Trump signs executive order to help remove 'job-killing regulations'

ByKATHERINE FAULDERS ABCNews logo
Friday, February 24, 2017

President Trump signed an executive order for regulatory reform on Friday, directing government agencies to set up task forces to look into ways to eliminate or scale back regulations.

Trump said that the order is "one of many ways" the administration will remove "job-killing regulations."

"This directs each agency to establish a regulatory reform task force which will ensure that every agency has a ... real team of dedicated people to research all regulations that are unnecessary, burdensome and harmful to the economy and therefore harmful to the creation of jobs and business. Each task force will make recommendations to repeal or simplify existing regulations," the president said.

Trump explained that any existing or proposed regulation will have to meet certain conditions.

"Every regulation should have to pass a simple test: Does it make life better or safer for American workers or consumers? If the answer is no, we will be getting rid of it and getting rid of it quickly. We'll stop punishing companies for doing business in the United States; it will be absolutely just the opposite," he said. "They'll be incentivized to doing business in the United States. We're working hard to roll back the regulatory burden so that coal miners, factory workers, small business owners and so many others can grow their businesses and thrive."

The new order is not the first by Trump aiming to reduce federal regulations.

In January, the president signed an executive order that he said will "dramatically reduce federal regulations" on businesses. That order mandates that for every new regulation implemented by federal agencies, two existing regulations must be cut.

Trump called that order the "largest ever cut, by far, in terms of regulations."

Last week, the president also rolled back the stream protection rule, a regulation designed to protect waterways from surface mining.

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