Press Release

Has the Trump Administration Reached ‘Peak Deregulation’?

The Trump Administration has emphasized deregulation as a hallmark of its domestic policy agenda. Yet new data released today by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) show that the administration may have already reached its deregulatory apex, at least in terms of the number of significant deregulatory actions. AAF’s Director of Regulatory Policy Dan Bosch examines the administration’s regulatory actions since 2017 and concludes that, while the administration is slowing its rate of deregulation, this slowdown could be because it has already enacted the easiest deregulatory measures.

His central points:

  • The Trump Administration released its Spring 2020 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which shows the number of significant deregulatory actions dropping below the number of significant regulatory actions for the first time;
  • This drop in planned deregulatory actions could be a sign that the administration is no longer pursuing deregulation with the same intensity as it did earlier; and
  • It could also be a sign, however, that the administration enacted the easiest deregulatory actions earlier and is running out of obvious deregulatory measures it can enact.

Read the analysis.

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