In a post for the Foundation for Economic Education, David R. Henderson, highlights how the Idaho state government just repealed its entire regulatory code.
In essence, the Idaho State government is implementing a “regulatory reset.” According to Henderson, “The idea is that the government eliminates all regulations and then brings back the ones it decides it wants.” It follows that the state government ends up with fewer regulations once it hits the reset button.
James Broughel, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, breaks down what the Idaho State Legislature was able to pull off:
Something rather remarkable just happened in Idaho. The state legislature opted to—in essence—repeal the entire state regulatory code. The cause may have been dysfunction across legislative chambers, but the result is serendipitous. A new governor is presented with an unprecedented opportunity to repeal an outdated and burdensome regulatory code and replace it with a more streamlined and sensible set of rules. Other states should be paying close attention.
The reseacher continues:
Instead, the legislature wrapped up an acrimonious session in April without passing a rule-reauthorization bill. As a result, come July 1, some 8,200 pages of regulations containing 736 chapters of state rules will expire. Any rules the governor opts to keep will have to be implemented as emergency regulations, and the legislature will consider them anew when it returns next January.
One of the most positive aspect of the Trump administration was his executive order to eliminate regulations at a 2:1 ratio. These regulations and the bureaucracy that enforces them kill small business and hurt many would be entrepreneurs in the United States.
According to estimates from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, federal regulations costs $1.9 trillion annually. Regulatory reform should be an economic issue that future pro-liberty Republicans campaign on.
