President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday that will require federal agencies to evaluate all of their regulations that could violate the Constitution, in the latest effort from his administration to prioritize slashing red tape.
The executive order — which senior administration officials are calling a first of its kind and an attempt to ensure the government isn’t weaponized against the American people — will require agencies to submit a list to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the next 60 days of all regulations that could violate the Constitution or could cause harm.
OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will spearhead the effort and evaluate regulations across the federal agencies, senior administration officials told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
DOGE officials at federal agencies will gather an inventory of regulations that could violate the Constitution and then share them with OMB. After the 60 days, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will go through the list of regulations and make individual decisions on which regulations are unconstitutional and will launch the process of repealing the regulations on a case-by-case basis, the senior administration officials said.
OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs oversees executive branch regulations, while the newly created DOGE aims to eliminate government waste, fraud and spending.
The order comes as the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against federal agencies who’ve sought to broadly enforce their own regulations outside the scope of their jurisdiction, including when the Supreme Court ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May 2023 in the case Sackett v. EPA.
In that case, Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased a residential lot near Priest Lake, Idaho, in 2005 to build a home. However, the EPA stepped in as the Sacketts kicked off leveling the ground and told them to halt plans to start construction — or face massive fines — because the property fell on federally protected land covered under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act of 1972.
The law sets standards for regulating pollutants into ‘waters of the United States,’ and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion that the EPA sought to classify the wetlands on the Sackett’s property as ‘waters of the United States’ because they were ‘near a ditch that fed into a creek, which fed into Priest Lake, a navigable, intrastate lake.’
Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Clean Water Act applies only to waters that are ‘relatively permanent, standing, or continuously flowing bodies of water.’
‘Understanding the (Clean Water Act) to apply to wetlands that are distinguishable from otherwise covered ‘waters of the United States’ would substantially broaden (existing statute) to define ‘navigable waters’ as ‘waters of the United States and adjacent wetlands,” Alito wrote.
Wednesday’s executive order will build on the Trump administration’s efforts to cut down on regulations.
For example, Trump signed an executive order in January ordering that federal agencies eradicate 10 regulations for every new one implemented.
Trump said at the World Economic Forum Jan. 23 that his administration would launch the ‘largest deregulation campaign in history, far exceeding even the record-setting efforts of my last term.’
Previous steps Trump took during his first term to cut regulations included ordering federal agencies to nix two regulations for every new regulation issued. The White House has touted that agencies ultimately cut five and half regulations for every new one introduced during Trump’s first term.
