Government regulations rarely disappear once they’re created, even as industries, technology and the public demands change. Reeve Bull says regularly reviewing those rules can reduce costs, improve transparency and make government work better without sacrificing public safety.
Bull served as director of the Office of Regulatory Management under Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, where he oversaw a statewide review of regulations and guidance documents. Using the support of Agentic AI, Virginia streamlined more than 35% of its regulatory requirements, reduced guidance documents by half, and generated an estimated $1.4 billion in annual savings for residents and businesses. Bull now co-founded the Fulcrum Foundation, which works with states pursuing similar reforms.
“Regulation, though it sounds kind of obscure, is actually really, really important,” Bull says. “Every single day you interact with some sort of regulations… whether people can get ahead or not really kind of depends on how those regulations are written.”
Virginia’s approach focused on examining every regulation rather than assuming existing rules should remain in place. “What we really did over the course of four years is just kind of comprehensively go in and say, okay, what do we not need anymore? What do we still need, but… it’s maybe overburdensome? And then… what are some ways we can maybe take an innovative approach?” he says. “The overall goal should really be how do you make people’s lives easier? How do you make it faster and simpler to comply?”
Bull points to occupational licensing as one area where states often impose unnecessary barriers. Virginia reduced the required training hours for cosmetologists from 1,500 to 1,000 after comparing its standards with other states.
He says similar reviews should examine whether government regulation remains necessary at all. “There’s been this expansion of regulation into areas like cosmetology… funeral directors, even hair braiding in some states,” he says. “It’s just sort of expanded and expanded in the places where you really don’t need the government telling you, is somebody qualified to practice in this area or not?”
Every proposed regulation underwent a cost-benefit analysis that required agencies to identify the problem they were solving, examine alternatives, estimate costs and benefits, and evaluate impacts on small businesses and families.
Bull says the process improved decision-making while giving the public greater insight into regulatory proposals. “Perhaps one of the largest benefits… is just the transparency, just opening it up, making it easier for the public to actually understand the process and to weigh in,” he says.
Artificial intelligence became a central part of Virginia’s effort, although Bull believes states beginning today have a significant advantage due to the significant improvements in AI technology. Bull says AI helped compare regulations across agencies, identify outdated provisions and analyze differences between states in a matter of seconds. “It can process an almost inconceivable amount of text in a way that’s orders of magnitude greater than what a human being could do,” he says. “It can actually do things that would be virtually impossible for a human being to do.”
Bull says AI also allows policymakers to compare their regulations against neighboring states. “It can go in and tell you… here’s where our regulations may be overburdensome compared to other states,” he says. “Then you can decide… do we want to be at that higher level or could we maybe cut the hours back?”
Texas recently created the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office to pursue similar reforms, and Bull believes the state has adopted many of Virginia’s successful strategies while expanding their use of AI. He praises the state’s emphasis on transparency through online tools that help residents navigate permits and licensing requirements. “A lot of people, especially small businesses, don’t even know where to get started,” he says. “They’re more than happy to comply with the regulations if they know what they are.”
Bull believes interest in regulatory modernization is growing across the political spectrum because excessive regulation raises costs for consumers and businesses alike. Combined with increasingly capable AI tools, he says states now have an opportunity to modernize government more efficiently than ever before. “The time has never been better,” he says. “We’re really going to see these sorts of reforms take off… and make a really big difference.”