American showers will be great once again thanks to a new executive order President Trump signed Wednesday.
From dishwashers to toilets and showers to sinks, regulations put in place by the Obama and Biden administrations under the guise of efficiency made them all worse. Clothes and dishes did not wash as well, toilets no longer flushed everything, and you’re lucky to get the shampoo out of your hair with current shower pressure. While it’s a small example of overregulation in this country, it’s one President Trump took seriously. On Wednesday, he restored “sanity” by taking an axe to the literally 13,000 pages of regulation defining “showerhead,” returning to the straightforward definition from a 1992 energy law.
Minimum water efficiency standards for toilets, showerheads, faucets and urinals have been in place since the Federal Energy Policy Act was passed under President George H.W. Bush in 1992. That law required showerheads to not pour more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute.
Under President Barack Obama, the administration clarified that the 2.5-gallon-per-minute limit should apply to the total water flow from all nozzles in a showerhead, recognizing that many modern models include multiple spray heads. The regulations were placed in an effort to conserve water and energy resources, as well as lower utility bills.
During Trump first term, he relaxed those standards, but then President Joe Biden reinstituted them. (Newsweek)
“The Order frees Americans from excessive regulations that turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare,” a White House fact sheet states. “No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless.”
ROLLING BACK OVERREGULATION: Overregulation chokes the American economy, entrenches bureaucrats, and stifles personal freedom.
- Under Obama and Biden, the government issued lengthy rules—thousands of words long—redefining “showerhead” as a “nozzle” and making multi-nozzle showers illegal if they collectively discharged over 2.5 gallons of water per minute.
- These changes served a radical green agenda that made life worse for everyday Americans.
- President Trump sought to undo this definition in his first term by publishing extensive analysis and a formal rule—however, Biden undid this progress and the shower wars continued.
- The government should not waste taxpayer time and money writing another elaborate definition for a term that has a simple definition.
- No market failure justifies this intrusion: Americans pay for their own water and should be free to choose their showerheads without federal meddling.
- It’s not just showers—the Biden Administration aggressively targeted everyday appliances like gas stoves, water heaters, washing machines, furnaces, dishwashers, and more, waging war on the reliable tools Americans depend on daily.
- These appliances worked perfectly fine before Biden’s meddling piled on convoluted regulations that made those appliances worse.
- President Trump is slashing red tape and ending Biden’s dumb war on things that work.
“I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump told reporters before signing the order. “I have to stand in the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out drip drip drip, it’s ridiculous.”
🚨President Trump signs an Executive Order to end the overregulation on water pressure and end the war on showers.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 9, 2025
Make America's Showers Great Again! pic.twitter.com/ijVW7uSNsw
WATER PRESSURE: It only took 29 years, but Jerry Seinfeld's complaint about government-mandated, low-flow showerheads was finally taken seriously. Trump signed an EO to make showerheads great again. pic.twitter.com/OhSnbPDdUO
— @amuse (@amuse) April 9, 2025
Trump's order directs the Secretary of Energy to publish a notice in the Federal Register "rescinding Energy Conservation Program: Definition of Showerhead ... Notice and comment is unnecessary because I am ordering the repeal."
The rescission will take effect 30 days from the date the notice is published.
