Free Republic

“I’ve never seen anything like this.” — Donald Kenkel, Cornell University. Last week, the New York Times discovered that President Donald Trump was serious when he promised to liberate the economy from the oppressive weight of the regulatory state, describing it as “deregulation on a mass scale.” Cornell’s Donald Kenkel, who was chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the first Trump administration, told the Times that “It’s going on much more quietly than some of the other fireworks we’re seeing, but it will have great impact.” Great, indeed. In both senses of the word. Gutting...

Accelerates permitting procedures to develop American Energy Dominance... In response to President Donald J. Trump’s declaration of a National Energy Emergency, the U.S. Department of the Interior will implement emergency permitting procedures to accelerate the development of domestic energy resources and critical minerals. These measures are designed to expedite the review and approval, if appropriate, of projects related to the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, or generation of energy within the United States. The new permitting procedures will take a multi-year process down to just 28 days at most...

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on the Breitbart Fight Club Founders’ Roundtable Tuesday that the agency is leading what amounts to the “largest deregulatory action” ever, slashing “trillions of dollars in deregulation.Environmental Protection Agency chief Zeldin spoke during the Breitbart Fight Club Roundtable with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle about the agency’s efforts to slash government waste, fraud, and abuse.The EPA administrator, a former congressman, has moved to cancel over $22 billion in contracts as part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to eliminate diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) policies, environmental justice grants, and...

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has rolled out 31 groundbreaking actions to dismantle the suffocating web of radical environmental rules strangling America’s economy.These bold reforms advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders, promising to unleash American energy dominance, drastically lower living costs for American families, supercharge economic growth, and restore constitutional governance by empowering state authorities.“Today, I’m pleased to make the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history,” declared Administrator Zeldin in a fiery video statement.“The Environmental Protection Agency is initiating 31 historic actions to fulfill President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, revitalize our auto industry, restore...

Trust me, it's big. The President just authorized DOGE to start cutting regulations🧵

A lawsuit recently filed by Utah, Texas, and Last Energy (a microreactor company) is challenging a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rule requiring all nuclear power-producing entities—including those that do not generate enough electricity to turn on a lightbulb—to obtain an operating license from the commission before turning on. If successful, the lawsuit could diminish the federal government's role in the heavily regulated nuclear energy industry. The requirement, known as the Utilization Facility Rule, can be traced back to the McMahon Act of 1946. This law gave the government a monopoly on nuclear power by granting federal regulators licensing authority over...

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, signed seven executive orders to decrease the size of her state’s government, combat “indoctrination” and critical race theory in schools, and remove the term “Latinx” from government documents. During her inaugural address Tuesday, Sanders pledged to sign an executive order “preventing the political indoctrination of Arkansas’ schoolchildren.” “As long as I am governor,” she said, “our schools will focus on the skills our children need to get ahead in the modern world—not brainwashing our children with a left-wing political agenda.” The governor’s office sent copies of the executive orders to The Daily Signal....

Fifteen Republican governors, led by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, have launched “Operation Open Road,” an initiative that seeks to ease the U.S. supply chain crunch through a range of state and federal measures, including calling on the Biden administration to remove “burdensome” regulations on the trucking industry and to suspend President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers. Lee announced the start of the operation in a statement on Nov. 22, the same day that he signed an executive order (pdf) deregulating critical trucking functions in Tennessee. “Republican governors across the country have committed to doing everything we can to...

In most portions of the U.S. economy, market competition puts downward pressure on prices, increases investment in innovation, and provides consumers a variety of options of purchases. The benefits of competition are obvious when Americans can shop around for automobiles at car dealerships or when walking the aisles of the supermarket. Competition in energy markets may not be as recognizable as cars or groceries, but Americans should know many of our country’s energy markets have been at the forefront of competition liberalization since the 1990s. As a result, monthly electric rates are lower or stagnant while consumers enjoy more options...

Arlington, Va. – On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s coronavirus coordinator, Jeffrey Zients, announced that the Department of Health and Human Services will use the Public Readiness and Preparedness (PREP) Act to allow retired doctors and nurses to administer vaccines and to enable licensed doctors and nurses to vaccinate people across state lines. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has encouraged Congressional action on these and other laws to increase access to vaccines and health care more broadly but welcomed Zients’ announcement. "'We applaud the Biden administration’s decision to enable retired doctors and nurses to administer COVID-19 vaccines and operate across state lines,'...

Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude warned viewers of MSNBC's Morning Joe show not to allow selfishness to lure them into voting for Trump. "I know a lot of you are tempted to place your own prosperity ahead of social justice and vote for Trump's reelection," Glaude said. "Well, DON'T DO IT!" "Granted, Trump's economic policies of deregulation and tax cuts have helped spur a booming economy," the Professor admitted. "Unemployment was at historic lows for minorities before the pandemic and the lockdowns hit. Likewise, stock prices have rallied back to where they were in January—enriching every person who has an IRA...

  LEADING HISTORIC REGULATORY REFORM: President Donald J. Trump has led a historic effort to eliminate unnecessary and costly regulations that hurt American businesses and families. Under President Trump’s leadership, Federal agencies have taken more than 7 deregulatory actions for every significant regulatory action.President Trump’s deregulation efforts have already reduced regulatory costs by $50 billion and are on track to reduce regulatory costs by at least that much in fiscal year 2020 alone.The President’s Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation is working to reduce outdated regulations, advance occupational licensing reform, and align Federal and State regulations.The Administration continues to take action...

Trump had a very good week, pressuring states to reopen, threatening to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty with Russia, ending all funding to the World Health Organization, and launching another round of deregulation. Trump won a big battle in the Supreme Court when it denied Congress the right to examine secret grand jury testimony from the Mueller “Russia collusion” investigation. The Democrats said they needed it to try to impeach Trump — again. Withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty (because the Russians are denying flights over Kaliningrad and Chechnya) is a positive step, as is Trump’s refusal to enter...

Encouraging private-sector solutions through targeted deregulation and public-private partnerships is a critical part of the Trump Administration’s COVID-19 response. This approach has successfully expanded testing development, healthcare capacity, and the use of telehealth. Telehealth has grown as the United States continues responding to COVID-19’s challenges, leading to public health benefits.Telehealth allows patients to connect remotely with medical professionals. Because of advances in smartphones and remote diagnostic testing capabilities, its use recently started to increase. But more comprehensive telehealth adoption was limited due in part to issues with internet access, HIPAA requirements, State licensing laws, provider liability, quality standards, and...

The Trump administration is rejecting appeals to slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the coronavirus, pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks closer to enactment in recent days despite the pandemic. As Americans stockpiled food and medicine and retreated indoors and businesses shuttered in hopes of riding out COVID-19, federal agencies in recent days moved forward on rollbacks that included a widely opposed deregulatory action by the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed rule would require disclosure of the raw data behind any scientific study used in the rulemaking process. That includes confidential medical records that opponents say could...

Although the U.S. is on a record streak for job-creation, many Americans still feel like they can't get ahead — it's not their imagination. The last three decades have seen the economy churn out more and more jobs that offer inadequate pay, a group of researchers found. "The history of private-sector employment in the U.S. over the past three decades is one of overall degradation in the ability of many American jobs to support households — even those with multiple jobholders," they wrote. The group wants to popularize a new economic metric, called the Job Quality Index, that goes beyond...

   We are now reducing the size, scope, and cost of Federal regulations for the first time in decades, and we are already seeing the incredible results. President Donald J. Trump  HISTORIC DEREGULATION: Since taking office, President Donald J. Trump has led historic deregulation efforts to roll back red tape that burdened Americans and stifled economic growth. Under the President’s leadership, the Administration has cut 8 and a half regulations for every new rule, far exceeding his promise to cut two regulations for every new one.President Trump’s deregulatory efforts have already slashed regulatory costs by nearly $50 billion, with savings...

President Donald Trump is an “exaggerator” who knew his policies wouldn’t generate the 5% growth he had promised while campaigning, according to Stephen Moore, who served as a campaign advisor to Trump and was a prospective Fed nominee. In an interview with Mehdi Hasan, columnist at The Intercept, Moore stopped just short of calling the president a liar, but did say Trump hurts himself with falsehoods. “He should stop saying things that are untrue,” Moore says in a clip from Al Jazeera English television show that Hasan provided on his Twitter feed. “I think Trump is an exaggerator, and I...

The Department of Energy announced this week that it’s withdrawing the Obama administration’s energy-rationing mandate for certain lightbulbs. Opponents criticized the rule change, arguing that the move would be bad for consumers and the climate. The reality, however, is that families and businesses will be better off, and the change will have a negligible impact on the environment. The Energy Department’s decision to withdraw energy-efficiency standards for candle-shaped, globe-shaped, three-way and reflector lightbulbs is a victory for consumer choice. Whether it’s buying a lightbulb or a new car, families have different preferences and needs. They consider the various trade-offs in...

President Donald Trump promised he’d get rid of bad rules. “Remove the anchor dragging us down!” he said when campaigning for president. “We’re going to cancel every needless job-killing regulation!” Trump was a developer, so he knew that the thicket of rules government imposes often makes it impossible to get things done. But would he keep his deregulation promise? I was skeptical. Republicans often talk deregulation but then add rules. People called President George W. Bush an “anti-regulator.” But once he was president, he hired 90,000 new regulators! Trump has been different. When he took office, he hired regulation skeptics....