As fiscal year 2020 hit its mid-point on Tuesday, is the Trump Administration on track to meet its regulatory budget savings goals? AAF’s Director of Regulatory Policy Dan Bosch assesses the administration’s progress and finds that while most agencies are well off pace, a single finalized rule from two agencies on Tuesday — the Safer, Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, which revisits motor vehicle fuel efficiency standards — now places the administration nearly four times over its savings goal.

His central points:

• A review of the 91 federal rules subject to the regulatory budget that were finalized between October 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020, shows that covered agencies have saved a net present value of $195.9 billion;
• The totality of the savings comes from the recently finalized SAFE rule, which has an estimated savings of $199.5 billion;
• The agencies with the most savings finalized, by a wide margin, are the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, while the agencies with the most costs finalized are the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor; and
• While the administration will exceed its goal of $51.6 billion in budgeted savings at the end of the regulatory budget year on September 30, the federal government’s coronavirus response could alter the scope of regulatory and deregulatory activity during the rest of the year.