Dive Brief:

• The Department of Commerce is seeking input from domestic manufacturers in a new survey on how federal regulations impact business, Politico's Morning Trade reported Monday.
• The survey, released Tuesday, seeks information on the manufacturing permitting process for construction or expansion of facilities, the top four regulations believed to be most burdensome and how to simplify regulations, and general information (e.g. NAICS code and location) about the commenting company.
• Comments are due by close of business March 31, 2017. The survey will be posted on regulations.gov and linked to at the top of this post once available on the Federal Register. 

Dive Insight:

The Trump administration's move to engage the manufacturing industry, generally, about the impact of federal regulations on business follows earlier promises to cut regulatory burdens by as much as 75%.

Days after entering the White House, the president signed various executive orders with that goal in mind. In one, he ordered the Secretary of Commerce, who was not confirmed by the Senate until last week, to engage with stakeholders on the impact of federal regulations. Tuesday's request for comment follows that order. In a second, he ordered all departments to overview existing regulations, and not introduce new regulations without slashing two other regulations. 

So, while questions abound regarding which regulations will be slashed by the new administration it is clear the campaign promise intends to be kept. 

With the survey, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is attempting to discern which regulations are having a negative effect on manufacturing. Ross believes extremely both costs and delays can be addressed easily within American manufacturing, according to Politico's Morning Trade.

While a standard process, the request for information provides an opportunity for manufacturers to influence the administration's regulatory agenda. Any manufacturer registered under the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code section 31-33: Manufacturing may submit a comment, by mail or online.