Trump's plan: Roll back Biden's record-breaking regulations

Donald Trump will nullify "thousands" of regulations, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy write in a Wall Street Journal editorial last week offering some details on their "DOGE" plan to radically cut the size of the federal government.

Why it matters: There's a lot to slash and burn. President Biden's administration put through more rules than any other White House over the same time period.

By the numbers: Through October 2024, the Biden administration published 292 "economically significant" rules, meaning they're forecast to have a large impact on the economy, according to George Washington University's Regulatory Studies Center.

• That's partly because the Biden White House rushed through a flurry of regulations in the spring.
• The White House was trying to leverage a provision of a 1996 law called the Congressional Review Act, which allows an incoming administration — with simple majorities in Congress — to overturn rules made toward the end of the previous president's term.

Between the lines: Trump was the first president to really take advantage of the CRA's look-back provision — overturning a record number of Obama regulations early on in his term. It's expected he'll do the same this time around.

• The progressive consumer advocacy group Public Citizen just published a list of more than 100 administrative rules that could be overturned using the CRA.

The big picture: Rules and regulations sound like a snore, but some of these policies — implemented by agencies to carry out laws passed by Congress — cover critical things like clean air and water, protections for workers and financial regulations meant to prevent crisis.

• Some argue that a banking deregulation push in Trump's first term helped create the conditions for the banking mini-crisis of 2023.
• With Congress so gridlocked in recent years, regulations have become the way for an administration to put through their agenda.

Yes, but: Republicans say this process has gone way too far.

• Musk, Ramaswamy and many critics in the business world say regulations are costly and hold back economic growth. And there's plenty of business groups getting psyched about a deregulatory romp.

Zoom out: It's unclear how much real impact Musk and Ramaswamy's Department of Government Efficiency will have — DOGE can only make recommendations and doesn't have the power to cut.

• Regardless, there's little doubt that the incoming administration will take a whack at the rules — just as Trump did in his first term.
• Trump 1.0 rolled back over 100 environmental rules, per a 2021 New York Times analysis, weakening emission standards, removing protections for wetlands, and limiting wildlife protections.

What to watch: Trump's got Congress in his corner on this, too. Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pledged to "take a hatchet to the regulatory apparatus choking our economy, " in an op-ed earlier this month.

Follow the courts: Getting rid of regulation is also easier now than it was in 2017, following several Supreme Court decisions — signed on to by the three Trump-nominated judges — that have curbed the government's ability to make these rules.

• "Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden's tenure," Musk and Ramaswamy write.

Zoom in: A few key Biden-era rules have already been quashed by the courts or appear to be on their way out under Trump 2.0.

• An expansion of the overtime laws that would've covered an estimated 4 million more workers was overturned by a Texas judge last week.
• The Federal Trade Commission's proposed ban on noncompetes appears similarly doomed, after a Texas ruling.

What to watch: Environmentalists are concerned about rollbacks to clean water provisions, including a rule requiring all lead pipes in drinking water systems to be identified and replaced over the next 10 years.