Trump to address regs rollback amid tax reform push

President Trump plans to give a speech at the White House next week on his efforts to roll back federal regulations.    

“The President will be making remarks in the morning highlighting his administration’s efforts to eliminate excessive, job-killing regulations to an audience of about 250-300 regulatory experts from think tanks, industry groups, universities, companies, and state governments,” a White House official said.

During the campaign, Trump claimed that as many as 70 percent of regulations could go and issued an executive order when he took office directing federal agencies to eliminate two rules for every new one proposed.

Following his speech scheduled for Monday, a White House official said 10 agencies will hold break-out sessions with some of the groups in attendance and talk about “how they can make regulation smarter, more efficient and less burdensome on our economy.”

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Participating agencies include the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Treasury and the Small Business Administration.

The speech is planned for Oct. 2, according to a Bloomberg BNA report, to mark the start of the new fiscal year, which ends on Saturday.

When Trump issued his two-for-one executive order in January, he directed the federal agencies to keep total incremental costs of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, at a net zero for fiscal 2017. The order also directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to set a regulatory budget for each agency in 2018.

Neomi Rao, administrator of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, sent a memo on Sept. 7 directing agencies to prepare a proposal of their regulatory costs for 2018.

“In light of these policies, OMB expects that each agency will propose a net reduction in total incremental regulatory costs for FY 2018,” she wrote.

“OMB expects to publish each agency’s final total incremental cost allowances in conjunction with the 2017 Fall Regulatory Plan and Agenda.”

Robert Weissman, president of the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen, said it would be a “staggering new level of irrationality” if the president were to set a specific target for that reduction in regulatory costs.  

“It is utterly indefensible to talk about cost without looking at benefits,” he said.  

Public Citizen is waiting on a ruling from a federal district court judge on the lawsuit it brought challenging Trump’s two-for-one order.

A White House official said more details about Trump’s speech will be released later this week.