Top GOP lawmaker moves to reinstate Trump-era rule shredding government red tape

FIRST ON FOX: A top House Republican is moving to force a Trump administration-era policy back into the federal government, calling it a “simple way” to rein in President Biden’s progressive regulatory actions. 

The bill introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., would codify a government policy active under former President Donald Trump, which forced federal agencies to identify two regulations to be cut for every new one enacted.

The legislation, expected Friday, is named “The 2 for 1 Act.”  

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“The Biden administration rules by regulation and finds new ways each day to make life harder for American farmers and small businesses,” Gallagher told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“Restoring the Trump administration’s common-sense principle of repealing two regulations for every new regulation created is a simple way to rein in the regulatory state, cut red tape and make it easier for Americans to earn a living.”

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In addition to requiring proposals for new regulatory cuts, the bill would direct the White House Office of Management and Budget to project how much a new rule would cost the private sector.

The cost of implementing a new rule must be offset by the two proposed cuts.

The original policy was enacted with an executive order signed by Trump in January 2017, just days after he took office.

It was rescinded by President Biden his first day in the White House.

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Biden further empowered regulators in May with an executive order that, among other things, raised the threshold for review of rules based on economic impact. 

Previously, a new rule was slated for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs if its projected annual economic impact was at least $100 million. Biden’s executive order raised that threshold to at least $200 million.

 

More than 750 new regulations have been finalized since Biden took office, according to the American Action Forum. 

According to the group’s projection, those regulations cost a total of roughly $437 billion.