WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is eradicating a host of progressive regulations related to climate change and other lefty causes, including an Obama-era emissions finding that spiked energy prices and a mandate requiring all executive agencies to buy paper straws.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expects that the deregulation blitz will save as much as $5 trillion over the next fiscal year.
OMB Director Russ Vought floated some of the actions in a cabinet meeting last week — and officials told The Post that the more than 200 deregulatory moves are already chipping away at the federal government’s spending.
The OMB senior official expected that the move to cut former President Barack Obama’s 2009 Endangerment Finding — dubbed the “holy grail of the climate change religion” — could save trillions in unnecessary regulatory costs alone. Others are anticipated to remove up to $500 billion in regulatory costs.
“In the Spring Unified Agenda, the administration is eliminating at least thirty existing regulations for every new regulation added,” Vought said in a statement.
“This is only the first step in the most ambitious and aggressive deregulatory agenda in American history.”
In addition to eliminating Obama’s emissions finding, the OMB officials also pointed to the denial of housing assistance for non-citizens and the reversal of the mandate requiring all executive agencies to buy paper straws for their food halls.
Regulations were also cut at the Department of Education and Department of Housing and Urban Development which triggered civil rights issues if a disparate impact on an underrepresented population was involved.
“We have achieved 109 regulatory actions, most of which are deregulatory,” one senior OMB official said.
“You look at some of the buildings that were built in the past … is because they didn’t have to go through all these regulations … we have got to try to get back to that in America.”
At least 245 finalized rules are expected by the end of September.
“In the first term, you gave us a goal of two for one,” deregulatory actions to regulatory actions, Vought explained at the recent cabinet meeting.
“We came in around five-and-a-half, six for one. And then, as you’re running for your second term, you said 10 for one,” the OMB boss went on.
“Where we are right now, in just one year, basically eight months, we are at 245 deregulatory initiatives planned by these agencies. That comes out to 30 for one.”
Voight touted that the administration is “making incredible strides” and referenced one recent deregulatory move that slashed energy costs.
In total, the Trump administration has moved forward on around 3,600 federal rules of its own.
