Trump Administration Memorandum and Executive Order on Regulatory Freeze

Trump Administration Chief of Staff Reince Priebus issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies instituting a temporary freeze of regulations that have not yet become effective in order to allow for review of such regulations by the President’s appointees or designees. The memorandum, issued on the day of President Trump’s inauguration, contains an exception for “emergency situations or other urgent circumstances relating to health, safety, financial or national security matters.” The memorandum is somewhat unclear as to its applicability to independent regulatory agencies such as the US financial regulators including the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On January 30, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order which establishes a “regulatory cap” for Fiscal Year 2017 wherein, unless prohibited by law, any executive department or agency that publicly proposes a new regulation must identify two existing regulations for repeal. Accordingly, for Fiscal Year 2017, the Executive Order requires that the incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, be no greater than zero.

View the White House Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies.

View the Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs.