President Donald Trump signed a wide-ranging string of new executive orders Wednesday, including new rules to speed up defense sales and procurement, limit government regulation and make American shipping more competitive.
An order titled "Reforming foreign defense sales to improve speed and accountability" is meant to make it easier to export American defense systems to partners abroad.
Another directs executive agencies to plan for improvements to domestic shipbuilding, to make U.S. vessels and maritime commerce more competitive and to shore up national security.
One order calls for agencies to terminate regulations that are now considered unlawful in light of recent Supreme Court rulings. One such ruling limits the power of government agencies to interpret laws they are responsible for the oversight of. Others limit the EPA's regulatory powers under the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
Another directs U.S. energy and environment agencies to "incorporate a sunset provision into their regulations governing energy production to the extent permitted by law." Unless regulations are explicitly extended, they will expire on September 30, 2026.
The White House says the policy is meant to "reset the regulatory landscape" around domestic energy production.
And one order redefines "showerheads" for purposes of federal regulation.
The White House says the order is meant to simplify regulations and reduce "federal meddling" in Americans' decisions.
RELATED STORY | Layoffs begin at US health agencies that track diseases, regulate food
Other memos stripped former DHS officials of security clearances and ordered new investigations into their conduct.
The memos target Chris Krebs, former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; and Miles Taylor, a former senior official of the Department of Homeland Security. The memos direct administration agencies to strip both men of their security clearances and open investigations into their conduct.
Krebs, who was responsible for election cybersecurity during President Trump's first term, publicly said that there were no signs of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. President Trump fired him via social media post in 2020.
Taylor wrote a then-anonymous op-ed in 2018 in the New York Times explaining how he and other administration officials worked to stymie parts of President Trump's agenda.
President Trump on Wednesday called Taylor a "traitor."
"I barely remember him. Somebody that went out and wrote a book and said all sorts of terrible things that were all lies," President Trump said on Wednesday.
