Federal Regulatory Relief, Balance On the Horizon

On the heels of his announcement last week freezing any new regulations, President Trump on Monday signed an executive order requiring that any new regulation be offset by repealing "at least two existing regulations." Before signing the order President Trump noted, "this will be the biggest such act that our country has ever seen. There will be regulation, there will be control, but it will be a normalized control where you can open your business and expand your business very easily. And that's what our country has been all about." As well, the order also directs the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to set a regulatory cost cap requiring that all new regulations, including the offsetting regulations, have a budget increase of "no greater than zero" dollars.

President Trump’s order is welcome news to the ready mixed concrete industry. The industry for years has been pushing the notion of equitable enforcement to the individual regulatory agencies, stressing that continual movement of regulations without any focus on consolidation or repeal of obsolete rules is unsustainable, impinging small business and economic growth. Over the last eight years, according to The American Action Forum, there have been 3,074 regulations finalized, totaling over $900 billion and adding nearly 560 million paperwork hours.