Regulatory Reform Task Force

Back in 2017, the President signed an Executive Order (EO) requiring, among other things, each Federal agency to establish a Regulatory Reform Task Force. One of the duties of these task forces is to evaluate existing regulations and make recommendations to their agency heads regarding repeal, replacement, or modification. Specifically, these task forces were to focus on regulations that (i) eliminate jobs or inhibit job creation, (ii) are outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective, (iii) impose costs that exceed benefits (iv) create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with regulatory reform initiatives and policies, or (v) derive from or implement Executive Orders or other Presidential directives that have been subsequently rescinded or substantially modified.

So how is everyone doing?

OMB's (Office of Management and Budget) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, recently published a summary of regulatory reform results for Fiscal Year 2019. Here's their report card:

• Agencies eliminated $23 billion in overall regulatory costs across the Government
• Deregulations outpaced new regulations by a ratio of 12:1. There were a total of 176 deregulation actions compared to 14 new significant regulatory actions

How does that $23 billion in savings break down by Agency. For the full breakout, see Final Accounting for Fiscal Year 2018. Half of the savings are attributable to Health and Human Services. The Defense Department saved a paltry $67.9 million with four deregulatory actions (about 0.3 percent of the total).

What about the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations)? The FAR Councils implemented two deregulatory actions with estimated savings of $0.

For the current fiscal year, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs estimate an additional $18 billion in savings from final rulemaking.

Read more about activities of the Regulatory Reform Task Forces here.