During their four years in power, the Biden administration's shadowy bureaucrats unleashed an unprecedented regulatory burden on the nation.

In just a single term, the administration set an all-time record for regulatory expenses, costing the nation $1.8 trillion, according to the center-right American Action Forum. The number was based on self-reported estimates from federal agencies.

It's a dubious achievement for Biden, who far outpaced two-term President Obama's $493 billion and President Trump's $112 billion in costs during his first administration.

Biden sets regulatory record

The largest contributor to Biden's regulatory costs came from $1.3 trillion in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules, which Biden used to push an aggressive, climate change agenda.

While the Biden administration was consistently heavy-handed, there was a dramatic increase in rulemaking in 2024, Dan Goldbeck, Director of Regulatory Policy, wrote.

The single costliest rule was Biden's "Model Year 2027 and Later” tailpipe emissions rule, which set rigorous limits meant to phase out gas-powered vehicles. The regulation cost an estimated $870 billion.

"Nevertheless, if one excludes that single rule from the Biden-era EPA total, that agency still outpaces the next five agencies combined in terms of total costs," Goldbeck wrote. "The Department of Health and Human Services landed in second place, primarily due to having 15 rules that imposed costs in the billions of dollars."

Trump cutting red tape

In terms of paperwork hours, Biden added 356 million hours in extra work. The most burdensome rules were from one of the darkest periods of Biden's presidency - his 2021-2022 push to forcibly vaccinate Americans against COVID-19. Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers added 79 million hours of paperwork alone.

With President Trump back in the White House, Americans can expect a stark shift back towards deregulation. Trump has been moving at an aggressive pace to implement his agenda of sweeping government reform, leaving critics in the Democratic party struggling to keep up.

Cutting red tape will be key to Trump's effort to tackle inflation, one of his major campaign promises. In particular, Trump has pledged to "drill baby drill" and roll back Biden's "green new scam," including his electric vehicle mandate.

Trump's EPA director, Lee Zeldin, can be expected to target the tailpipe emissions rule and other costly environmental regulations.

"For the last four years, the so-called experts at the Environmental Protection Agency went on a reckless regulatory rampage,’' Republican Senator John Barrasso (Wy.) said. “They saddled American families and businesses with higher costs and heavy-handed restrictions. They bowed to climate extremism and ignored common sense.”