January 31, 2017 4:59 am
The first move came in the form of a memo to all federal agencies from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, freezing all recently finalized and pending regulations. The American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, found the action resulted in stopping rules that would cost the economy $181 billion.
"On day one in office, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, signed a memo to all executive agencies imposing a regulatory moratorium," wrote Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy for the American Action Forum. "This may sound like an extraordinary action, but President Obama’s then-Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, penned an almost identical memo eight years ago."
"According to American Action Forum (AAF) research, this memo
put a hold on $181 billion in total regulatory costs, including $17 billion in annual costs, and 5.5 million hours of paperwork," Batkins wrote. "This moratorium freezes 22 rulemakings with annual costs above $100 million and 16 measures with more than $1 billion in long-term costs."
The American Action Forum concluded the Trump administration's regulatory freeze could have a major impact given the record amount of rules President Obama pushed while in office and during his final days in the White House.
http://freebeacon.com/issues/report-trump-halted-181-billion-regulatory-costs-first-day-office/