8. 95, plusts shipping and handling. To get your copy, go to cspan. Org. Now, a look at the Trump Administrations aorta is for cutting back on regulations. You will hear from the head of the White House Office of information and regulatory affairs. This is an hour and 15 minutes. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to brookings. I am be Vice President and director of economic studies here at brookings. I also direct the center on regulation of markets, which is hosting this event today. I am delighted to welcome naomi to speak here today. She is the administrator of the office of administration and regulatory affairs. Her appearance today is reminding me of one of the first events i ever did here at brookings. It was probably eight years ago. Nervous, so i bit was Walking Around outside, and getting warmed up. There was a group of protesters out front, one of whom was costng an oscar the grouch oscar the grouch costume with the trashcan, a fake sign in front of him, they were singing a creatively written song, a play on oscars song, i love trash. It was creative and effective because without that i would never have remembered the ash disposal rule. [laughter] so there you go. There is nothing so exciting happening outside the room today. The story does highlight a serious point, which is that the is of the administrator always controversial and frequently contentious. It is responsible for vetting agencys tallies of the benefits and costs of federal regulation. It can sink a rule or turn it back to the agencies. It is a powerful position and office within the federal government. The oira officer is frequently called the regulatory czar and there again giving you the sense of the power and the position. Today, given the current administrations proper emphasis on deregulation, perhaps administrator raos role is more important than ever. She is exceptionally wellqualified for the job. Before joining the Trump Administration, she was an associate professor of law at the Antonin Scalia law school at george mason university. While she was there, she founded a center for the study of Administrative State. Before joining george mason, she served in all three branches of government. She was counsel to the Senate Judiciary committee under orrin hatch. She clerked for Clarence Thomas and she served as associate counsel and special assistant to president george w. Bush. I am delighted to have her here. The plan for today is she will speak for approximately 20 minutes and then i will join her on stage for question and answers, and then we will turn to all of you for further questions and answers from her. With that, please join me and join me in welcoming administrator rao. [applause] ms. Rao great. Thanks so much to ted for inviting me to be here today and to brookings for hosting this event. Every time i have a public appearance, i asked my staff and close advisers for jokes. I have to say, no one ever comes up with any. I try to joke about the fact that we dont have any jokes. My chief of staff has said to me, you are the administrator of the office of information and regulatory affairs, it is just not funny. So sorry, i have no jokes. Well see if i can do better next time. Basically, my remarks today, i wanted to discuss the Regulatory Reform efforts of this administration and to focus on three main points. I wanted to speak a little bit about what we have done in this past year, what we plan to do in the upcoming year, and then give you some of the reasons, some of the principles why we believe so strongly in our Regulatory Reform efforts. First, a little bit about what we have done. From my perspective, this past year was a banner year for Regulatory Reform. Soon after taking office, the president issued an ambitious series of executive orders that directed agencies to eliminate two regulations for each new one and to impose zero regulatory cost in fiscal year 2017. When those executive orders came out, there was a lot of skepticism. I think when you look back on the past year, what we see is those executive orders focused attention on a very big problem of cumulative regulation. The administration did not go after the problem with little scissors, but with something much more like the big, beautiful gold scissors the president used to cut the red tape at his december speech. The president directed the agencies to deregulate, and that is what they have been doing. Some of the ways we have done this, the administration has slowed the production of new, costly regulations. We issued only three significant regulations in fiscal year 2017. We have tried to redirect the regulatory inertia, and as part of our effort to change the culture around regulation, we withdrew or delayed 1500 planned rules. Those are rules that are currently in process and rules we are thinking about. It demonstrates the magnitude of what has been halted or postponed. It also shows that what the administration is doing is carefully reconsidering the direction, the scope, and the content of many proposed regulations. Across the government, we have also eliminated 22 regulatory actions for every one new regulation, a ratio that far exceeds the two for one the president called for. We have kept the total cost of executive Agency Regulations to below zero for the first time in our records. In fact, according to oiras own conservative calculations, we have had a total net savings of over 8 billion. To provide some context about what this kind of reduction means, historically, regulatory costs have increased in administrations of both parties. In the previous administration, during just their last eight months, they imposed annualized regulatory costs of over 15 billion. We are planning to continue this in 2018, for this fiscal year, agencies have committed to reducing regulatory cost by over 10 billion. How have we been doing this . I have gotten questions about implementation. These are significant reforms we have had to put in place, and we have been working with the oira staff to do this. Oira has a small staff, we have about 45 career officials, and they are excellent. They have been working closely with the career Civil Servants and other agencies to implement the president s executive orders in a way that is careful and responsible. One thing to highlight about what we have been doing, we have tried to be exceptionally transparent and how we have calculated two for one and the cost savings. We have focused on developing a system that would meet the president s goals. We want real reduction in regulatory burdens and want to incentivize agencies to eliminate and streamlined burdens of all sizes. While we were doing this, we wanted to maintain the high standards of regulatory analysis we expect from agencies. At oira we provided advanced guidance about how we would be implementing executive orders and we showed our work on the website. You will see the numbers demonstrate a fundamental reorientation of the regulatory system. We have slowed the pace of new significant rules but also of smaller rules. We have eliminated many costly regulatory actions, which include rules and guidance documents and information collections and we have pushed agencies to be open in their actions and not simply to redirect their regulatory activity to guidance or other subregulatory forms of action. We welcome input about our system because we are continuing to implement these farreaching reforms and we are working on improving our process both in working with agencies and in informing the public. While we have been working through the requirements of these executive orders, we have sought to continue and further institutionalize longstanding regulatory practices. On the theme of transparency, as im sure many of you know, oira publishes annually an agenda of regulatory and deregulatory actions. And this past summer, when we updated the agenda we released a list of inactive items, this was a list that was long maintained by administrations that included items agencies were considering propagating but they did not want to be on the agenda. That list was never made public. We have now made that list public. People have information about all the different potential regulatory and deregulatory actions agencies might be considering. Now that this information is all publicly available on our website, we are working with agencies to remove stale items from the agenda. I understand there are some items and some agencies that are left over from the george w. Bush administration. We are pushing to make sure that our agenda reflects real Agency Priorities so the public can have a much better sense of what is coming. We have also made a number of technical changes, the agenda is now searchable by regulatory and deregulatory actions, and my staff is in a process of working on making some of these changes consistent with the federal register, with new rules going forward. While there have been new reforms, there is also a lot of continuity in what we are doing. We are continuing to follow longstanding principles of centralized regulatory review that you can find in executive order 12866 issued by president clinton. We are continuing with the same costbenefit standards. That is some of the technical parts of this. Our Regulatory Reform efforts go beyond some of the numbers you can see on our website. They go beyond individual deregulatory actions. We are also systematically trying to crack down on bad regulatory practices and make sure agencies are proceeding in a manner that is consistent with law. Even when an agency has Legal Authority to proceed, we want to make sure they are working to solve an actual problem. We want to make sure there is some reason for the government to act, such as a substantial market failure. We are pushing hard to the manned fair analysis of the cost and benefits of regulation. Too often, in the previous administration, the benefits were exaggerated and the costs downplayed. We would like to have as fair an accounting of both of those. Even when we are satisfied that an agency has Legal Authority and the regulation may be necessary, we want to make sure that agencies work to regulate in a manner that is giving fair notice to the public and in a way that respects to process. Respects due process. This is the theme on which we have been working very closely with the White House Counsels Office to ensure that agencies are not proposing new regulatory requirements through guidance or letters or speeches or faqs on the website. We are trying to change the culture so that when an Agency Issues guidance, it is a guidance about existing requirements and not a backdoor to imposing new requirements without the process and accountability that is necessary for a legitimate administrative system. That is some of what we have been up to in the past year. President s for the regulatory agenda . Let me say a little bit about that. Focusing onrt continuing with the momentum we built up over the past year with Regulatory Reform. In the second year, we want to work closely with the agencies to identify some serious areas and serious and substantial areas for reform. If you look at the fall unified agenda, you will see agencies 448 deregulatory actions and 131 regulatory actions which is a better than the three for one ratio. As we understand it, i am sure many of you understand as well. Significant deregulation takes time. Roles considering big requires research and analysis and the full rulemaking process. Agencies are working to identify where areas could have a big impact and reduce significant benefits for the american people. One of the ways we can assist with that is we work often with agencies and crosscutting areas, regimes andantial this is where we can add value. Another thing we are doing and we have been doing, is to look closely at some of the statutory authorities that oira for promoting Regulatory Reform. One of our main statutes is the paperwork reduction act. Paperwork reduction burdens are not funny, but they are extremely costly and burdensome. One of my predecessors said do not forget about the paperwork burdens. It can often impact individuals and small businesses. There are a lot of savings to be had in streamlining or eliminating paperwork burdens. Also, oira has authority under the congressional review act. The act was used multiple times this year to strike down regulations. The cra requires that all agencies, including the independent agencies, submit their roles to oira for a major determination under the act. What that means is when there is a rule that has to come to oira, oira determines whether it provides more than in cost. Part of our obligation is to make sure agencies are complying with the cra and failure to comply can threaten the validity of rules and we know Congress Takes this seriously. Following the cra can also promote costbenefit analysis because agencies have to explain whether their role is above or below the 100 million threshold. Another thing we are considering at oira, and the speech is part of this, is sharing with the public a message of responsible and beneficial Regulatory Reform. We want to be clear that we are not dismantling Important Health and safety regulations. We are proceeding with deregulation in a way that is careful and we are applying the same costbenefit standards to both regulatory and deregulatory actions. I sometimes hear from critics that deregulation is just a way to help big business or special interests. If you look closely, you will see that many regulatory burdens are often put in place by big business or powerful interest groups. Regulation often creates barriers to entry, it can eliminate competition and can raise the cost of ordinary goods and services. It can blunt and stifle innovation. What we are focused on is listing regulatory requirements that are no longer working for the american people. That is some of what we are thinking about for the coming year. I want to Say Something about why we care so much about Regulatory Reform, why are we doing this, why is it so important to the administration . Here there are reasons that are practical and principled. Let me start with the practical. Lifting excessive government regulations can stimulate the economy. In the past few months there has been a lot of reporting about this. Many economists have identified a link between this years booming Economic Growth and the slowdown in regulatory activity. Even the New York Times ran a story drawing this connection. Other effects, removing burdens can help create jobs and leaving individuals more free gives them the opportunity to work hard and do great things. In sum, one of the most important effects of this administrations initiative has been to change the environment. Businesses frequently say to me, and individuals have said that they are no longer fearing arbitrary new burdens being imposed by guidance documents or new regulations. Recently, Mick Mulvaney said about the cfpb, i think what he said there applies to other agencies as well. This administration is no longer pushing the envelope with regulations. What are some of the principles behind what we are doing . There are a lot of great practical effects but the principles are important. From my perspective as a former law professor, Regulatory Reform is part of a larger effort to promote a more Constitutional Government and thereby to enhance individual liberties. Our Reform Efforts help promote Constitutional Government and a number of ways. First, i think there is important democratic accountability when you have more president ial accountability. Regulatory reform is quite clearly a key component of this administration and the president has set a very ambitious regulatory policy across the government. At oira, and through a centralized review process, we can work with agencies to make sure they are promoting president ial priorities to illuminate unnecessary burdens. Another way we promote more Constitutional Government is by highlighting and promoting due process and fair notice, which i mentioned earlier, by cracking down on sub Regulatory Guidance or regulatory dark matter, we are ensuring that when agencies impose new requirements they are following administrative procedure. Ive always found it interesting that one of the ways legal scholars defend the constitutionality of an expanded state is they say agencies promote Constitutional Values or they follow Something Like an administrative constitution. This means something quite different from the original constitution, i think it is too often the case that agencies have failed to follow even this much thinner version of constitutionality. By requiring agencies to follow procedures, we can ensure notice and decisionmaking. It is also important to us and our Reform Efforts to make sure that we in the executive branch respect the roles of the other departments of government. We work with agencies to interpret statutes to mean what they say. By doing that, we respect the lawmaking power of congress and we work not to expand the authority of the executive branch beyond what the law allows. Admittedly, Statutory Authority is also open ended, but agency should not act as if they have a blank check from congress to make law. We also work hard to respect the row of courts in reviewing administrative actions and we are mindful of precedents and process. Perhaps most importantly, listing unnecessarily regulatory burdens results in individual liberty. Government regulation serves vital heal