In the Name of Corona—President Trump Throws Out All Federal Rules and Enforcement

President Trump ordered all federal departments and agencies, large and small, to trash rules and regulations, and their enforcement. He used the excuse of stimulating the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump wasn’t specific on which rules could be scrapped. That leaves minimum wage and overtime pay rules, job safety and health rules, clean air and water rules, consumer safety rules, civil rights rules, rules to curb shady speculators, curbs on financial finaglers, antitrust rules and more all up for grabs.

Right-wingers crowed over Trump’s order, in a low-key way. One was Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who, when she chaired what was then the House Education and the Workforce Committee, questioned the need forand the legality oflabor unions.

“Now, more than ever, we need to create an environment that provides relief and support for our nation’s businesses and job creators. Red tape, overzealous enforcement and burdensome regulations aren’t the answer,” Foxx declared on May 20.

And Brad Close, president of the so-called National Federation of Independent Businessanother key piece of the radical rightalso didn’t shout it from the rooftops. He called Trump’s edict “welcome news for small business owners trying to navigate the various regulations, laws and guidelines. … The administration has acted swiftly to provide regulatory relief and protect our nation’s small businesses.”

Also, the radical right Heritage Foundation, in a report and recommendations to the Trump regime this month, advocated, among other schemes, that Trump “review all regulations that have been waived or modified in response to COVID-19 and consider permanent changes,” using the official name for the coronavirus.

That’s exactly what Trump didon the day before the Labor Department said lockdowns due to the pandemic added another 2.44 million people to the jobless rolls, pushing unemployment claims since the pandemic hit to 38.6 million, including workers DOL admits should be counted as jobless, but aren’t because they’re supposedly on temporary layoff (see separate story).

The AFL-CIO, in its May 21 daily brief on how to respond to the coronavirus pandemicand how to prepare to reopen the countrydeclared “elected leaders … must do the right thing for America’s workers and our families. Protect us on the job, keep working people on the payrolls and protect earned pensions, invest in vital public services, ensure health coverage for all workers and rebuild our infrastructure. The labor movement will not accept anything less.”

And Public Citizen added: “Corporate demands to eviscerate environmental protections, consumer safeguards, worker safety rules, wage and hour laws, legal accountability and regulatory enforcementalong with perpetual appeals for ever more tax cutshave reached a crescendo during the Trump administration, which is inclined to say ‘yes’ to requests beyond lobbyists’ wildest dreams.”

Trump’s order exceeds those dreams. First he blames China for the coronavirus. Then he pats himself on the back for his “sweeping action to control the outbreak.” Then comes the meat of the order: “Agencies should address this economic emergency by rescinding, modifying, waiving, or providing exemptions from regulations and other requirements that may inhibit economic recovery, consistent with applicable law and with protection of the public health and safety, with national and homeland security, and with budgetary priorities and operational feasibility.

“They should also give businesses, especially small businesses, the confidence they need to re-open by providing guidance on what the law requires; by recognizing the efforts of businesses to comply with often-complex regulations in complicated and swiftly changing circumstances; and by committing to fairness in administrative enforcement and adjudication.”

The order later translates “fairness in enforcement” into federal “compliance assistance” to firms, followed by virtually no enforcement at all. And they don’t have to tell us about it.

“The heads of all agencies shall consider whether to formulate, and make public, policies of enforcement discretion that, as permitted by law and as appropriate in the context of particular statutory and regulatory programs and policy considerations ... decline enforcement against persons and entities that attempted in reasonable good faith to comply with applicable statutory and regulatory standards, including those persons and entities acting in conformity with a pre-enforcement ruling.”

Trump also makes clear he wants the lack of rules and no enforcement to be permanent, again using “economic recovery” as the reason.

The seventh section of his order tells agency chiefs to “review any regulatory standards they have temporarily rescinded, suspended, modified, or waived during the public health emergency,” other actions they take to follow his order, “and other regulatory flexibilities they have implemented in response to COVID-19, whether before or after issuance of this order, and determine which, if any, would promote economic recovery if made permanent.”

Agency heads will send those decisions to Trump’s Office of Management and Budget for review.

(PAI)