Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers

The order directs all federal agency heads, in consultation with the FTC Chairman and the Attorney General, to review their regulations and identify those that create monopolies, unnecessary barriers to market entry, limits on competition, undue licensing or accreditation requirements, burdens on procurement competition, or other anti-competitive market distortions. Within 70 days, each agency head must submit a list of such regulations — along with recommendations for rescission or modification — to the FTC Chairman and the Attorney General. Separately, the FTC Chairman must issue a public request for information within 10 days, keep it open for 40 days, and then route relevant public responses to the appropriate agencies. Within 90 days of receiving the agency lists, the FTC Chairman must deliver a consolidated list of regulations warranting change to the OMB Director.

The order does not itself rescind or modify any regulation. All actual deregulatory action depends on the OMB Director's subsequent decision — made through the OIRA Administrator — about whether to incorporate proposed changes into the administration's Unified Regulatory Agenda, after which normal notice-and-comment rulemaking must still occur.

All federal agency heads and their regulatory staffs are directly directed to act. Businesses, trade associations, and individuals who compete in regulated markets — or who face regulatory barriers to market entry — may submit comments during the FTC's public request-for-information period.

If the review process results in actual rescissions or modifications, businesses facing regulatory barriers to entry or licensure burdens could see those requirements reduced. Consumers could benefit from increased competition. However, no market-facing change occurs until the full rulemaking process is completed, which typically takes months to years.

Agency heads conduct reviews and send lists to the FTC Chairman and the Attorney General; the FTC Chairman also gathers public input through a 40-day RFI. The Chairman then synthesizes both agency submissions and public comments into a consolidated list, consulting the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and relevant agency heads. That consolidated list goes to the OMB Director, who — acting through the OIRA Administrator — decides which proposed changes enter the Unified Regulatory Agenda, after which standard notice-and-comment rulemaking is still required before any rule is actually changed.