Trump’s speech to Congress spotlights deregulatory efforts: CEI analysis

On Tuesday evening, President Trump delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress where he highlighted his administration’s deregulatory efforts across the federal government. CEI experts provide their thoughts on Trump’s comments:

Senior Fellow James Broughel:

“Last night, President Trump highlighted the early successes of the Department of Government Efficiency in uncovering and eliminating egregious waste in federal grants and contracts. This initiative has already saved taxpayers billions by rooting out fraud and mismanagement. While regulatory reform is still in its early stages, the administration’s commitment to cutting red tape is encouraging. If the same bold approach taken with DOGE is applied to broader regulatory policy, we could see a long-overdue rollback of unnecessary and harmful regulations that choke off innovation and strangle economic growth.”

Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies Wayne Crews:

“Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14219, ‘Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Regulatory Initiative,’ has set the stage for a major regulatory rollback—even invoking ‘deconstruction.’ This directive, which was featured in Trump’s speech and formalizes Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE Team Leads’ at agencies, aims at cutting unconstitutional and burdensome regulations while prioritizing efficiency and economic growth.

With just over a year to execute reforms, DOGE must act quickly. Executive actions alone are not enough—Congress must codify these efforts to prevent future administrations from reversing course. The opportunity to dismantle regulatory bloat is here—the match has been lit—but EO 14219’s “commence the deconstruction” will require aggressive action and legislative reinforcement to complete.”

Senior Fellow Ben Lieberman:

“The President said he wants to eliminate ten existing regulations for every new one. How about getting rid of ten bad appliance regulations, including the ones for dishwashers, water heaters, air conditioners, stoves, light bulbs, washing machines, and furnaces?”