Month: January 2017

President Trump Signs Executive Order to Curtail Federal Regulations

Posted on January 31, 2017 by

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at slashing federal regulations to help businesses, the latest in a string of presidential directives he has unveiled in his first 10 days in office.

The “one in, two out” plan requires federal agencies requesting new regulations to cut two existing regulations. Trump said the order will reduce regulatory burdens on the private sector, particularly small businesses.

“If you have a regulation you want, number one, we’re not going to approve it because it’s already been approved probably in 17 different forms,” Trump said while signing the order surrounded by small business leaders.

“But if we do, the only way you have a chance is we have to knock out two regulations for every new regulation,” he said. “So if there’s a new regulation, they have to knock out two.”

Government agencies must self-identify the regulations to cut, although the White House will ultimately decide what to nix.

A temporary regulatory freeze issued by White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is already in place, but Monday’s directive sets a budget for new regulations. It doesn’t apply to the military or to national security regulations, and there is also an exception to allow flexibility during emergencies.

Before signing the order, Trump held a listening session with the business leaders at the White House where he pledged to create a climate that will allow businesses to thrive.

“We’re going to create an environment for small business like we haven’t had in many, many decades,” Trump said. “This isn’t a knock on President Obama. This is a knock on many presidents preceding me. It’s a knock on everybody.”

The businessman-turned-politician campaigned heavily against overbearing government rules that he said stifle entrepreneurship. Trump has pledged to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act aimed at regulating Wall Street, which he claims made the big banks bigger, and to replace it with “new policies to encourage economic growth and job creation.”

Wall Street has embraced Trump’s presidency so far, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting 20,000 points for the first time last week. Stocks dipped, however, on Monday as uncertainty swirled around Trump’s order to close the United States to people from certain predominantly Muslim countries.

Trump has relied heavily on executive orders since his inauguration Jan. 20 to begin addressing his biggest campaign promises. He has declared that the United States will build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, advanced the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and weakened the Affordable Care Act.

After Critical Audit, Wisconsin Republicans Request Transportation Cost Updates Before Budget

Posted on January 30, 2017 by

Assembly Republicans have asked the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to update its cost estimates for ongoing, future and completed highway projects after the release this week of a critical audit.

The audit, conducted by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, found that the DOT significantly underestimated the costs of ongoing and completed major highway projects.

Costs for 19 completed projects exceeded estimates by $772.5 million, or double what was projected, the audit found, and cost estimates for 16 ongoing major highway projects were underestimated by a total of about $3.1 billion. The discrepancies were attributed to a failure to account for the extent to which inflation and unexpected expenses could contribute to cost increases.

“Taxpayers deserve to know how much a road is going to cost before it’s built,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, these miscalculations will probably confirm what many of us fear; our transportation fund is deeper in the red than we thought.”

Vos, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, and Joint Finance Committee co-chair Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, sent a letter on Friday to newly-appointed DOT Secretary Dave Ross seeking updated estimates.

The lawmakers are seeking a “full review” of cost estimates for ongoing mega and major highway projects planned or budgeted for the 2017-19 and 2019-21 budget years, a review of all projects not yet enumerated and a “comprehensive report” on all projects since 2010 documenting estimated and actual costs.

“We would like to have in detail how and why these underestimates continued to occur in order to prevent issues like these from happening again,” they wrote.

They have requested a report from the department by March 15, before the Legislature’s budget committee starts its work this spring on the 2017-19 budget.

“Lawmakers need to account for these new estimates in the overall budget plan as the nearly $1 billion projected deficit in the transportation fund could potentially be far worse than initially reported,” they wrote.

The audit comes weeks before Gov. Scott Walker is set to release his budget proposal, and amid an ongoing debate over how to address a projected $1 billion shortfall in the state’s transportation fund.

“The bottom line is we shouldn’t even be thinking about raising the gas tax or fees until we find every last cost savings at the DOT, and the audit shows we can find more savings. We welcome the opportunity to deliver services taxpayers expect at a price they can afford,” Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said Thursday.

Assembly Republicans last week called for a $300 million increase in funding offset by corresponding cuts elsewhere. They have not said where they would like to raise that revenue, but Vos acknowledged last week a gas tax hike is unlikely.

Auditors Identify Potential Savings in State Highway Program

Posted on January 27, 2017 by

Yesterday, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) released its audit of the state highway program (report 17-2), which is administered by the Department of Transportation (DOT). DOT’s expenditures for state highways increased from $739.7 million in fiscal year (FY) 1996-97 to $2.1 billion in FY 2015-16. The audit also reports that the proportion of the 11,758 miles of Wisconsin’s state highways rated in good condition decreased steadily from 53.5 percent in 2010 to 41.0 percent in 2015.

Although DOT provides a cost estimate for a major highway project to the Governor and Legislature when the project is considered for enumeration, LAB found these estimates were incomplete, in part, because they did not take into account that inflation would increase project expenditures over time.

“In this audit, LAB reviewed 35 ongoing and completed major highway projects. In the 19 completed projects dosering reviewed, expenditures exceeded original estimates by nearly 111% or $772.5m. Amongst the 16 ongoing projects reviewed, estimated costs exceeded original estimates by $3.1 billion. In both circumstances, this is more than double original estimates. Unacceptable. Wisconsin taxpayers deserve accurate and complete estimates for their transportation projects. This audit should serve as a resource to tighten up DOT practices so that future cost estimates correctly reflect true costs,” said Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay).

LAB also found that DOT budgeted to complete more major highway project work than could be completed with its available funding because it did not sufficiently take into account the extent to which project expenditures increased over time as a result of inflation and unexpected cost increases.

Although DOT has established performance measure goals to improve its management of the state highway program, it is not consistently using them to manage and improve its operations. LAB notes that doing so would help DOT use its funds more effectively. For example, by meeting its performance measures and other goals, DOT potentially could have saved:

$6.6 million over ten years if each DOT region had kept engineering costs at no more than two thresholds indicated by a DOT performance measure.

$53.1 million over nine years if it had met its quarterly goals for soliciting bids on construction contracts.

$44.7 million over ten years if it had received two bids on 363 construction contracts that received only one bid.

$191.9 million over six years if it had met its annual “on-budget” performance measure goals for state highway projects.

“These findings are a roadmap for improvement,” said Representative Samantha Kerkman (R-Salem). “The potential savings were significant and a missed opportunity. Going forward, the DOT must prioritize giving taxpayers the biggest bang for our transportation buck.”

LAB makes 24 recommendations that will help DOT use its funds more effectively and improve how DOT manages the planning, engineering, and construction phases of state highway projects, as well as its maintenance of state highways. LAB also identified 5 modifications the Legislature could consider making to statutes.