A Feb. 19 executive order, “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative” calls on agencies to review all their regulations “for consistency with law and administration policy.”
The executive order seeks to end “federal overreach” by ordering agency heads to, in consultation with the attorney general, identify:
- Unconstitutional rules.
- Regulations based on unlawful delegations of legislative power.
- Regulations based on “anything other than the best reading of the underlying statutory authority or prohibition.”
- Rules that implicate matters of social, political, or economic significance that are not authorized by clear statutory authority.
- Regulations that impose significant costs on private parties that are not outweighed by public benefits.
- Regulations that harm the national interest by “significantly and unjustifiably impeding technological innovation, infrastructure development, disaster response, inflation reduction, research and development, economic development, energy production, land use, and foreign policy objectives.”
- Rules that impose undue burdens on small businesses and impede private enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Within 60 days of the order, agency heads, who are to coordinate with their Department of Government Efficiency team leads and the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in initiating the review process, will send these rules to the OMB’s administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The administrator, in turn, will consult with agency heads to develop a regulatory agenda to rescind or modify these rules.
The order does not apply to:
- Any action related to a military, national security, homeland security, foreign affairs, or immigration-related function of the U.S.
- Any matter pertaining to the executive branch’s management of its employees.
- Anything else exempted by the director of the OMB.
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Agencies Brought Under White House’s Control
The deregulatory executive order was issued a day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House. This executive order, if it stands, applies to several agencies, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.
Previous Deregulation Executive Order
In a Jan. 31 executive order, Trump required that whenever an agency issues a new rule or guidance, it must identify at least 10 existing rules or guidance to be repealed.
DEI Executive Orders
These executive orders were preceded by a Jan. 20 order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” It requires the director of the OMB, assisted by the attorney general and the director of the Office of Personnel Management, to “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs.” That includes “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the federal government, under whatever name they appear.”
On Jan. 21, Trump issued another sweeping executive order, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” This executive order did many things, including revoking Executive Order 11246, which had required federal contractors to practice affirmative action based on race and gender.
The Jan. 21 executive order also encouraged the private sector “to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.” Within 120 days of the order, the attorney general must submit a report to the assistant to the president for a domestic policy containing recommendations for enforcing federal civil rights laws and taking “other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences.”
On Feb. 21, a federal district judge in Maryland preliminarily blocked several challenged provisions of Trump’s executive orders on DEI, including enforcement of provisions applying to private companies.
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