Budget boss Mulvaney claims Obama had 'secret list' of proposed regulations

Mulvaney said Congress is needed if the budget is to be balanced

At a news briefing this week, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney continued to push the Trump administration’s goal of cutting back on Obama-era regulations.

On Thursday, Mulvaney unveiled a “secret list” of proposed federal rules that he said the Obama administration had been hoping to implement.

“They had a bunch of things that they wanted to regulate. And what we’re hearing is that they just didn’t want to tell you about it,” said Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “They thought it would be bad for their re-election prospects in 2012, so they created a secret list of regs that were not disclosed to you folks, and we are disclosing it.”

Mulvaney noted that President Trump has promised a “two-for-one policy” on regulations, meaning that for every new regulation introduced by the Trump team, two old regulations would be eliminated.

So far, that policy has led to the removal of 860 rules, the budget director said.

Referring to the list, Mulvaney added that the Trump administration was committed to setting a new tone in Washington.

“There will be none of that in this administration. We will not have a secret list,” he said. “We will not have a hidden list of regulations that we’re thinking about doing but we’re not going to tell you about. That’s going to end effective immediately. In fact, it has already ended. We’re not going to do that anymore.”