One of the more significant election promises made by then-candidate Trump was his promise to reduce the regulatory burden on American businesses. With his “two regulations withdrawn for every one proposed” approach, he has been largely successful in making his promise a reality. In part, as a result, the economy has boomed in relative terms. Gone seem to be the days or one-to-one half- percent growth. We were almost at 3 percent in the latest quarter. Unemployment is at the lowest level it has been in decades. “Help wanted” signs are on the doors of virtually every business and across all electronic job posting boards. Much of this is the result of the major de-regulation that has occurred.
While the reduction of regulations in general has cut across almost all executive branch agencies, those related to labor and employment matters, at least at the regional level, appear to be pushing in the other direction. It could be argued that they are choosing to re-interpret the laws they enforce as a way of responding to de-regulation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the two primary agencies that deal with the workplace, both appear to be expanding their reach through novel enforcement strategies never seen before. Whether this is nothing more than the natural evolution, of the administrative state, or an effort to create issues in areas where substantial employer compliance has been the norm to justify their budget is unclear. In either case, they have identified work-related issues to which they are applying their respective laws in a manner that certainly seems to expand their jurisdiction.