The U.S. Department of Transportation launched 78 deregulatory actions and zero new regulatory actions in fiscal year 2025, saving $23 million, according to a July 31 analysis by Reason Foundation of the federal government's newly published regulatory agenda. But the Trump administration's commitment to cutting rules isn't uniform, and several proposed actions would actually increase regulation, the report finds. The agency now has 315 active rulemaking projects, with 45 appearing for the first time in the 2026 Unified Agenda, which was released weeks late and marks the second consecutive missed publication deadline.
Of the 45 newly announced rulemaking projects at the Department of Transportation, 30 are categorized as "deregulatory" and seven as "regulatory," yielding a 4.29-to-1 ratio that falls short of the executive order's 10-to-1 target, the report states. The agency ranked third across the federal government for deregulatory actions, accounting for 12.1% of the total, but placed 13th in cost savings at just one-hundredth of one percent of government-wide regulatory cost reductions. Only one of the 45 new projects has been designated a "major" rule with economic impact exceeding $100 million annually, though 23 remain classified as "undetermined" and could later receive that designation. There are currently 12 major rules under development at the agency overall.
The seven actions classified as regulatory reveal administration policy priorities beyond deregulation, according to the report. Two Federal Aviation Administration equipment mandates would shield aircraft altimeters from 5G interference and extend cockpit voice recording from two hours to 25 hours. Four Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules would increase requirements on the trucking workforce, including a crackdown on noncitizen truck drivers "motivated by the Trump administration's broader policy agenda against immigration and has already spawned litigation." The Federal Highway Administration would apply Buy America domestic content requirements to electric vehicle chargers funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program. In contrast, the agency published seven new rulemakings to clear regulatory barriers for automated vehicle technologies, all categorized as deregulatory, including updates to bumper standards and electronic stability control systems to accommodate self-driving cars.
The report warns that the administration's regulatory transparency has declined sharply. The White House Office of Management and Budget missed publication of the Fall 2025 Unified Agenda, which should have included the 2025 Regulatory Plan, and appears to have skipped the Spring 2026 edition entirely by releasing only a single "2026" edition without a seasonal label. The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires publication twice yearly in April and October. Missing two Unified Agenda editions would be unprecedented, the report notes, though the Obama administration published just one edition in 2012. The Department of Transportation also terminated its Monthly Significant Rulemaking Report, which offered more frequent updates on economically significant rules, without explanation after publishing it only twice during the Biden administration.
Congress should demand an explanation for the decline in regulatory transparency and a commitment to resume regular publication consistent with statutory requirements, the report concludes. While the administration's focus on deregulation is welcome, durable reform requires congressional action to limit executive branch discretion over rulemaking in the first place. Short of major policy changes, lawmakers should at minimum insist on transparency so the public can track what federal agencies are doing.