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Trump Issues Executive Order on Cost-Neutral Regulations

On January 30, 2017, President Donald Trump issued a “Presidential Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs.” The Executive Order requires that, unless prohibited by law, whenever an agency proposes or promulgates a new regulation through the Federal Register, the agency must also identify at least two existing regulations for repeal. Moreover, the Executive Order requires agencies to maintain a total incremental cost on all new regulations (including repealed regulations) at or less than zero, unless otherwise required by law or consistent with advice provided in writing by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The Executive Order also requires OMB to provide guidance concerning implementation of the Executive Order, including guidance with respect to: processes for standardizing the measurement and estimation of regulatory costs; standards for determining the what qualifies as new and offsetting regulations; standards for determining the costs of existing regulations that are considered for elimination; processes for accounting for costs in different fiscal years; methods to oversee the issuance of rules with costs offset by savings at different times or different agencies; and emergencies and other circumstances that might justify individual waivers of the requirements of the Executive Order.