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Presidential memo asks EPA to back 'right to repair' for vehicles
Summary
A staff member said a presidential memo sent to the Environmental Protection Agency urges support for a broad "right to repair," aims to protect owners and small businesses from enforcement actions, and seeks to loosen a CARB certification requirement for aftermarket parts; the transcript gives no legal text or implementation timeline.
A staff member announced a presidential memo directed to the Environmental Protection Agency asking the agency to support a broad "freedom to fix" for vehicle owners, saying the administration will not pursue enforcement against people who repair their own vehicles.
"This is a presidential memo to the Environmental Protection Agency, a presidential memo supporting the freedom to fix," the staff member said, adding, "We are not going to be going after people who are fixing their own vehicle like past administrations have." The speaker said President Trump "insists upon it."
The memo, the staff member said, also seeks to address the aftermarket parts market. "We've been concerned... about aftermarket parts, cheap knockoff, aftermarket parts coming into the United States, harming small businesses, harming Americans," the speaker said, and called the memo a step to "put an end to it." The speaker specifically criticized the California Air Resources Board, saying the only third-party certification for some aftermarket parts "is CARB in California, a process that's backlogged and faulty," and added, "So we're gonna break that monopoly, and no longer will CARB be the only 3rd party certifier for these aftermarket parts."
The transcript does not include the text of the memo, the precise regulatory mechanism the administration intends to use, or a timetable for any agency action. The speaker said President Trump called about the idea and "wants to do a press conference right away, to get this over the top in February," but did not identify a date beyond that comment. The staff member also referenced a Feb. 2 action that signed a right-to-repair measure for farmers to repair tractors and nonroad equipment, saying the current memo "is covering everyone else."
The announcement in the transcript is an executive-policy statement directed at the EPA; it does not record any formal rulemaking, legal citation, or an EPA response. The memorandum and its legal effect are not provided in the record. The next steps cited in the transcript are a planned public announcement; the memo's contents, any regulatory changes, and enforcement guidance remain unspecified in the transcript.
