Obama to Scale Back Regulations in Effort to Spur Economic Growth

The Obama administration announced 30 plans Thursday to scale back or eliminate hundreds of federal regulations and save American companies billions of dollars in unnecessary costs.

The proposals, the latest attempt by the administration to burnish its pro-business credentials, will affect workplace safety, environmental protection, endangered species and a number of other areas. Many of the changes involve reducing paperwork or eliminating redundancies in the law.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who leads the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, laid out the proposed changes in a speech Thursday morning at the American Enterprise Institute.