CEI Expert Weighs in on Donald Trump’s Economic Speech in Detroit

CEI fellow Ryan Young offered a quick take on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s economic speech in Detroit today, as it related to regulatory reform.

"Regulatory reform is one of the most important economic issues of our time, yet most presidential candidates routinely ignore it. It was good to see Donald Trump give the issue some attention in today's speech, though his reform agenda needs some work.

"Trump's proposed moratorium on new regulations would have little to no effect. Agencies can simply delay their actions until the moratorium ends. Restoring the separation of powers would work better, especially in the long run. Two reform bills that have already passed the House would do just that. Trump should publicly declare his support for such reforms, and work with Congress to pass them if elected. The first reform is the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS Act), which would require Congress to vote on major new regulations from executive branch agencies.

"The other reform is the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, which would create an independent commission to comb through the 175,000-page Code of Federal Regulations and send Congress a package of obsolete, redundant, and harmful rules to repeal.

"Trump's promise to repeal 'all illegal and overreaching' executive orders could be an important reform for reining in extralegal regulatory 'dark matter.' I look forward to seeing which executive orders Trump targets in the coming days and weeks."

CEI's Wayne Crews has called on the next president to promptly issue a Reagan-style executive order ramping up White House oversight of regulatory agencies and putting some extra requirements and restrictions on new regulations.