The COVID-19 crisis has exposed some of these underlying problems created by the outdated, overlapping, and often-contradictory regulations that make it nearly impossible for public and private entrepreneurs to respond to rapidly changing circumstances. Regulators have had to suspend hundreds of regulations in order to advance the war against COVID-19, and a new executive order requires federal agencies to think twice before reinstating them when the pandemic subsides. Because the pandemic presents not only a health crisis but also an economic crisis, the executive order also tells regulators to decide if more regulations can be temporarily modified or suspended in order to help the economy recover. And for any regulation that has been suspended — either in the name of public health or for the sake of economic recovery — the president asks agencies to determine if those changes can become permanent.
Hoping that you believe the first myth about federal regulation, the president’s critics will proclaim that “Trump is trying to kill you” with deregulation by dirtying the air and water. But in fact, only 14 percent of all economically significant federal rules issued by executive agencies between 2000 and 2017 came from the two environmental agencies (the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior). Nonenvironmental rules have also been dominant in the deregulatory activity over the past three years.
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