DOW Dow Inc

By Ted Mann 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday requiring each federal agency to form a task force to review existing regulations and recommend whether to repeal or simplify those deemed to harm the economy and job creation.

Mr. Trump signed the order shortly after noon in the Oval Office, with a group of corporate executives who have advised the administration on business issues arrayed behind him. They included Dow Chemical Co. Chief Executive Andrew Liveris, Lockheed Martin Corp. CEO Marillyn Hewson, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, and United Technologies Corp. CEO Gregory Hayes.

Mr. Trump said the order, the text of which wasn't immediately released, would direct every federal agency to form "a real team of dedicated people to research all regulations that are unnecessary, burdensome and harmful to the economy and therefore harmful to the creation of jobs and business."

The president signed the order shortly after a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he criticized government regulations and said that 75% of existing rules were unnecessary.

On Thursday, the administration convened meetings of a group of manufacturing executives, led by Mr. Liveris, to develop recommendations for improving the business climate, including by rolling back regulations that are already in place.

In the Oval Office Friday, Mr. Trump said the task forces would be required to report on their findings "every once in a while."

Mr. Trump said the new order, combined with a previous order aimed at curbing federal regulations, would "unleash" economic growth. He also suggested, in an aside to Ms. Hewson, that his administration has already succeeded in preventing the loss of American jobs to other countries.

A previous Trump executive order requires that federal agencies identify two rules to be repealed for every new regulation they promulgate. It isn't yet clear how that order will work in practice.

Some business leaders who have consulted with the administration have recommended practices that are already part of the federal regulatory process. Executives at Mr. Trump's Thursday meeting called for the cost of new regulations to be reviewed before they are issued. The Office of information and Regulatory Affairs, formed in 1980, already issues cost-benefit analyses of new regulations.

Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2017 13:34 ET (18:34 GMT)

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