President Trump is ordering a sweeping emergency deregulation effort Tuesday to jump-start the economic recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, and directing federal agencies not to “over-enforce” regulations against small businesses that are working to bounce back, The Washington Times has learned.
Mr. Trump is signing an executive order during a Cabinet meeting to direct federal agencies to use rapidly all emergency and “good cause” authorities to find regulations that can be rescinded or temporarily waived to promote job creation and economic growth.
The president is expected to say that the nation is fighting a crisis “not by grabbing more power for the government, but by giving it to the American people.”
He’ll say that deregulation drove historic economic growth before the pandemic struck, and deregulation will bring the economy back stronger than ever.
The president is also asking federal regulators not to crack down on small companies struggling to abide by the rules during the recovery.
“Where small businesses are working hard to comply with the law, I am asking agencies to recognize those efforts and not over-enforce where a business or organization has tried in good faith to comply with the law,” the president will say, according to prepared remarks. “Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the American people are the ones who are going to bring this economy roaring back, and the government should not be tying their hands with red tape.”
Senior administration officials said the action could speed the growth of telemedicine, for example, and accelerate pending transportation rules to aimed at shipping LNG by rail and more efficiently transporting livestock and other food products by truck.
Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said federal agencies have taken more than 600 temporary deregulatory actions to fight the pandemic, and now the administration will move to make permanent “any deregulation possible” to boost the economy.
“If a bureaucratic rule needs to be suspended during a time of crisis to help the American people, we should ask ourselves if it makes sense to keep at all,” Mr. Vought said. “Typically when our country has faced a crisis, Washington responds by grabbing more power. President Trump understands that to get the economy moving, the power needs to be given back to the people and entrepreneurs.”
Paul Ray, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said the move highlights the president’s unique perspective on “the administrative state.”
“He knows that what will jump-start the economy is not Big Government, but the American people,” Mr. Ray said. “That’s why this president is fighting the economic emergency by returning even more liberty to the people.”
