One of the very first things President Joe Biden did after taking the oath of office was to order federal agencies to revamp the way they evaluate the costs and benefits of regulations.

It went largely unnoticed amid the flurry of executive orders in Biden’s first days, but that January 20, 2021, memo to the heads of departments and executive agencies signaled the administration’s intention to rev up the regulatory state by counting “non-quantifiable” benefits of new regulations. As Reason reported at the time, the memo made clear that the new regulatory framework would serve “as a tool to affirmatively promote regulations.”