Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable Discussion on the Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

White House Cabinet Room  •  Washington D.C.  •  December 16  •  2:53 P.M. EST

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everybody. We've had a very big day in the stock market today, as you know. That will be 133 days where we set a new record. And that's fantastic. Our jobs numbers have come in fantastically well - really well. And we're with some of our great governors and other leaders of areas of our country that are doing incredible things.

    We're talking about a lot of deregulation. We're talking about various tax cuts and various tax incentives so they continue onward with what they're doing. But this is a meeting that was set up and was set up a while ago.

    And I think they're very happy about the fact that we have cut regulations like nobody in the history of our country. We have - in less than three years, we've cut more regulations than any President for their full term, or terms - or, in one case, it's beyond two terms. We know who that is, Asa, right? (Laughter.) In one case, you had a little longer than the eight.

    And we've cut more than any President ever, and we're going to cut a lot more. And we have a - we wanted to do one for two, and we're going to be probably one for ten or twelve by the time we finish. I think we're at about one for eight right now. So we've done some things that are pretty - pretty amazing.

    We have a lot of military areas represented at the table. And those areas are doing very well; they're thriving too. As an example: Alaska. But they're really thriving. And our whole country is thriving. It's thriving like never before. The jobs numbers are incredible - best in 51 years. And I think soon we're going to be able to say "historic." If we go a little bit lower, we'll say, "In the history of our country, the best job numbers."

    With African Americans, with Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans we actually have the best in the history of our country. Best job numbers, best unemployment numbers, and the best employment numbers too. There is a slight difference.

    More people are working today in the United States than at any time ever in our history. We were almost up to 160 million people; we've never been close. So that's something really good.

    I think what we'll do is we're going to go around the room quickly and say a few words about the area represented or the state represented. And I'll start off with our great Vice President, Mike Pence, and then we'll go around perhaps. Governor, we'll start with you, okay?

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. And great to welcome not only members of our Cabinet, but really some of the most accomplished governors in the country to the table - people that have been leading in what you have defined as the Governors' Initiative on Regulatory Innovation.

    At the outset of this administration, you committed to revive the American economy. As you said, Mr. President, we cut taxes across the board for working families and businesses large and small. We've fought for free and fairer trade with deals that were just announced and headed to the floor: the USMCA next week, phase one on China, the Korea deal. We've worked to expand access to American energy.

HbAD0

    But it's been the regulatory initiative that you made a priority in this administration early on that's also been driving 7 million jobs created by businesses large and small. And that record unemployment rate that you challenged us to work with governors around the country to make sure that states were also replicating the deregulatory effort that you initiated here at the federal level.

    And we have gathered here some of the - some of the real champions of regulatory relief, of people that have been doing it. And the governor-elect from Mississippi has - in his role at lieutenant governor, has been a champion of regulatory reform.

    And so today, really, is about how we keep the momentum in the economy by encouraging even a greater partnership on freeing up the American people to create jobs and create wealth and opportunity.

    And I know they're all grateful for your leadership, Mr. President, but I know how grateful you are for the governors gathered around here and all those that they represent who have been taking the principles you put into practice here, at our nation's capital, and putting them into practice at the local and state level to create jobs and opportunities for Americans.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you, Mike, very much.

    Brad?

    GOVERNOR LITTLE: Mr. President, following your leadership, my first executive order was the "two for one" - that for every new rule, we give up two.

    I did pretty well.

    THE PRESIDENT: You did well.

    GOVERNOR LITTLE: I exceeded that by 4,000 percent. (Laughter.) We got rid of 82 rules for every new rule we're implementing this year.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's fantastic. That's great.

    GOVERNOR LITTLE: But it - the whole effort of what it does, of reducing the friction costs, particularly startup and small businesses, and, you know, people that have a tougher time -

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    GOVERNOR LITTLE: - washing away that regulatory friction at both the federal level and the state level is a lot of that job creation. It's just - and it's a gift that keeps on giving. If you keep being diligent on it -

    THE PRESIDENT: That's right.

    GOVERNOR LITTLE: - is that - that atmosphere for people to be successful - the great American story of entrepreneurial-ship - only happens if you reduce regulatory friction. And whether it's in licensing, which we're working on - about doing away with licensing requirements and making it to where military spouses don't have to go over a hurdle when they transfer from one state to another, or whether it's just rules to start. And then, when you get done, you got to make sure that it doesn't build back up.

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    GOVERNOR LITTLE: So we look forward to continuing to work with your administration on this.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good. Great job. Thank you very much, Brad.

    Pete?

    GOVERNOR RICKETTS: Well, Mr. President, thank you again for leading on the regulatory reform. It's really a key thing, especially things - when you get rid of job-killing things like the Waters of the U.S.

HbAD1

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    GOVERNOR RICKETTS: What you've been doing on occupational licensing reform - that's a big thing we've been working on in Nebraska as well.

    And just, it impacts so many people's lives when you do that. So, for example, we have a woman who wanted to open up her own hair-braiding business in her home. But because of the rules and regulations in Nebraska, she would have had to have 2,100 hours of licensing - you know, classrooms to be able to get that license.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's a long time.

    GOVERNOR RICKETTS: And now maybe I don't get the whole hair-braiding thing - (laughter) - but nobody's health or safety is put at risk by bad hair-braiding. And so one of the things we did is we took - you know, got rid of that requirement so she wouldn't have to have that license so she could open up her own business -

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    GOVERNOR RICKETTS: - and be able to help add jobs to the economy. And that's one of the things that your administration supported. So thank you very much for that. We really appreciate it.

    And we're continuing - I signed an executive order freezing all regulatory rulemaking until the regulations have been reviewed. We were able, for example, to cut the amount of regulation by 59 percent - our Department of Environment and Energy.

    We're working with your Federal Highway Administration, so we're taking over the NEPA reviews. And that's going to allow us to be able to get those environmental reviews done faster, still with your oversight. But we're one of eight states that's done that. I'd love to say we're the smallest state, but Alaska actually has that distinction as being the smallest state doing that. But that's an example of how we're doing it.

    And then, just process improvement, trying to make sure that we're doing a good job of getting these things turned around quickly. We've saved about 300 hours of our teammates' time, but what it's allowed to do is be able to turn around permits in a third of the time it was taking before.

    So all this is really helping to, again, get rid of that friction that Brad was talking about so that people and average Americans can get about their lives and go about creating the prosperity that we've experienced under your administration.

    THE PRESIDENT: Any word on the pipeline permits?

    GOVERNOR RICKETTS: So, we're - actually, TC Energy right now is going through getting the easements for all the landholders that they hadn't come to agreements with yet. And, of course, we're still waiting on the lawsuit in Montana. But I expect that that's - there's going to be more action on that next year.

    THE PRESIDENT: All right. Good. Thank you very much, Pete.

    ...

    Read the full transcript HERE.


You can visit a collection of all White House posts by clicking here.


Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




President Donald J. Trump Is Ensuring That Forgotten Americans Are Forgotten No More News Services, Government, State and Federal Letter from President Donald J. Trump to the Speaker of the House of Representatives

HbAD2

 
Back to Top