Visits: 4
On the eve of President Donald Trump’s visit, California’s Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the state has unleashed its 49th lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time challenging a presidential executive order signed in 2017 that “arbitrarily” slashes regulations.
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California was joined in the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia by the attorneys general of Minnesota and Oregon.
In a statement Thursday night, Becerra said Trump‘s “2-for-1” executive order, issued on Jan. 30, 2017, requires that U.S. agencies to repeal at least two existing government regulations for every new one an agency issues, with the goal to offset costs. In doing so, agencies make determinations based on looking at “the cost of the proposed regulation, while giving no consideration to the benefit or protections lost by the repeal of existing regulations,” the release added.
“This arbitrary two-for-one executive order is just bad public policy,” Becerra said.
Becerra added that the Trump order “forces federal agencies to make potentially bad decisions in order to meet existing rules without consideration for their importance or value.”
According to the lawsuit, Trump’s order “harms the states by preventing, delaying and discouraging federal regulations addressing public health, safety, and environmental concerns.” The states are seeking “declaratory and injunctive relief.”
California previously sued the Trump administration over issues such as health care, immigration, the border wall, public lands, climate change. California’s 49 lawsuits against the Trump administration compare with 48 lawsuits the state of Texas filed against the federal government during the Obama administration.
In February 2017, two advocacy groups and a union filed a challenge to Trump’s 2-for-1 order. But a federal judge in D.C. dismissed the case by ruling the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to bring the case.
Trump is scheduled to go to California on Friday to visit a newly replaced border fence in Calexico.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined comment. CNBC also reached out the White House.