Trump administration makes ‘unprecedented’ push on regulatory review

The Trump administration on Tuesday rolled out what it is billing as the “biggest regulatory reform effort” in the history of the Department of Health and Human Services with a proposed rule to more easily end dormant or ineffective regulations.

Brian Harrison, chief of staff at HHS, described the push as “basically the biggest regulatory reform effort in the history of the world’s biggest regulatory agency.

“Under the proposed rule, any regulation issued by HHS, with limited exceptions, would end after 10 years unless the regulation gets a rigorous review of its economic and practical effects.

“I would expect this to be enduring,” Mr. Harrison told The Washington Times. “I think it’s very telling that every presidential administration going back to President Carter has made attempts at solving this problem that we have now found a way to solve.”

There would be a two-year grace period for existing regulations from the time the rule would take effect, which Mr. Harrison estimated would be late this year or early next year.

The department projected that 85% of HHS regulations created before 1990 have not been edited.

“They’ve got mountains of dirt and dust on those rules,” Mr. Harrison said. “Those would have two years even though they were issued over 10 years ago.”

A provision in the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 says major regulations are supposed to be reviewed every 10 years.”

This has largely been ignored for the past 40 years and we found a way to actually take it very seriously,” Mr. Harrison said.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the Trump administration is finding a way to deliver on the intent of the law.”

With HHS regulatory responsibilities as wide-ranging as food safety, drug approval, adoption and childcare, and healthcare financing, it’s essential that we know — and inform the American people — whether we’re executing on these responsibilities in a way that maximizes benefits, minimizes costs, and keeps up with the times,” Mr. Azar said.

Mr. Harrison said past presidents ranging from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama have all tried to force more periodic reviews of rules amid the vast federal bureaucracy but have found it difficult to make major headway.

He pointed out that Reagan required agencies to analyze how burdensome a rule is before they issue one “because rules are by definition burdensome.”

“But what has never been properly done is a review in light of all of the information, evidence and data since the rule has been published,” he said. “Every president back to Carter has demanded it. We’re finally doing it.”

The Trump administration has been engaged in a major deregulatory push since President Trump was inaugurated.

Mr. Trump signed an executive order in January 2017 saying that for every new regulation that’s issued, at least two regulations should be identified for elimination.

Mr. Harrison said that both the administration in general and HHS leadership specifically are “proudly deregulatory.”

“This is another big step toward that broader mission,” he said.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters Tuesday that Americans can expect more deregulation after the election.

“We will have across-the-board regulatory relief just as we did in the first term,” Mr. Kudlow said. “The other team’s going to raise taxes and regulations and probably doom us to stagnation and decline.”