On January 9, 2017, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced a new program designed to reduce outdated and burdensome regulations and to promote economic growth and job creation. His goal is to eliminate 500 regulations by the end of 2017. To achieve this goal, Governor Ducey created a website—RedTape.AZ.Gov—where Arizonans can “crowdsource” recommendations on which regulations should be eliminated and submit those recommendations directly to the governor’s office.[1] The website provides an easy, streamlined way for citizens to assist in the regulatory reform of their state. This approach recognizes and honors what F.A. Hayek called the knowledge problem, that is, that the information necessary to make informed and efficient decisions is decentralized and that the top-down model is doomed by its arrogance.
President Trump’s White House should follow suit if it is serious about reducing the strain old regulations put on the country. President Trump issued Executive Order 13,777 on February 24, 2017, which requires that agencies designate a Regulatory Reform Officer (RRO) to implement a regulatory-reform agenda that implements, inter alia, Executive Order 13,771, which requires agencies to remove two regulations for each new one they issue.[2] Neither of those orders contain a way for ordinary Americans to provide transparent input into this important process. Several agencies have decided to open public-comment periods so that stakeholders and the public can provide input, but this approach leaves the comments scattered by agency and makes it difficult to aggregate.[3] In addition, not every agency has decided to offer a public-comment period, leaving ordinary Americans without a voice.
The White House subsequently issued Executive Order 13,781 on March 13, 2017.[4] This order created a website that allowed the public to submit comments on ways to optimize and reorganize the federal government. While Executive Order 13,781 is a step in the right direction, it contains two fatal flaws. First, the comment period closed on June 12, 2017 when it should be kept open permanently. Second, the White House said it received over 100,000 comments during the comment period, but those comments are not available to the public.[5] Cause of Action Institute submitted a FOIA request to the Office of Management and Budget, which administered the website, seeking access to those comments.[6] Even though that request is still pending, the White House can take immediate steps to launch an improved website.
To foster and promote transparent regulatory reform, Cause of Action Institute recommends the White House launch a new website devoted to receiving recommendations from the public. The recommendations could then automatically be forwarded to each agency’s RRO. To ensure a transparent comment process, the recommendations should be accessible to the public and easily searchable by agency, topic, regulation identifier number, and other filters. The website could foster public discourse by allowing the public to upvote or downvote comments, respond to specific comments, and suggest related regulations to comment on. Finally, the website should not have a deadline for submissions but instead permanently allow Americans to make recommendations to reform the administrative state. By providing a central, permanent website for submitting and reviewing recommendations, the White House can achieve its regulatory reform agenda more efficiently and promote accountability while ensuring that all Americans have a voice in the process.
Travis Millsaps is counsel at Cause of Action Institute.
[1] Press Release, Gov. Doug Ducey, Governor Ducey Announces RedTape.AZ.Gov (January 9, 2017), https://azgovernor.gov/governor/news/2017/01/governor-ducey-announces-redtapeazgov.
[2] See Exec. Order No. 13,777, 82 Fed. Reg. 12285 (Mar. 1, 2017), https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/24/presidential-executive-order-enforcing-regulatory-reform-agenda; Exec. Order No. 13,771, 82 Fed. Reg. 9339 (Feb. 3, 2017), https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/30/presidential-executive-order-reducing-regulation-and-controlling.
[3] See Evaluation of Existing Regulations, 82 Fed. Reg. 17793 (proposed April 13, 2017), available at https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190-0042.
[4] See Exec. Order No. 13,781, 82 Fed. Reg. 13959 (Mar. 16, 2017), https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/13/presidential-executive-order-comprehensive-plan-reorganizing-executive.
[5] See Reorganizing the Executive Branch, The White House, https://www.whitehouse.gov/reorganizing-the-executive-branch (last visited June 29, 2017).
[6] Press Release, Cause of Action Institute, White House Should Release 100K Public Comments on Reforming Government (June 19, 2017), https://causeofaction.org/white-house-release-100k-public-comments-reforming-government/.