Trump ‘regulatory czar’: Two-for-one rule can work

President Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s so-called “regulatory czar” told members of the Senate at her confirmation hearing Wednesday that she thinks Trump’s two-for-one rule for regulations can work.

In responding a question from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Neomi Rao said Trump’s order requiring agencies to eliminate two rules for every new rule proposed is “an important step for considering how to reduce the overall regulatory burden.”

“The way I think it will work in practice is that agencies will identify regulations to eliminate and those regulations that might be ineffective ones or excessively burdensome,” she told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chair. 

“Those regulations will have to meet a cost-benefit analysis for deregulation before they are going to impose any new regulatory burdens.”

Johnson urged Rao to seriously look at Trump’s order and utilize the executive authority she’s been provided. 

If confirmed as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Rao would oversee the review of all significant proposed and final rules.  

“This administration has said it will get serious about regulatory reform,” Sen, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in introducing Rao to the committee. “Republicans in Congress have said the same. Professor Rao’s confirmation will be an important step forward in fulfilling that promise.”

Rao is now an associate professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University where she founded the Center for the Study of the Administrative State.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) questioned Rao on whether she supports the Regulatory Accountability Act, which would require independent agencies to follow the same rulemaking requirements as other agencies, including cost-benefit analysis.

“I think, in principle, it makes a lot of sense to have the independent agencies follow the same cost-benefit analysis as other agencies,” she said.

She also said she supports measures to require agencies to conduct retrospective reviews of agency rules.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, (D-N.D.) pressed Rao on whether she believes cost-benefit analysis is appropriate for deregulatory actions, if it deserves the same level of scrutiny it’s given enacting new rules and whether indirect costs should be taken into consideration.

Rao said she does.