TheCorporateCounsel.net

Last Friday, the Trump Administration issued yet another Executive Order, this time requiring that whenever an agency promulgates a new rule, regulation, or guidance, it must identify at least 10 existing rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed. The Executive Order also requires that, for fiscal year 2025, the total incremental cost of all new regulations (including repealed regulations) must be significantly less than zero. If this sounds familiar, recall that at the beginning of the first Trump Administration, the White House issued an Executive Order indicating that federal agencies would need to eliminate two regulations for every new one created, and cut at least 75% of all federal regulations.

As with the 2017 Executive Order, this new action is likely to prompt litigation challenging the directive. Further, as with the 2017 Executive Order, these types of directives typically do not apply to the independent federal agencies such as the SEC, however it is likely that the SEC would consider the objectives of an Executive Order like this when formulating its rulemaking agenda.

– Dave Lynn