The headline noise in Washington this week brought some real policy news for a change. President Donald Trump undercut Republican congressional leaders and agreed to Democrats’ proposal for a short-term spending bill and debt ceiling hike; Congress passed it in the form of a $15 billion relief bill for Hurricane Harvey. Trump said he would end—in six months—Barack Obama’s protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. And on Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that her department would revamp Obama’s policy on sexual assault in colleges.

Outside of those changes, though, this week was rather quiet on the policy front; many agencies were busy with Harvey and preparing for Hurricanes Irma and Jose to hit. That didn’t mean nothing happened—Trump’s rollback of Obama’s legacy continued. It was just a little slower than usual, and so our weekly roundup of five big ways Trump changed policy this week is pared down to three:

1. Trump sets a new goal for deregulation

Trump hasn’t had any big legislative wins, but he has succeeded at clogging up the regulatory system—the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” in the words of former chief strategist Steve Bannon. In one of his first actions as president, Trump directed the White House budget office to set an annual cap on regulatory costs for each agency—that is, the total economic costs of all new regulatory and deregulatory actions. For the rest of fiscal 2017, the cap was zero, meaning whatever an agency does this year, it can’t increase net costs at all. But what would the cap be in fiscal 2018?

On Thursday, the Office of Management and Budget provided an answer: Agencies are expected to “propose a net reduction in total incremental regulatory costs.” In other words, the economic cost of federal regulations must go down. The policy, which was implemented in an agency-wide memo, doesn’t apply to every regulation; many rules are exempt because their costs are minimal, they are required by law or they are related to national security, among other reasons. And OMB still can issue agencies a waiver if officials deem it necessary. But for most major regulations—the type of health and safety rules that get significant attention—the policy could impose new restrictions on agencies’ ability to issue new rules, experts said. An OMB official did not respond to a request for comment.

Given the Trump administration’s focus on deregulation, experts weren’t exactly surprised by the memo. They noted that it just “expects” agencies to cut regulatory costs—it doesn’t require it. But it still represents a dramatic shift in how agencies have traditionally regulated. For all Trump’s deregulatory successes in his first seven-plus months in office, his bigger war on the regulatory system may just be beginning.

2. DOJ takes another swipe at sanctuary cities

In late July, the administration made its first real attempt to follow through on Trump’s campaign promise to cut federal funding for sanctuary jurisdictions, like San Francisco or Chicago, which don’t help the federal government enforce immigration laws. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that in order to receive money from the “Byrne Jag” grant, a $347 million program that is critical for local law enforcement, cities must effectively shed their sanctuary status. The change made national headlines and provoked immediate outcry from sanctuary cities, which are challenging the policy in court.

Less noticed, on Thursday, Sessions announced that nonsanctuary jurisdictions would get “priority consideration” in another grant program run by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. While smaller than the Byrne Jag program, the COPS grant program is still large: State and local law enforcement agencies received around $160 million from it in fiscal 2016.

The change has gone largely unnoticed around the country, but represents perhaps the clearest shift in priorities from the Obama Justice Department to the Trump Justice Department. While Obama used the COPS program to favor law enforcement agencies that promoted trust between officers and the community through accountability and “honest recognition of past and present obstacles,” Trump and Sessions are using it to further their immigration crackdown.

3. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan repeal is coming soon

Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump railed against Obama’s environmental agenda and promised to undo his Clean Power Plan, which imposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions. In March, he took the first step towards doing just that when he directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review the rule. So it came as a surprise this summer when the EPA revealed that it wouldn’t take action on its review of the plan in the next year.

It turns out, that wasn’t correct. The agency announced in a court filing this week that its previous timeline was wrong: It’s going to issue a proposed new rule on the Clean Power Plan—likely a repeal—in the next few months. In fact, the rule has been under review at the White House since early June. Expect to hear more about it soon.

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