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Posts tagged ‘Red Tape’

Trump the Builder Targets Onerous Permits, Regulations. President rolls out prop to highlight scale of ‘red tape’ in the way of new infrastructure projects


Reported by Kathryn Blackhurst | Updated 04 Apr 2017 at 2:55 PM

URL of the original posting site: https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/trump-builder-targets-onerous-permits-regulations/

President Donald Trump used a chart to illustrate the “horrible” multi-step permitting process that often spans more than 10 years just to build “a simple highway.” He raised the issue while speaking Tuesday with more than 50 leading CEOs at the White House.

Trump pointed to the prop, noting that there are roughly 29 different statutes and five different executive orders that apply to the process for starting infrastructure projects at the federal level alone — not taking into account state regulations. Calling the degree of “red tape” involved in government building projects “incredible,” the president promised to speed up the zoning and permitting process and bring approval for projects down to one year.

 “So we have a country with tremendous potential. We have the greatest people on earth, but we have to use that potential, and we have to let those people do their thing.”

“So this is to build a highway — a simple highway,” Trump noted. “But getting a building approved in New York is a horrible, horrible thing. And that’s nothing compared to when you get into the highways and the dams.”

CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller tweeted out a picture of Trump with the chart, noting, “At Town Hall with CEOs, Pres Trump illustrates all the permits and red tape in the way of  a [sic] building a new highway.”

 

Trump promised to slash stifling regulations that prevent infrastructure growth and job creation as his administration looks toward revitalizing the economy.

“We’re doing so many cuts on regulations. And we have a book on regulations, and if you add them all up, it goes up to the ceiling three times over. It’s just one after another after another. It’s just like that chart,” Trump said. “I thought that chart was so descriptive, and every industry is just like that chart. And that’s just to build a simple roadway or highway. That’s what you have to go through.”

The president promised to rid the process of 90-95 percent of federal regulations while still emphasizing “the same kind of protection” for the environment.

“We have a tremendous person that we put in charge of the [Environmental Protection Agency], Scott Pruitt, who is an environmental person,” Trump said. “He wants clean air. He wants clean water. But he doesn’t think it takes you 26 years to get a permit to build a building and to have jobs, at which time those companies are usually gone or out of business.”

“So, we’re really speeding up the process,” Trump added. “We’re going to try and take that process from a minimum of ten years down to one year.”

Promising to create a committee tasked with overseeing the regulatory cuts, Trump pledged that infrastructure reform and job creation would coincide successfully with respect for the environment.

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Obama Executive Order to ‘Cut Red Tape’ Has Added $10.2 Billion in Costs to Economy


http://freebeacon.com/obama-executive-order-to-cut-red-tape-has-added-10-2-billion-in-costs-to-economy/

1.5 billion more hours of paperwork in 3 years

White House / AP

January 21, 2014 5:17 pm

An executive order issued by President Barack Obama that was designed to “cut red tape” has added $10.2 billion in regulatory costs to the economy, according to a new report.

Tuesday was the third anniversary of Executive Order 13563, prompting the American Action Forum to examine the effects of the order. It was intended to reduce “redundant, inconsistent, or overlapping” regulations.

The order was hailed as “unprecedented” by the president and former Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) administrator Cass Sunstein. However, Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at American Action Forum, found that the action was hardly unique and has had the opposite effect of its intended purpose. “Has Washington actually cut red tape? On net, final rules from Order 13563 have added more than $10.2 billion in costs, mostly from new regulations labeled as ‘retrospective,’” Batkins said. “Final rules have cut 7.9 million hours of paperwork, but Dodd-Frank and the Affordable Care Act have easily outpaced those deregulatory gains.”

The “deregulatory measures” resulting from the executive order actually add over $10 billion in costs to the economy. For example, a final rule imposing energy standards for transformers carries a $5.22 billion cost to comply and 58,320 hours of paperwork.

Taken with the proposed regulations under the executive order, the total burden to the economy would reach $13.7 billion.

President Obama promised that the order would reduce paperwork in a January 2011 Wall Street Journal editorial.

“We’re also getting rid of absurd and unnecessary paperwork requirements that waste time and money,” he wrote. “We’re looking at the system as a whole to make sure we avoid excessive, inconsistent, and redundant regulation.”

The order has added 1.5 billion hours of paperwork to comply with its regulations. “As for the aggregate level of red tape, in fiscal year 2010, the federal government imposed 8.8 billion hours of paperwork,” the report said. “Today, that figure is 10.3 billion hours, a 17 percent increase, despite this ‘unprecedented reform.’”

“It would take more than 750,000 employees working full-time to complete the new annual paperwork added since 2010,” Batkins said.

Regulations under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) take 653 million hours of paperwork to comply, a 26 percent increase since the executive order was issued.

Other rules intended to save regulatory costs have resulted in millions of hours of extra paperwork. A “Positive Train Control” rule that removed some regulatory provisions for rail safety saved $645.7 million but resulted in 3.9 million additional hours of paperwork.

The report also found that the administration is recycling regulations in order to achieve savings, citing at least 39 proposed or final rules that were initiated before the executive order, and 15 that were introduced under the George W. Bush administration.

Sunstein claimed in 2011 that the executive order would achieve $10 billion in savings. Batkins did note that the effort has led to cost cutting, including $940 million in savings and 9.8 million less paperwork hours from a Medicare and Medicaid hospital reform rule.

Overall he found $8.7 billion in savings, still short of the regulatory burden that has resulted from the administration’s plan to cut red tape.

“The White House has repeatedly claimed that Order 13563 is unprecedented, but a cursory review of the record proves there is nothing unique about their efforts,” the report said. “Every President since Jimmy Carter has issued an executive order on regulatory reform, and even President Carter urged agencies to ‘periodically review’ existing regulations.”

“President Obama’s deregulatory measures have actually resulted in more than 1.5 billion hours of paperwork and $10.2 billion in new net costs,” Batkins said. “The only aspect of recent regulatory reform that is unprecedented is that the administration has the temerity to recycle old regulations and claim them as part of a historic ‘retrospective review.’”

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