Executive Order 13862 eliminated a foundational transparency mechanism that had tracked the cumulative financial burden of federal regulations on the American economy. By revoking the reporting requirement previously mandated under earlier executive orders, the administration severed the primary administrative tool through which OMB and Congress could assess aggregate regulatory costs across federal agencies. Agencies could no longer be compelled to compile and submit annual cost data, effectively removing systematic oversight of how regulations collectively impacted businesses and consumers.
The practical effect fell most heavily on Congress, watchdog organizations, and the public, who lost access to authoritative data needed to evaluate regulatory efficiency and burden. Small and large businesses that had relied on aggregate cost analyses for compliance planning and advocacy lost a standardized reference point. Academic researchers studying regulatory impact similarly lost access to consistent baseline data. Without mandatory reporting, the cost of federal regulation became opaque—calculable only through fragmented agency records and disparate studies lacking systematic coordination.
This action reflected a broader pattern of the Trump administration obscuring rather than clarifying the economic dimensions of governance. Like the later attempt to consolidate permanent trade war powers and the extension of national emergency authority on trade deficits, eliminating regulatory cost reporting served to concentrate executive discretion while reducing public and congressional ability to scrutinize cumulative impact. The revocation mirrored how subsequent actions restricted transparency around tax enforcement against the president personally and trade actions affecting consumers. Each successive action chipped away at separate mechanisms for oversight and accountability.
The order itself faced no direct legal challenge—executive authority over reporting requirements proved difficult for courts to constrain. However, the action represented a retreat from decades of bipartisan regulatory accountability practices and raised questions about whether future administrations could restore systematic cost tracking without new legislative action to reinstate mandatory reporting frameworks.
Executive Order 13862: Revocation of Reporting Requirement
💰 Economy · First Term (2017–2021) · 🤖 AI-categorized
On March 6, 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13862, which revoked a requirement for federal agencies to report data on the total cost of regulations. The order eliminated mandatory reporting on cumulative regulatory costs that had been required under previous executive orders. The direct effect was that federal agencies no longer had to compile and submit annual reports quantifying the aggregate costs of regulations to the Office of Management and Budget.