WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is stepping up its efforts to cut red tape across the federal government, releasing a regulatory plan that would eliminate 702 existing administrative rules.
The reductions published last Friday set a record for the number of deregulatory actions under consideration in a White House semiannual agenda plan.
It’s also about twice as many as were in motion at any given time in US President Donald Trump’s first presidency and comes on top of 752 such regulatory rollbacks finalised or completed since the start of the federal government’s current fiscal year that began on Oct 1, 2025.
Among the measures that the administration plans to scrap by the end of the fiscal year in September: environmental review requirements for energy projects and energy efficiency standards and rules that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In total, the administration projects US$1.5 trillion in savings for the economy through all the regulations it plans to have terminated by the end of September.
The lion’s share of the expected savings stems from a single action underpinning the climate policies of Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, repealing the 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health and welfare.
Trump has claimed that the emissions policies made possible by that finding would cost the economy US$1.3 trillion.
Liberal groups have disputed the administration’s projected savings from the rules reductions, however, arguing that the analysis doesn’t fully account for the benefits of environmental, safety, and consumer protection regulations.
The plan is only the second such agenda the White House has published so far in Trump’s second term, after the administration skipping last fall’s release.
It also includes the work of dozens of agencies that formerly enacted and enforced rules independently of the White House.
Last Monday, the Supreme Court upended that independence by ruling that the president has the power to remove those agency heads at will.
Now, those agencies are required to coordinate their regulations with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the White House budget office.
The White House invoked the Declaration of Independence in releasing the report on a federal holiday to observe the nation’s birthday.
“President Trump is improving the American people’s lives beyond economic cost savings,” wrote Mark Paoletta, who is acting as the administration’s top regulator.
“The federal government has imposed onerous restrictions on everything from the cars that Americans may drive to the appliances that they can use in their homes.” — Bloomberg
