The Trump administration’s first semi-annual regulatory agenda is likely to focus more on the rules federal agencies are planning to repeal than the ones they plan to create.
Dominic Mancini, acting administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), sent guidance Monday directing the agencies to pay close attention to the executive order President Trump signed in January directing agencies to cut two existing rules for every new rule put in place.
The White House said agency plans due March 31 should follow the order’s requirement that the net incremental cost for fiscal 2017 “be no greater than zero” and that for every significant rule an agency plans to issue on or before Sept. 30, two existing rules should be proposed for elimination.
{mosads}Starting in 2018, the White House Office of Management and Budget will give each agency a budget for how much it can increase or decrease regulatory costs.
The White House asked each agency to send a preliminary estimate of the total costs or savings associated with each significant rule it plans to issue next year when it sends OIRA its plans in March for the Unified Regulatory Agenda due out this spring.
“Some of these regulatory and deregulatory actions may fall out of the 12 month reporting window for this Unified Agenda cycle; if that is that case, we nevertheless request that the agencies base this cost estimate on your best current prediction of the planned fiscal year 2018 actions,” Mancini said.