President Donald Trump's administration put a hold on various recently finalized and currently pending regulations that would cost nearly $200 billion, according to the American Action Forum.
AAF found that a memo, signed by White House chief of staff Reince Priebus on Trump's first day in office, "put a hold on $181 billion in total regulatory costs, including $17 billion in annual costs, and 5.5 million hours of paperwork. This moratorium freezes 22 rulemakings with annual costs above $100 million and 16 measures with more than $1 billion in long-term costs."
"The largest rules subject to the moratorium are a mix of those still in the proposed stage, recently finalized, and concluded but not yet published," including the Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications rule with an estimated cost of $106 billion, Efficiency Standards for Air Conditioners and Furnaces, which would have cost an estimated $12.3 billion and $9.2 billion, respectively.
The Environmental Protection Agency halted 30 regulations due to the memo, according to The Hill, until March 21.
"The regulatory moratorium from Reince Priebus was anything but an extreme measure. It is standard operating procedure for a new president to take stock of the existing regulatory landscape," wrote Sam Batkins, AAF director of regulatory policy.
"What was extraordinary was that the previous administration had $181 billion in regulatory burdens, 16 billion-dollar rules, and millions of hours of new paperwork pending in the system."
"It's unlikely the regulatory freeze lasts for longer than a few months, but it's a certainty that the administration will scrutinize all pending major rules and determine those that adequately protect public health and safety and those that could harm economic growth," Batkins concluded.
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