United States White House orders agencies to identify and rescind or modify anti-competitive regulations

The White House issued an executive order launching a government-wide process to identify regulations that restrict competition and to pursue rescission or modification where warranted. Agency heads must review regulations within their rulemaking authority, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General, focusing on rules that create monopolies, impose unnecessary barriers to entry, limit competition, unduly restrictive licensing or accreditation requirements, burdensome procurement processes, or other anti-competitive restraints. Within 70 days of the order, each agency head must submit to the FTC Chairman and the Attorney General a categorized list of potentially anti-competitive regulations, with recommendations to rescind or modify each rule and a brief description of any proposed modification. Agencies must prioritize review of rules that qualify as “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866 and provide justification where a regulation is anti-competitive by design but not proposed for rescission or modification. The FTC Chairman must issue a request for information within 10 days, open for 40 days, to gather public input on candidate regulations and their classification, and then route relevant responses to the agencies with rulemaking authority. Within 90 days after receiving the agency lists, the FTC Chairman will deliver a consolidated list of recommended rescissions or modifications to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, after which the OMB Director, through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, will decide whether to incorporate the proposals into the Unified Regulatory Agenda under Executive Order 14219.