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By: FEDweek StaffAgencies carried out Trump administration orders aimed at reducing the regulatory burden the government places on the public but the orders didn’t make much difference, GAO has found.
The orders, issued in 2017 and repealed early this year by President Biden, called on agencies two eliminate two regulatory actions for every new action, established regulatory reform task forces within agencies, and (directed agencies to identify regulatory actions that may inhibit economic recovery in response to the pandemic.
In examining five–Commerce, DHS, Interior, Transportation and EPA—that together carried out more than half of all actions under the orders, GAO found that they mostly used pre-existing review processes. “All five agencies stated that they would have likely finalized the deregulatory actions we selected for review regardless of the executive orders, and that the revocation of the executive orders would have little effect on their future regulatory processes,” it said.
OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs reported that the primary goals of two deregulatory actions for each new regulatory and achieving cost savings were met. However, GAO said that OMB allowed agencies to count as deregulation certain actions not taken through the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process, such as guidance documents, information collection requests, and other directives; of the five agencies reviewed, about a tenth of deregulatory actions fit that category.
Also, GAO said the claimed savings “could be overstated partly because OIRA’s overall reporting compared all agency deregulatory actions to only significant regulatory actions,” those that meet certain criteria including a level of financial impact on the overall economy.
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