The Trump administration is doing by fiat what it has struggled to accomplish through lengthy rulemaking — dismantling federal regulations designed to protect workers, consumers, investors and the environment.

Invoking an economic “emergency” stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has made it harder for people to challenge inaccuracies on credit reports, eased required breaks for commercial truckers and told factories and power plants that, while they should obey pollution limits, they do not have to monitor or report their emissions routinely — among other things.

President Trump formalized this strategy two weeks ago when he signed an executive order instructing agencies across the government to rescind, modify or simply stop enforcing regulations if they burden the economy. On Thursday, he signed another order to allow agencies to waive 50-year-old environmental laws to speed federal approvals of pipelines, highways and other projects.

The president took the actions even as he celebrated a 13.3 percent unemployment rate announced Friday and said the economy was surging in “the greatest comeback in American history.” His executive orders have resurrected a long-running debate about whether regulation hurts the economy.

“This is a huge win for pro-growth policies,” David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, said in a recent call with reporters. The moves come on top of waivers that federal agencies had already granted businesses and industries earlier in the health crisis. The White House will seek to make many of those roughly 600 deregulatory actions permanent, according to a former White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

As the virus spread across the United States earlier this year and the economy cratered, officials looked for places to pare back.
Posted in: USA