While chaos has reigned since President Trump took office, one thing that has been consistent is the administration’s commitment to deregulation. Administration officials are working to eliminate rules largely intended to protect people’s health and safety, like their effort to axe the limits on “forever chemicals” allowed in our drinking water. Widespread deregulation is concerning on its own, but perhaps more troubling is how it’s happening.
The Trump administration is systematically cutting the public out of the process. Following a slew of executive orders calling on agencies to eliminate regulations arbitrarily deemed “unlawful,” the White House issued a memo directing agencies to repeal rules “without notice-and-comment.” This means bypassing the typical, and legally required, process: issuing a draft rule, accepting comments from the public and other stakeholders, and developing final regulations informed by those comments.
A recent UCS analysis found that federal agencies are in fact eliminating and weakening rules that impact our air, water, climate, food, health care, transit, and communities without notice-and-comment. This not only sidesteps the processes that hold agencies accountable to the public, but also the countless hours (and taxpayer dollars) agency staff spent developing those rules in the first place. Cutting the public out of the process enables rules to be made behind closed doors for the benefit of powerful and politically-connected industry actors. It also violates the law.
And this is not the only way the public is being cut out of government decision-making. The federal government is also eliminating web tools that help the public comment on rules. They’re also giving polluters a free pass from complying with regulations in the first place, bypassing air toxics rules that were strengthened under Biden with extensive public input.
Despite red flags raised by numerous legal experts and the multiple court cases brought against the administration for bypassing notice-and-comment, President Trump has doubled down.
Deregulation at all costs
On October 21, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)—the White House office that oversees federal agencies, the federal budget, and supports development of policies and regulations—issued a memo directing agencies to “redouble their efforts [to aggressively and quickly withdraw regulations that are facially unlawful].” Broadly, the memo proposes several legally dubious shortcuts to fast track the deregulatory process, including:
- Shortening the time that OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs spends reviewing proposed or final rules before they are issued from 90-120 to 14-28 days for deregulatory actions.
- Directing agencies to bypass consultation with Tribal stakeholders as well as small businesses and other groups when issuing deregulatory actions.
- Stating that notice-and-comment is “superfluous and unnecessary,” encouraging agencies to continue using the “good cause” exception to bypass public processes.
- Urging agencies to consider additional “benefits” of deregulation, with metrics that are biased in favor of corporate profits and “private freedom.”
The memo completely ignores the potential harms of deregulation, once again showing how the Trump administrations serves the powerful and privileged, not the US public.
Weakening oversight of toxic chemicals
One deregulatory action that is subject to significant corporate influence is the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recent proposal to update its chemical risk evaluation process. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA is required to assess the safety of existing or new chemicals used in commercial products, like paints and cleaning agents, and determine whether those chemicals should be regulated (or banned).
EPA recently proposed to weaken the chemical review process, eliminating Biden-era provisions that required consideration of all potential uses of a chemical, and ways that people might be exposed to it. The proposed rule also aims to speed up the chemical risk evaluation process, while at the same time decreasing reporting requirements for chemical manufacturers—all while the agency has fired or pushed out thousands of staff. Additionally, the rule proposes to apply the administration’s deceptively-titled “gold standard science” approach to chemical risk evaluations, which instead of setting a gold standard will undermine the science underpinning these evaluations. This will result in weak evaluations based on incomplete data, and let unsafe chemicals get approved for use in the products in our homes, workplaces, and schools.
This proposal is yet another example of the administration’s empty rhetoric around eliminating toxic chemicals from our food, air, and water. The rule draws directly from a “wish list” sent by chemical manufacturers and trade associations to President Trump in December 2024, making it clear whose interests are being prioritized.
UCS submitted comments highlighting our concerns and opposition to the proposed rule here.
You can help rein in corporate influence
Efforts to combat this deregulatory push include the EXPERTS Act, recently introduced by Rep. Jayapal and Sen. Warren. If enacted, this bill would restore science-based decision-making and transparency to our nation’s regulatory process by requiring disclosure of conflicts of interest in scientific submissions, and by making it a crime to knowingly provide false information to regulators.
Additionally, it would strengthen public participation, especially for marginalized communities, by creating an Office of the Public Advocate and improving how agencies notify the public about rulemaking. Most importantly, the bill would reinforce the principle of Chevron deference: that courts should trust agency experts over corporate lobbyists. It would also prevent excessive delays in regulatory review, allow for the quick reinstatement of protections improperly rescinded, and restore a clear six-year limit on legal challenges.
Public participation in government decision-making is a fundamental right of the US people and core to a functioning democracy. When federal agencies evade those processes and eliminate regulations recklessly, without transparency or accountability, real people get hurt. For example, if EPA follows through on walking back its ban on trichloroethylene (TCE), a dangerous chemical solvent used in degreasers and stain removers, more children may be born with heart defects and more people may develop cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and kidney and liver damage.
You can take action to ensure that public interests are protected in rulemaking. Contact your members of Congress today to urge them to support the EXPERTS Act.