President Trump said Monday that regulations are “out of control,” which is why he plans to cut 75 percent of them.
“We’re going to be cutting regulation massively,” Trump said during a meeting with business leaders. “We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent, maybe more.”
The president’s statement echoes calls he made on the campaign trail to cut regulations by “70 to 80 percent.”
At the time Trump was sworn in on Friday, the Federal Register contained 89,535 regulations published since 1994 — many of which Republicans say are outdated and duplicative.
But liberals are warning of doom and gloom if he follows through on his pledge.
“There is no way for President Donald Trump to slash regulations by 75 percent without cutting into bedrock public protections that hold Wall Street accountable, keep our water and children safe from lead poisoning, and contain food contamination outbreaks,” said Public Citizen’s regulatory policy advocate Amit Narang, reports The Hill.
Drastically cutting regulations would “permit corporations to rip off consumers, poison our environment, [and] cheat and mistreat workers,” he added.
Trump has offered few specifics about how his administration intends to cut so many regulations. While Republican lawmakers can repeal a small number of recently published rules through the Congressional Review Act, they have less authority over rules that have been on the books for years.House Republicans have expressed interest in passing the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act. This would establish a commission to repeal old rules.
But the SCRUB Act has little chance of passing the Senate, as Democrats could filibuster the bill.
The Trump administration would likely need to write new rules that repeal the outdated regulations.
In a November video outlining his first 100 days in office, Trump said he “will formulate a rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated.”