Input Stories

The NAM is ensuring manufacturers’ voices are heard as the administration takes steps to reconsider costly and burdensome federal rules.

The EO: The president signed an executive order in February directing federal agencies to identify overreaching and impractical regulations as part of the administration’s deregulatory agenda.

NAM weighs in: The NAM is suggesting at least 44 regulations across 10 agencies that the administration should consider revising or rescinding to rebalance the regulatory landscape, which has harmed manufacturers’ ability to compete in recent years.

• Notable proposals put forth by the NAM included rescinding the Environmental Protection Agency’s PM2.5 standard, reworking the Department of the Interior’s critical minerals list, issuing a new Department of Energy study on liquefied natural gas exports, and reversing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s changes to the proxy process—among many other suggestions.
• This comprehensive list of commonsense recommendations (which you can read in full here) builds on the influential NAM-led missive to President Donald Trump’s transition team in December, which highlighted more than three dozen regulatory actions the administration could take to support manufacturing growth.

Full court press: The NAM submitted recommendations to agencies across the federal government whose regulations impact manufacturing growth and hurt businesses, including the EPA, SEC, DOI, DOE, Department of Labor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Federal Trade Commission and Department of the Treasury.

The last word: “Rebalancing regulations is a critical pillar of our comprehensive manufacturing strategy—which also includes making the 2017 tax reforms permanent, expediting permitting reform to unleash American energy, strengthening the manufacturing workforce and implementing commonsense trade policies,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.

• “Manufacturers are spending $350 billion each year just to comply with federal regulations—money that could be spent on expanding factories and production lines, hiring new workers or raising wages.”
• “The administration is already answering the calls of manufacturers across the country to reconsider and rebalance regulations that are holding manufacturers back.”
• “Using these recommendations as a guidepost, manufacturers look forward to continuing to work with the administration to fix rules that cost too much, trap projects in red tape, chill investment, do not make sense and harm the 13 million men and women who make things in the United States.”

In the news: Fox Business was the first to cover the NAM’s rebalancing plan.