President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are putting an exclamation point on the Administration's deregulatory focus with a "Cut the Red Tape" initiative.
That will come in listening sessions with agencies and a presidential address highlighting the regulatory reform themes and the benefits of those reforms.
A White House official said in addition to being about jobs, and innovation, deregulation is about "individual liberty and property rights," saying the Administration sees the deregulatory effort as about "restoring more constitutional government" by making sure agencies remain within the bounds set by Congress.
They will be meeting with various federal agencies to talk about, and listen to recommendations, for eliminating "excessive regulation."
Ross will also release a report on the impact of regs on the manufacturing sector.
The FCC is an independent agency, so is not subject to executive orders on cutting regulatory tape—like cutting two regs for every one added, as the President has directed, but FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is on the same page, having early on signaled he would take a weed whacker to what he saw as unnecessary regs and has promised at least one regulatory reform item at each of his public meetings.
A White House official speaking on background said Friday that in terms of finalized regulatory rulemakings for 2017, the agencies have reported finalizing 4 regulatory rulemakings versus 10 deregulatory rulemakings, though the number was something of a moving target.
The White House official says its deregulatory efforts to date have amounted to $300 million in annualized cost savings, compared to regulatory efforts that imposed $80 billion in increased costs under the eight years of the Obama Administration.
The administration said it was targeting regs that were no longer working, or duplicative or ineffective.
