The Trump administration is taking so many actions every day to get rid of government regulations that it’s difficult to keep up with what’s happening. Regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Securities and Exchange Commission among them.
What’s Trump’s deregulatory plan going forward?
The Trump administration has been keeping the public in the dark on its deregulatory priorities, according to the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, a coalition of groups that supports country’s system of regulatory safeguards.
The administration released its Spring 2025 Unified Regulatory Agenda on Aug. 15 on the website of the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, then quickly took it down.
By law, the Unified Agenda needs to be published twice a year, in the fall and spring, and is to contain the full list of regulations that government agencies expect to propose or finalize in the next six to 12 months.
While spring unified regulatory agendas often have been released in the summer rather than the spring, the 2025 edition would be one of the latest, if not the latest, one has ever been released, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s one of the most critical transparency requirements in the regulatory process, because it allows the public and regulated industries to anticipate and plan for agency actions before they happen.
Finally released Sept. 4, Trump’s Unified Agenda gives the public a clear picture of the administration’s planned assault on critical safeguards, revealing hundreds of regulatory rollbacks that are already underway or in the works.
“This Agenda is packed to the brim with hundreds of regulatory rollbacks, including further limits on who is eligible for student loan forgiveness, rollbacks of energy efficiency standards for consumer appliances, rollbacks of greenhouse gas regulations and emissions standards for vehicles, and repeals of workers’ rights to safe and fair workplaces,” Elizabeth Skerry, regulatory policy associate for Public Citizen, a public interest group, said in a statement. “It’s yet another manifestation of the worst corporate favoritism since the Gilded Age.”
So, tighten your seat belts. We’re going to be in for a continued rough ride. I’ve written many times that government regulations have a positive purpose and the public needs to better understand them.
As consumer, environmental, and health protections unravel, the American public will be getting a shocking lesson on civics and how government operates.
