Donald Trump disassembles 90 federal state regulations in just over a month in White House
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Version 0 of 1. Donald Trump’s administration has managed to deconstruct no fewer than 90 state regulations during his short time in office. Giant telecommunications companies will no longer have to take “reasonable measures” to protect their customers’ personal data from being stolen or accidentally released. People with disabling mental health illnesses will no longer be prevented from buying handguns and Wall Street banks will not be punished for not collecting extra money from customers to cover losses from high-risk trades, which were in part responsible for the 2008 financial crash. These are some examples of the 90 regulations that have been delayed, suspended or reversed since Mr Trump’s inauguration, according to The New York Times, which compiled the data. This massive de-regulation effort is believed to be one of the most significant shifts in regulatory policy in decades. Less than 10 days after his inauguration, Mr Trump signed an executive order that sought to hack federal regulations by requiring agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced. The executive order is expected to prepare a process for the White House to set an annual cap on the cost of new regulations. But until the end of the 2017 fiscal year, the cap will require that the cost of any additional regulations be completely offset by undoing existing rules. White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon has previously said that one part of the work of the Trump administration was the “deconstruction of the administrative state”. The argument, which has been long held by the Republicans, is that state regulations burden American businesses and are a barrier for economic growth. Corporate lobbyists and trade association executives are reportedly sending requests to the White House to get rid more regulations. Leading car manufacturers have reportedly asked to roll back an agreement to increase mileage standards. Letters obtained by The New York Times also show that the pharmaceutical industry has called to overturn a regulation that tightens scrutiny over the marketing of prescription drugs for unapproved uses, . One from the Business Roundtable, a conservative group of chief executives from major US companies said in a letter addressed to the White House that the "majority of these regulations directly and negatively impact economic growth." Chaired by the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, the group attached a "Top Regulations of Concern" list, along with recommendations to mitigate their impact. However, the group made it clear that it was "not proposing that all regulations on this list be repealed", but it said "some are so deficient they cannot easily be fixed.” Environmentalists, unions and consumer watchdogs have warned of the dangers of slashing regulations, which they claim include pollution-induced disease, contaminated food, unsafe workplaces and shoddy financial practices. In a letter signed by 137 organisations, interest groups warned President Trump that regulation benefited Americans by providing them with safeguards to preserve human health, safety, financial stability, quality of life and combat discrimination. “The benefits of regulations are the reasons that we have them," their letter said. “Americans do not vote to be exposed to more health, safety, environmental and financial dangers, yet this is precisely the effect that your executive order would have, if implemented." Mr Trump's administration has nonetheless continued to deregulate, approving the lifting of rules on coal mining, oil and gas exploration and a rule aimed at protecting drinking water from pollution. The US President has also instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to review a rule that could allow draining of wetlands and streams. During his joint address to Congress last week, Mr Trump said: “We have undertaken a historic effort to massively reduce job crushing regulations, creating a deregulation task force inside of every Government agency.” |