Under an Executive Order (E.O.) signed January 31 by President Donald Trump, all federal agencies must now identify 10 existing regulations or guidance documents to be repealed for each new rule, regulation, or guidance promulgated (E.O. 14192, 90 Fed. Reg. 9065).

The E.O. also directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure agencies use standardized measurements and estimates of regulatory costs.

Under the order, when agency heads submit their agency’s semiannual regulatory agenda to the OMB, they must identify the aggregate incremental cost increases of new regulations, as well as approximate the total costs or savings associated with each new or repealed regulation.

Additionally, the order requires that the total incremental cost of all new regulations for fiscal year 2025, including repealed regulations, be significantly less than zero.

The rationale for the order, “Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation,” is that overregulation stops American entrepreneurship, crushes small businesses, reduces consumer choice, discourages innovation, and infringes on American citizens’ liberties. Regulation also contributes to the high cost of living, according to a White House fact sheet accompanying the E.O.

During Trump’s first term, he directed agencies to eliminate two regulations for each new regulation issued. The White House fact sheet described regulatory activity under the Biden administration as a “regulatory blitz,” imposing $1.7 trillion in costs on the public.

At the end of the Biden administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was developing six “economically significant” rulemakings—four new regulations and two revisions. The six included new healthcare-specific rulemakings to create a standard addressing workplace violence in health care and social services and another for infectious disease exposures in healthcare settings. On January 15, OSHA terminated its healthcare COVID-19 rulemaking, focusing its resources on the infectious disease rulemaking.

Economically significant rulemakings creating new standards also included a communication tower safety rulemaking and a tree care industry rulemaking that the industry petitioned for. The fatality rate in the construction and maintenance sectors of the communication tower industry is very high, exceeding the overall fatality rate for the construction industry.

An economically significant rulemaking to update the agency’s decades-old fire brigade rule would develop a comprehensive emergency response standard. Revisions to OSHA’s process safety management regulations are aimed at preventing major chemical accidents. Former President Barack Obama signed an E.O. in 2013 directing OSHA and other federal agencies to improve chemical facility safety and security.

Last summer, OSHA proposed a new heat injury and illness prevention standard, but it didn’t include its heat injury and illness prevention rulemaking on its list of economically significant regulatory actions. While state heat illness prevention standards exist, there’s no federal standard. Federal OSHA cites employers, often following a worker hospitalization or fatality, using its authority under the General Duty Clause (Section 5(a)(1)) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The heat injury and illness prevention rule would require employers to provide water, shade, paid breaks, a heat acclimatization schedule, and training for workers in indoor and outdoor settings.