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Trump’s First 100 Days: Unprecedented Deregulatory Giveaways to Corporations

April 26, 2017

Trump’s First 100 Days: Unprecedented Deregulatory Giveaways to Corporations

Statements From Public Citizen Experts

“One hundred days into his administration, President Donald Trump’s biggest accomplishment is having escalated the corrupt insider-dealing he campaigned against. Trump, with the help of congressional Republicans, has used an obscure law called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to reward the GOP’s corporate backers with more than a dozen deregulatory giveaways.

“Trump has used the CRA an unprecedented 13 times to roll back broadband privacy standards, women’s health care protections and other popular regulations that keep corporate predators, polluters and profiteers in check. Prior to this year, the CRA has been used only once. Remarkably, CRA resolutions are the only legislation of consequence Trump has signed – a telling indication of his administration’s priorities.”

– Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs, Public Citizen

“Judging by his actions, Trump has very little regard for the people who elected him to drain the swamp and stand up for workers. Instead, Trump is siding with executives at telecom giants like Comcast and Verizon who can now sell our Internet browsing history to the highest bidder, the CEOs of big oil and big coal companies who pollute our air and poison our rivers, and well-heeled federal contractors who cheat their workers out of honest paychecks and endanger them with unsafe workplaces.

“Moreover, Trump appears to recognize that these special favors for corporate interests are deeply unpopular, having signed most of these resolutions behind closed doors – out of the view of the press and the public. Trump, who craves the spotlight, has been desperate to highlight accomplishments as we have approached his administration’s 100-day mark. By signing CRA resolutions under cover of darkness, Trump is implicitly acknowledging that he knows full well that repealing public protections won’t sit well with the public.

“If this pattern of deregulation continues, and we have every reason to expect it will, Trump’s next 100 days will see even more corporate giveaways.”

– Amit Narang, regulatory policy advocate, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division

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