Report hails decreased federal business regulations

Regulatory costs have fallen by $50 billion this year, and are expected to see a similar decline in 2020 according to a new report issued by the Council of Economic Advisers.

In response to an executive order signed by President Trump in January 2017, the effort to reduce regulations came after the addition of more than 220,000 new regulations that were issued in the course of the last two decades.

“This new approach to regulation not only reduces or eliminates costly regulations established by prior administrations, but also sharply reduces the rate at which new Federal regulations are promulgated,” notes a statement issued by the Council.

Another sign of the new emphasis is seen with the size of the Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. government containing all agency rules, which has declined from 97,100 pages in 2016 to 68,800 last year.

The Council says that the emphasis has not been only on reducing the number of regulations, but updating internal governmental regulations to “ensure more uniform and clear guidance development practices, among other updates that promote transparency, cost-benefit analysis, and the rule of the law.”

Looking at the regulatory decline, the publication Fortune says business leaders on the whole have been grateful, adding, “They’d like to see it advance even faster.”

According to a report issued by the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Department of Health and Human Services has led the way in the amount of deregulatory actions thus far enacted, followed by the Department of Labor and Department of Transportation.

By Garry Boulard

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