Cutting Red Tape

In Gov. Little’s first year as Idaho Governor, we surpassed South Dakota and achieved the title of least regulated state in the country.

Since Gov. Little took office in 2019, Idaho has cut or simplified 95-percent of regulations, transforming our administrative code. Throughout his time in office, he has continued to ensure Idaho regulations remain streamlined, user-friendly, and easy to understand. Gov. Little’s Zero-Based Regulation initiative stretched over five years and resulted in Idaho’s Administrative Code going from 736 chapters totaling more than 8,200 pages down to 381 rule chapters totaling only 4,659 pages. This has directly resulted in eliminating red tape while maintaining safety.

Cutting red tape has been one of Gov. Little’s key achievements and his unrelenting focus. In fact, Gov. Little’s regulatory reform efforts have been so successful that the Legislature made the Governor’s Zero-Based Regulation efforts permanent in 2023 by requiring agencies to undergo a review of their rule chapters every eight years. This process started in 2026, and Governor Little plans to continue his deregulation work by streamlining Idaho’s permitting rules in the first two years of this eight-year rule review process. He will also continue to look at streamlining opportunities in other listed rule chapters.

Gov. Little will not retreat on regulatory reform!

Here’s how we did it:

1. Within his first few weeks in office, Gov. Little issued two executive orders aimed at scaling back regulations – the Red Tape Reduction Act and Licensing Freedom Act of 2019.
2. Gov. Little’s Zero-Based Regulation executive order in 2020 forces a routine review of rule chapters annually. Approximately 20% of rules are reviewed annually, and agencies are eliminating 300 pages of regulations on average each year.
3. Gov. Little directed state agencies to find efficiencies in the rules they administer as part of the “rules reauthorization process,” under which Idaho’s administrative code expires if it is not reauthorized.
4. Gov. Little signed an executive order in 2020 shrinking the size of state government by consolidating 11 separate agencies in the new Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, a move that has led to efficiencies and resulted in better service at a lower cost for Idahoans.
5. Zero-based regulation has been seen as a national model for other states, and has worked so well the Idaho legislature made it permanent by enshrining it in the state’s Administrative Procedure Act.