Regulation Rollback Begins in Washington
Randy Wolken, President & CEO

President Trump has indicated that he intends to remove regulations that needlessly burden manufacturers and other businesses. On his first day, he took steps to initiate this rollback. Below are a few of the highlights.

President Trump imposed a freeze on new and in-process regulations.

• The freeze pauses any rules from the outgoing Biden administration that have been proposed but not finalized, finalized but not sent to the Federal Register, or sent to the Federal Register but not published.
• The executive order also recommends that agencies delay the effective dates of any published but not yet implemented Biden rules by at least 60 days, giving the administration time to decide whether to rescind or revise the rules.

President Trump also rescinded several of President Biden’s executive orders, and reinstated policies that were in place during Trump’s first term.

• Most prominently, President Trump undid Biden’s rescission of Trump’s “one-in-two-out” policy. This policy calls for two regulations to be retired before a new one can be implemented. The president’s action sets the stage for more reworked and repealed regulations rather than new rules in his second term.
• He also rescinded a Biden order that had reduced agencies’ obligations to seek public input on guidance documents, which agencies use to interpret regulations and give direction to regulated parties. More public input will thus be required before new regulations are placed on manufacturers and businesses.

President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will advance the president’s 18-month DOGE agenda, that includes modernizing technology and software, increasing efficiency, and reducing the size of government.

DOGE will play a role in implementing the president’s new hiring freeze; the new organization will have 90 days to work with the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management on a plan to reduce the size of the federal government’s workforce while the hiring freeze is ongoing.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the regulatory burden facing manufacturers is sapping growth and costing the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion annually. Manufacturers shoulder $350 billion in annual regulatory costs. Even more damaging, small manufacturers are especially hard hit, with costs exceeding $50,000 per employee per year, or about $1 million for a 20-person shop. NAM has provided the new administration with more than three dozen regulatory actions to ease the regulatory burden on manufacturers.

MACNY strongly believes that smart, tailored rules and regulations can ensure the U.S. remains the best place in the world to build and create manufactured products. These policies will provide much-needed economic growth and strengthen our nation’s global competitiveness.