For a decade, as a member of the Florida State Senate, I fought against overregulation.

After the passage of the REINS-style state law overhauling our state’s regulatory environment, I worked tirelessly to help usher in some of the major changes that have made our state a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Now, as President Donald Trump begins his second term, I am proud to see a focus on overregulation take hold in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after the inauguration, Trump signed one of his most important executive orders: a regulatory freeze that halted further rulemaking pending an executive branch review. This was a key step in his deregulation agenda.

Included in the President’s regulatory freeze was a pause on any rulemaking currently underway at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This pause was especially necessary, because as other agencies had slowed down rulemaking at the end of the Joe Biden era, the CFPB sped up.

Originally formed in 2011, the CFPB has too often strayed from its stated mission of protecting consumers. Under the last administration, it served as a partisan rule-maker that functioned exclusively to help the Democrats. It opted to regulate by enforcement and exceeded its statutory authority, putting consumers and small businesses in harm’s way.

As the Biden administration prepared to leave office, the CFPB ignored the changing of the guard in pursuit of a left-wing agenda that was little more than an assault on small businesses and consumers.

Thankfully, Trump recognized the threat that former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra posed to the administration and fired him. Now, with new leadership in charge, it’s important that the lame-duck, partisan rulemaking be reviewed and repealed if necessary.  

Under the last administration, the CFPB changed the rules of the game when it came to regulating financial institutions. Instead of establishing clear guidelines everyone could follow, the CFPB made rules on the spot and expected companies to comply. The agency adopted a dangerous precedent of regulation by enforcement, punishing institutions for not abiding by rules that the CFPB made up on the spot.

The CFPB’s overreach has created regulatory uncertainty for the institutions it oversees, including banks. The consequences of this uncertainty have trickled down to consumers and small businesses who have paid the ultimate price for overregulation. When financial institutions do not have clear rules of the road, they cannot operate as freely as they would like. Access to capital becomes more difficult than necessary and costs increase.

While most federal agencies slowed down once Trump won in November, the CFPB sped up and attempted to cement its partisan agenda. As the Trump administration was preparing to take over, the CFPB ushered through new regulations on credit card late fees, medical debt, and payment app oversight. All of these issues are outside of its jurisdiction. The rules were nothing more than partisan power grabs in the waning days of the Biden term.

Effective regulation requires clarity, consistency, and most importantly, accountability. The Biden CFPB failed on all fronts. The agency has acted as judge, juror, and executioner on a myriad of cases and hurt the very consumers and small business owners they swore to protect.

The American people deserve better. The last-minute rulemaking and agency actions need to be put under a microscope. In many cases, these partisan rules need to be repealed before they do any further harm.

Change is needed now to correct the misdeeds of the last several years.

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Former Senator Jeff Brandes is the founder and president of the Florida Policy Project.

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Florida is the leader in a terrible statistic: More children under the age of 5 die from drowning in the Sunshine State than any other place in the country, according to the Department of Children and Families.

Two Orlando Democrats are pushing legislation to add more pool regulations they hope will save lives.

Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Rep. Johanna López filed legislation (SB 604, HB 93) that would require, starting Oct. 1, all residences with swimming pools being sold or having ownership transferred to pass a final inspection to make sure the older pools meet the same safety standards for newly constructed pools.

“We must put an end to the epidemic of preventable child drownings that continue to happen in this state,” Smith said in a statement. “Our proposed pool safety requirements are great tools for drowning prevention, and it is critical we ensure they apply to the sale and transfer of all residential homes, regardless of construction year.”

Under their bill, title companies, inspectors and mortgage underwriters will be required to report any home that fails to meet safety and drowning prevention standards, the lawmakers said.

Current Florida law requires pools to have at least one safety measure in place which includes either a safety pool cover, an exit alarm on the home’s doors or windows leading to the pool or a swimming pool alarm.

López co-sponsored a similar bill last year with Rep. Rita Harris that died in the Regulatory Reform and Economic Development Subcommittee.

“Too many families in Florida have suffered the unimaginable loss of a child due to accidental drowning — an entirely preventable tragedy,” López said. “By refiling HB 93 alongside Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, we are taking a critical step toward strengthening residential pool safety laws, ensuring that every pool has at least one life-saving safety feature.”

Their identical bills were endorsed by Brent Moore, Executive Director of Children’s Safety Village of Central Florida, a nonprofit focused on protecting kids.

“With Florida again leading the nation in unintentional drowning of children under 18 we emphasize the need for heightened safety standards,” Moore said in a statement. “We believe these updated standards reduce drownings, and all homes should have these protections.” 

The Legislature’s Regular Session convenes March 4.

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