President Trump has come up with a directive that says that every new regulation must be swapped out for the end of two regulations, with no additional costs.
If we start with 10 regulations and discover that a new chemical causes cancer, we’ll have to “pay for” the new regulation regarding that carcinogen by cutting out two regulations from the ten, ending up with nine regulations.
Maybe we discover that a recently adopted technology threatens privacy. If we want to regulate that technology, we’ll have to cut out two other regulations, bringing us down to eight. When concerns arise about the use of data from medical wearables, we’ll have to find two more regulations to eliminate, leaving us with seven.
You see where this is going. Over time, we could slice away all the unnecessary regulations and find ourselves pitting equally essential regulations against each other.
Of course, we have plenty of regulations to work with and it could take more than one administration to get down to the point where we’re having to decide whether to get rid of regulations against lead in paint or regulations allowing workers to take breaks, so that we can add a regulation ensuring customer safety when being served coffee by a robotic barista.
What’s more, Trump has said he plans to get rid of only 70% (or 80%) of regulations, so there will come a point when he’ll have to slow up the two-for-one rule.
Rexroth has a different approach to regulations. When regulation of emissions by mobile machines tightened up to protect the environment, Rexroth rebuilt its machinery “from the ground up” to meet the higher standards.
Faced with increasingly stringent safety standards around the world, Rexroth saw the potential. “Anyone who cannot keep the pace here will be left out in the cold,” a Rexroth statement said. “On the other hand, the stony terrain of machine safety can also prove to be fertile ground for new technologies, since more stringent regulations accelerate innovation.”
Embracing regulation that helps protect human health and the environment is not a bad thing. Working with other nations to harmonize regulations with a view toward cutting down on the need to meet a broad range of incompatible regulations makes a lot of sense. President Trump has not specified any particular regulations, so we can’t guess where that will go.
In the meantime, count on Rexroth to meet the standards and regulations that you have to work with, so you don’t have to worry about it.