DOT deputy to head department’s regulatory reform efforts

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has named recently confirmed DOT Deputy Secretary Jeffrey Rosen as the department’s Regulatory Reform Officer and chairman of DOT’s Regulatory Reform Task Force (RRTF), which was formed in response to President Trump’s Executive Order 13777. Each federal agency is directed to establish an RRTF to make recommendations to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens. As part of this effort, FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee this month will consider potential steps to reduce regulatory burdens.

According to a DOT news release, Chao has directed the RRTF to “consider ways to accomplish DOT’s primary safety objectives in less burdensome ways and to further review 'midnight rules' that were issued at the end of the last Administration.”

Rosen was DOT’s general counsel from 2003 through 2006 and served as general counsel and senior policy advisor for the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2006 to 2009. Most recently, Rosen was senior partner of the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he worked for nearly 30 years before and after his two government appointments.