Helping States Achieve Real Regulatory Reform
Regulatory reform is common sense: it saves billions of dollars and improves people's lives.
The Fulcrum Foundation helps states design, launch, and strengthen meaningful regulatory reform. Our work is built on Virginia's Office of Regulatory Management, which streamlined more than 35% of the state's regulatory requirements and now saves Virginia citizens over $1.4 billion per year, roughly $420 for every household in the Commonwealth.
This site is a resource for states that have already begun regulatory reform or are considering it. It collects the materials Virginia used, the lessons reform leaders in other states are learning, and the tools states need to move from intent to results.
Focus areas
Minimizing Regulatory Costs
Every regulation should answer one question: does it do more good than harm? Cost-benefit analysis is how states find out. Virginia agencies performed it on hundreds of rules a year without adding staff. AI is making the process faster and cheaper still.
Learn more →Cutting Old Regulations
Regulations accumulate. Old ones rarely get a second look. States that successfully clear out unnecessary rules do two things: set a clear goal (a reduction target, a sunset, or both) and put someone in charge of making it happen.
Learn more →Promoting Regulatory Transparency
Businesses and citizens deserve to know what rules are coming, where to find existing ones, and how to comment on what's proposed. Transparent regulation is also AI-ready regulation, and AI is rapidly changing what's possible in regulatory oversight.
Learn more →Improving the Permitting Process
Virginia cut professional license processing from 33 days to 5.5. DEQ reduced environmental permit times by 65%. Digital applications, public tracking dashboards, and AI-assisted permit navigation are within reach of any state willing to demand them.
Learn more →How Fulcrum Helps
Designing the Reform
We help states draft the legislation and executive orders that authorize reform. We tailor them to your political and legal context, drawing on what's worked in Virginia and other states.
Training the team
We train existing agency staff to implement regulatory reform effectively, partnering with career staff who proactively advance reform.
Rigorous cost benefit analysis
Fulcrum's experts produce cost-benefit analyses that give legislators, courts, and the public evidence for reforms, and they help state agencies build the analytical capacity to do this work on their own.