order will create regulatory watchdogs that will find new onerous regulations to eliminate. Trump said that “every regulation should have to pass a simple test: Does it make life better or safer for American workers or consumers? If the answer is no, we will be getting rid of it and getting rid of it quickly.”
4. Trump signed a bill that rescinds the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband privacy rule that many scholars argue are duplicitous and onerous. Critics of the rule, including FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, argue that the Federal Trade Commission would be better suited to protect consumer privacy than the FCC. Katie McAuliffe, executive director for Digital Liberty, said this broadband rule “was a power grab under the guise of privacy.”
5. Trump signed J.Res. 58, which overturns the Education Department’s rule that relates to how teacher training programs are assessed. The Washington Post explained the rule’s unpopularity: “Teachers unions said the regulations wrongly tied ratings of teacher-training programs to the performance of teachers’ students on standardized tests; colleges and states argued that the rules were onerous and expensive, and many Republicans argued that Obama’s Education Department had overstepped the bounds of executive authority.”
6. The president signed legislation that nullifies a Department of Education rule relating to state accountability requirements. The rule concerned states’ accountability in identifying failing schools and reporting their plans for improving them to the federal government. Trump commented on rescinding both education rules, saying they “eliminate harmful burdens on state and local taxes on school systems that could have cost states hundreds of millions of dollars.”
7. Trump signed an executive order that minimizes the burden of Obamacare. The executive order makes it harder for the IRS to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate. Judge Andrew Napolitano called Trump’s Obamacare executive order “revolutionary.”
8. President Trump signed an executive order killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He told Breitbart News during the campaign, “The TPP is another terrible one-sided deal that rewards offshoring and enriches other countries at our expense. I will stop Hillary’s Obamatrade in its tracks, bringing millions of new voters into the Republican Party. We will move manufacturing jobs back to the United States and we will Make America Great Again.”
9. President Trump signed an executive order instituting a federal hiring freeze, although there is an exemption for the military. A federal hiring freeze was the second point in President Trump’s “Contract with the American Voter.” During his inaugural address, the president said, “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.”
10. President Trump signed legislation that repealed a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule mandated under the Dodd-Frank Act that requires companies such as Exxon Mobil or Chevron to publicly disclose the taxes and fees they pay to foreign governments. Analysis shows that the regulation costs the industry $1.3 billion.
11. President Trump instituted a freeze on all new regulations that have not been finalized.
12. President Trump signed a resolution that overturned the “Stream Protection Rule” issued by Obama’s Department of Interior during his last weeks in office. Trump said the resolution would “eliminate another terrible job-killing rule.”
13. President Trump signed an executive order that would review every executive agency and department to find out, as Trump says, “where money is being wasted [and] how services can be improved.”
14. President Trump signed legislation that repeals a Social Security Administration rule that bars Americans from their right to bear arms. Breitbart’s AWR Hawkins wrote about the rule: “Of all the regulations on the chopping block this week, the Social Security gun ban stands out as especially egregious. The Obama administration fashioned it in a way that gives the Social Security Administration the ability to bar certain beneficiaries from buying guns based on a need for help in managing their finances.”
15. President Trump signed legislation that eliminates an onerous methane emissions rule that effectively drove energy production from federal lands.
16. Trump signed an executive order that would review the Clean Power Plan, and possibly rescind Obama-era regulation that limits coal-fired power plants.
17. President Trump signed legislation that repeals a Department of Labor rule that severely limits the ability of states to implement drug testing.
18. President Trump signed legislation that repeals the Bureau of Land Management’s rule that would shift resource management from the states to the federal government.
19. President Trump signed an executive order in February that scales back the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul. The executive order directs the Department of the Treasury to consult with regulatory agencies and report to the president about what could be done to eliminate what the administration considers “overreaching.”
20. President Trump signed an executive order delaying the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule that critics contend limits consumer choice for retirement account holders.

White House chief strategist Steve Bannon detailed President Trump’s agenda in three parts: economic nationalism, national sovereignty, and deconstruction of the administrative state. At CPAC, Bannon said, “The way the progressive left runs is that if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put it in some sort of regulation in an agency,” he said. “That’s all going to be deconstructed.”

White House estimates show that the regulations that Trump has already repealed will save approximately $10 billion over the next ten years or $1 billion per regulation.

Trump has said that he wants to eliminate “a little more than 75 percent” of the regulations in the federal register. “We don’t need 97 different rules to take care of one element,” he said.

“We’re cutting regulations massively for small business and large business,” the president added.