In a continuing effort to pare down the regulatory regime, President Trump issued an executive order directing each federal agency to establish a "Regulatory Reform Task Force" purposed with evaluating existing regulations and making recommendations with their respective agency heads "regarding their repeal, replacement, or modification." Titled "Enforcing the Reform Agenda," E.O. 13777 further requires the task forces to attempt to identify regulations which:
- "Eliminate jobs, or inhibit job creation,"
- "Are outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective,"
- "Impose costs that exceed benefits,"
- "Create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with regulatory reform initiatives and policies,"
- "Rely in whole or in part on data, information, or methods that are not publicly available or that are insufficiently transparent to meet the standard for reproducibility," or
- "Derive from or implement Executive Orders or other Presidential directives that have been subsequently rescinded or substantially modified."
The move comes nearly a month after the issuance of E.O. 13771, which in general terms requires agencies to rescind two regulations for every one issued, and E.O. 13765, which requires the Administration to "take all actions" to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Affordable Care Act and to give states more flexibility and control in that arena.
