Regulations violate the checks and balances of a representative republic. While Obama is not the only president to use regulations to skirt Congress, he is the biggest culprit. Obama has used Federal Regulations to impose his socialistic agenda upon America. In fact, by May 2016, Obama had passed over 20,000 regulations during his presidency. Obama’s reign of terror is finally coming to an end. The good news is that Donald Trump has a tool to reduce the impact of the Obama administration.

During the campaign, Donald Trump said that 70% of Federal Regulations can go. Whether Donald Trump reduces the Code of Federal Regulations by 70% is yet to be determined. Nonetheless, the first step in reducing the CFR by 70% begins in the first three months of 2017.

Congressional Review Act

One of the laws passed as a part of Contract with America is called the Congressional Review Act [CRA]. The CRA permits Congress to pass a Joint Resolution which when signed by the president, nullifies rules passed by Bureaucrats. However, the CRA can only be used on rules enacted within the last 60 legislative days of the 114th Congress. Because of the 2016 presidential elections, summer break, and the Republican and Democratic conventions, the 60 legislative days is June 9, 2016.

This means that every rule passed by the Obama administration since June 9, 2016, can be overturned by a simple majority vote in the House and Senate. The time to act is a very short window. Both the Senate and Congress must act within 60 days after the 15th legislative day. It appears that the 15th legislative day for the 115th Congress will be January 24, 2017. That means the 60-day time window for Congress to act should be March 28, 2017 (the legislation does not count days where Congress is out of session for 3 or more days).

If a Joint Resolution is passed by March 28, 2017, Donald Trump will then have his normal time to sign. With the signature of Donald Trump, he will take the first major step of unwinding the massive increase of Federal Bureaucracy during the Obama Administration.

Obama’s 2016 Legacy

For those who do not know, there are over 50 titles in the CFR. These titles include the IRS, Education, National Defense, Transportation, and many other areas. Since June 9, 2016, the Obama Administration has enacted rules in 46 of the 50 different titles. Each Title is broken up into Parts. Since June 9, 2016, the Obama Administration has passed rules that affect approximately 2,000 Parts. Each of these Parts has numerous Sections that quickly add up to hundred of pages. As a result, Obama has passed hundreds of thousands of pages of rules that your elected representative had no input on.

While not every one of these Proposed Rules is major and is eligible for Congress to nullify, there is plenty of new rules that Trump can remove with a stroke of his pen. No need for new hearings, no need for input from the agencies and those affected by the proposed rules. Just a Congressional Resolution and the United States will eliminate over a hundred thousand pages of Proposed Rules that were never consented to by the people’s representatives. With a stroke of a pen, Donald Trump will make huge strides in reducing the 70% of unnecessary regulations.

It looks like someone from the Trump transition team will be busy this Holiday season trying to figure out which Obama regulations must be eliminated.