SACRAMENTO, CA (KMJ) – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra joins Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filing a lawsuit Thursday in the district court for the District of Columbia challenging what he calls President Trump’s “absurd and illegal ‘two for one’” executive order.
The order was issued in January of 2017 and requires agencies to repeal at least two existing regulations for every new regulation an agency issues.
The Trump Administration says its to offset costs.
Regulation isn’t a good thing or a bad thing in itself: it’s good if it protects the public and promotes the health and welfare of the people, and it’s bad if it doesn’t,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Regulations should be evaluated one at a time and enacted or repealed based on the merit or lack of merit of each one individually: that’s how we should expect government to operate. Arbitrarily sacrificing two or more regulations that protect the public in order to enact another one that might not amounts to the federal government abandoning its duty to protect the public. The harm to Minnesotans’ health, environment, and workplaces is potentially immense.”
In the lawsuit, Becerra said the Order ignores the federal government’s responsibility to implement and enforce the laws passed by Congress, including those that protect public health and the environment.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said; “This arbitrary two-for-one executive order is just bad public policy. It forces federal agencies to make potentially bad decisions in order to meet a new policy quota.”
“What this means is that in order to pass a new rule, an agency would have to cut two existing rules without consideration for their importance or value,” said Attorney General Rosenblum. “Imagine if the EPA wanted to enact a new rule to limit air pollution, but was forced to cut two existing rules just to satisfy this new rule? Our federal government should be focused on implementing good policy—not just eliminating policy for the sake of a new mandate.”
The Trump Administration saids in the last two years, federal agencies have withdrawn or delayed 1,579 planned regulatory actions.
Becerra said many of the actions are of critical importance to protect the American public, including rules to address energy conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, and vehicle safety.
In complying with the Order and in failing to address these environmental and public safety hazards, federal agencies have violated federal statutes, said Becerra in the statement released Thursday, including he says the Clean Air Act, the Energy Policy Conservation Act, and the Motor Vehicle Safety Act,
The Attorneys General seek to have the Order declared invalid on the basis that it violates the U.S. Constitution and is unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act.
