As devotees of the Week in Regulation already know, there were 10 rulemakings this past week that contained some kind of measurable economic impact, with Department of Transportation (DOT) action standing out the most. See Dan Goldbeck’s writeup for all the details.

But what about the larger deregulation that the president promised on the campaign trail? Eakinomics got another insight when the administration published its summary of 2025 regulatory activity. Entitled “Regulatory Reform Results for Fiscal Year 2025,” the document leads with (spoiler alert: the administration grades on a scale from A to A+):

In the first eight months of the Administration, agencies have far exceeded the 10 for 1 requirement:

• Regulations eliminated in 2025 will save about $211.8 billion in present and future regulatory costs across the government.
• 129 to 1: Agencies issued 646 deregulatory actions and 5 significant regulatory actions. This included changes to rules, guidance, policies, and other regulatory “dark matter” that impose requirements on the American people.
  • 43 to 1: Within these results, Agencies issued 218 deregulatory actions that delete, modify, or otherwise refine the Code of Federal Regulations.
• For a full statement of these results see Regulatory Reform under Executive Order 14192: Final Accounting for Fiscal Year 2025.

The claim of 129 deregulatory actions for each regulatory action – recall that the target was 10 to 1 – is hard to swallow at face value. But this claim is hard to check because the administration counts items that are not published in the Federal Register. Of lesser notice is the claim of $212 billion in regulatory burden reduction. In his review of 2025 regulation, AAF’s Goldbeck totaled $129.7 billion in net regulatory cost reductions. That difference can probably be reconciled by differences in the time periods and agencies that were exempted from the regime.

Indeed, probably the biggest impact of the Trump regulatory strategy is not reduction in the cost of past regulation, but a stringent control of new costs. (That was certainly the case in his first term.) With that in mind, the summary notes:

As part of the effort to continue reducing unnecessary and ineffective regulatory burdens, agencies are working with OIRA to identify a regulatory cost allowance or budget for fiscal year 2026. These cost allowances will be released in the future and will be informed by each agency’s submissions for the Fall 2025 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions and incorporate regulatory actions required by law.

Put differently, the budgets in 2025 mimicked those in place in 2017, but will be changed in 2026. Stay tuned for more on the deregulatory front.