Thursday, May 28, 2020

The Pandemic Is a Reminder That Many Regulations Are Both Costly and Unnecessary

Growing-list of federal and state rules and regulations relaxed or suspended during the crisis.

Each of these rules formerly made it more difficult to conduct one's business or personal affairs, and each made it more difficult to respond, or merely live, in a pandemic.

The majority of these rules come from just a handful of federal agencies, according to the report: The Departments of Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, the Interior, Transportation, the Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which together account for a little more than half of all conventional federal regulations.

Federal agencies not only get to make rules that act as laws, they are granted considerable leeway to decide what those rules mean.

President Trump has, to his credit, taken steps to reduce the flow of federal regulation, implementing a two-in, one-out rule.

Trump's own impulses threaten his successes: As Crews writes, the president "Has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents," but his administration has also pushed forward with new rules concerning antitrust, hospital pricing, social media regulations, trade restrictions, vaping, farming and agriculture, the telecom industry, immigration, and more.

Still, the hundreds of rollbacks are a reminder of the myriad regulations that rule and restrict our lives every day-how onerous they are, how unnecessary, and how easy it is to live without them.

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