President Trump issued a flurry of additional executive orders and presidential memoranda this week, many of which concerned regulatory policy. One EO in particular, "Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads," symbolizes much of what we are seeing from the early stages of Trump's second term. The EO sends a message, but might not quite do what the President wants or what you might think (and has been characterized inaccurately by early media reports). It also highlights how the White House continues to make policy pronouncements that agency officials (attorneys in particular) will have to figure out how to implement.
Let's start with the title. The EO promises to increase or maintain shower water pressure, but it will not do that. The EO itself does not rescind the federal requirement limiting showerhead flow to 2.5 gallons per minute. This is because this limit is written into the U.S. Code (as the White House Fact Sheet acknowledges). If you are someone who wants a torrent of water beating down on you for your morning shower, this EO does not offer any relief from federal law.
What, then, does the showerhead EO do? It rescinds a regulatory definition of showerhead that had the primary effect of defining multi-nozzle showers as a single showerhead for purposes of the rule. The first Trump Administration did the same thing, but it was undone in the Biden Administration. The text of the EO makes all of this clear.
