FCC Undertaking ‘Largest Deregulatory Effort in the Agency’s History,’ Chairman Says

The agency has so far removed or teed up for removal 1,108 rules and regulations under its initiative.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on May 21, 2025. John McDonnell/Getty Images

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is undertaking the “largest deregulatory effort in the agency’s history,” eliminating waste, improving efficiency, and modernizing operations, agency chairman Brendan Carr said in Jan. 14 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

In March 2025, Carr launched the “Delete, Delete, Delete” deregulation initiative.

“Since then, the FCC has been reviewing every rule, regulation, and guidance document for the purpose of eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens, and we sought feedback from stakeholders to get their perspectives as well,” Carr said.

“To date, the FCC has removed or teed up for removal 1,108 rules and regulations, 134,928 words, and 312 pages of the Code of Federal Regulations. The FCC has also worked to close out inactive dockets and has terminated a record 2,048 inactive proceedings.”

Carr listed various domains in which deregulation was being beneficially implemented, including the end of “regulatory overreaches” from the previous administration that made it harder to build high-speed communication infrastructure in the United States.

One proposal from the previous administration that the FCC stopped was the “bulk billing” arrangement that could have raised the price of internet service for apartment dwellers by up to 50 percent, according to Carr.

Furthermore, the FCC is looking to offer a “predictable regulatory framework” for the private sector in the space industry that will focus on four principles: speed, simplicity, security, and satellite spectrum abundance.

The FCC’s deregulation push is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to ensure that agencies eliminate unnecessary regulations.

In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to limit the number of regulations they impose and eliminate 10 existing policies for every new rule they enact.

“This practice is to ensure that the cost of planned regulations is responsibly managed and controlled through a rigorous regulatory budgeting process,” Trump wrote.

The president’s deregulatory push has drawn criticism from various quarters.

On June 3, 2025, environmental group Sierra Club criticized the Interior Department’s decision to revoke 18 federal rules. The department justified the decision, calling the rules “obsolete or redundant” and stating that slashing them would boost economic growth on public lands.

Sierra Club criticized the lack of a public comment period before the rules were scrapped.

“Cutting the public out of a major policy change is a sign the policy isn’t good for the public,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program.

In an Oct. 8 post for the University of Cambridge, Eliot Whittington, executive director of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, warned that U.S. deregulation risked creating a “global financial crisis.”

He argued the Trump administration was dismantling mechanisms designed to “identify and manage systemic financial and climate risks.”

Meanwhile, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced in December 2025 that the Trump administration’s deregulation efforts have resulted in rescinding a large number of rules while saving billions of dollars.

In fiscal year 2025, federal agencies cut 646 regulations while introducing only five new rules, OMB said. In effect, 129 regulations were removed for every new rule added, far exceeding the 10-to-one target set by the president. Cutting red tape saved $211.8 billion, amounting to more than $600 per American.

“The Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda is the most ambitious in American history,” White House OMB Director Russ Vought said in a statement.

“In less than one year we have already achieved more savings than in all four years of the prior Trump Administration, and we’re just getting started.”