Administration to attack regulatory roadblocks, Trump tells governors

Feb. 28, 2017
Saying that he had heard some state leaders complain about federal regulatory delays, US President Donald J. Trump told a delegation of US governors that his administration will try to remove federal regulatory roadblocks that have delayed important projects for environmental reasons.

Saying that he had heard some state leaders complain about federal regulatory delays, US President Donald J. Trump told a delegation of US governors that his administration will try to remove federal regulatory roadblocks that have delayed important projects for environmental reasons.

“I know many of you…have many projects that have been literally tied up for years and years,” he told the group visiting him at the White House on Feb. 27. “We will get them out. Now, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be approved, but they’ll either be rejected quickly or approved. You’re not going to wait 9 or 11 years. You’re going to know.”

The federal government should not stand in the way of governors trying to deliver needed goods and services, “and it won’t,” the president assured.

“We’re going to move very, very quickly, environmentally, with [US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt] and so many others that are involved in the process of regulation. We are going to be cutting. We’re going to be doing the right thing,” Trump said.

“Under my administration, we’re going to have a true partnership of collaboration and cooperation,” Trump said. “We will get the answers and we will get them quickly. [You will have] the flexibility you need to implement the reforms that you are going to have in order to make decision-making proper and decision-making fast. So we’re going to do both those things—proper and fast.”

Trump also noted that his administration will try to restore more authority to states in appropriate situations. “You can control it better than the federal government because you’re right on top of it,” he told the state chief executives who had come to Washington for the National Governors Association’s 2017 Winter Meeting.

“We have to let the states compete and to see who has the best solutions. They know the best how to spend their dollars and how to take care of the people within each state,” Trump said. “And the states are different, and people are different. So the governors are going to have a lot more decision-making ability than they have right now.”

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].