President Trump Signs Executive Orders that Impact Financial Services
Commentary by Steven Lofchie
President Trump signed Executive Orders ("EOs") that will have impact on financial services.
These include:
New Trump EOs:
- Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce intended to "restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character."
- Regulatory Freeze Pending Review: Puts a pause or stop to the adoption of proposed rules.
- Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government: Requires that there be a review of enforcement actions taken by the DOJ and by other US Government Agencies and to identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by law enforcement and the Intelligence Community.
New EOs Rescinding former EOs:
- Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions: Rescinded 78 Executive Orders issued by President Biden, highlighted below. (By rescinding President Biden's Executive Order titled "Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Regulation" calling for reduced regulation, President Trump restored a number of the EOs he had adopted in his first term.)
Highlighted Rescinded EOs:
- Climate-Related Financial Risk: This EO required that climate change considerations be central to financial rulemaking.
- Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence: This EO stated that AI was an important development and that it should be facilitated, subject to a raft of ESG considerations.
- Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs
- Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda
- Evaluating and Improving the Utility of Federal Advisory Committees
- Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents
- Promoting the Rule of Law Through Transparency and Fairness in Civil Administrative Enforcement and Adjudication
- Increasing Government Accountability for Administrative Actions by Reinvigorating Administrative PAYGO
Commentary
It is notable that in the EO regarding the weaponization of enforcement, President Trump named the SEC as an agency whose actions should be investigated. As pointed out frequently, many penalties imposed by the SEC were excessive (particularly in the record keeping cases) and many other cases could be interpreted as "political," particularly in the crypto space where they appeared to be based on a policy antagonism toward crypto, rather than on the law.
While, for the most part, it did not seem that the SEC was seeking to take action against individual disfavored persons, the SEC's going-out-the-door enforcement action against Mr. Musk, in connection with his purchase of Twitter, has the appearance of an attack ad hominem.