President Donald Trump is stopping a century-old trend of the executive branch assuming more power and giving it back to Congress "where it belongs," according to Reason editor at large Matt Welch.
In a blog post Monday, Welch argues Trump, despite Twitter assaults on the legislative branch, has kicked back to Congress issues including Iran sanctions, Obamacare subsidies, and the Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals program.
"Are there any other examples?" Welch asks and answers: "Sure — the 15 regulatory nullifications this year via the Congressional Review Act — 14 more than all previous presidents combined."
And, he wrote, the "sharp decreases in the enactment, proposal, and even page-count of regulations amount to the administration declining to exercise as much power as its predecessors."
Chris DeMuth, former president of the American Enterprise Institute, hails another "devolution" the president has accomplished: regulatory budget-cutting.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, DeMuth praised Trump's executive order issued shortly after taking office in which he directed that unless a statute requires otherwise, agencies might issue new regulations only by rescinding two or more existing regulations, with net costs held to an annual budget.
Welch argues, with some exceptions, "Trump has proved to be a full-spectrum deregulator" and his administration "has been punctilious about the institutional prerogatives of Congress and the courts."
"Today there is a serious prospect of restoring the constitutional status quo ante and reversing what seemed to be an inexorable regulatory expansion," he wrote.
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