Our attention is focused on a single, terrible story like we’ve rarely seen before, a story that commands such a level of attention because it has altered nearly every person’s life. Tragedy, both personal and economic, has visited far too many people, and too many lives have been taken behind a curtain of secrecy unwittingly erected by the social distancing orders most have agreed to live under to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid the tragedy and the singular focus of the moment, we witnessed a landmark moment in government that thrust a rarely discussed topic to the center of attention in power-obsessed Washington, D.C. Last week, President Trump signed an executive order, only a few pages in length, that will fundamentally alter the trajectory of the regulatory state, position the nation for economic recovery, and leave the executive branch with less power in the midst of a global crisis.