President Donald Trump has executed “the most aggressive effort at regulatory reform in over a quarter-century,” but federal regulations and interventions from government agencies still cost American taxpayers $1.9 trillion in 2017, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
Clyde Wayne Crews, CEI’s vice president for policy and a senior fellow, released the 25th annual Ten Thousand Commandments report Thursday. The report analyzes “the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy at large.”
Although Trump has been a steadfast proponent of cutting back on the regulatory red tape that stymies economic growth, Crews urged Congress to step up the pace of deregulating the economy because there still is much more work to be done.
“The 2018 report charts new territory as it presents the initial results of President Trump’s efforts to cut red tape via executive order, the most aggressive effort at regulatory reform in over a quarter-century,” Crews wrote.
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“Trump has slowed the momentum of the Obama years and implemented policies to incentivize further restraint, but the long-term agenda of the government’s executive agencies could easily stray back toward bureaucratic overreach without permanent reform by Congress,” Crews added.
The report found that Congress enacted 97 laws in 2017 while federal agencies implemented 3,281 new rules at a rate of 34 rules for each law Congress enacted. The regulations enacted cost taxpayers $1.9 trillion in 2017. Crews noted that “federal regulation is a hidden tax that amounts to nearly $15,000 per U.S. household each year.”
Although many Americans worry about the taxes they pay each year, the money that federal regulations have cost them exceeded the $1.88 trillion the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) collected.
Even more alarming, Crews warned that 67 federal agencies, commissions and departments “are currently working on 3,209 new regulations in various stages of development.” This is why, Crews argues, it is essential for Congress to take the initiative and relieve Americans and businesses of these costly regulative burdens.
Although there is much government reform work left to be done, the Ten Thousand Commandments report highlighted the 36 percent drop in Federal Register pages from 2016 under former President Barack Obama’s administration to 2017 under the Trump administration.
“The 2017 Federal Register contained 61,308 pages, the lowest count since 1993 and a 36 percent drop from Obama’s 95,894 pages in 2016, the highest level ever recorded,” Crews wrote.
“Over several decades, the federal regulatory state has continued to grow, as rules accumulate year after year with little retrenchment,” the report read. “Over the past year, there were some hopeful signs in this regard, but there are still reasons for concern.”
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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