Over the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order suspending the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act for victims of the Los Angeles-area wildfires so they can rebuild faster. This is a laudable move, but hints at the need for broad and permanent regulatory relief for all construction in California.

“Just issued an Executive Order that will allow victims of the SoCal fires to not get caught up in bureaucratic red tape and quickly rebuild their homes,” Newsom announced on X after issuing the order.

His description of such policies as “bureaucratic red tape” is both apt and revealing. It suggests he is aware that the laws stifle construction, including much-needed housing construction, up and down the state.

Newsom elaborated on his X post with a statement. “When the fires are extinguished, victims who have lost their homes and businesses must be able to rebuild quickly and without roadblocks,” he said. “The executive order I signed today will help cut permitting delays, an important first step in allowing our communities to recover faster and stronger. I’ve also ordered our state agencies to identify additional ways to streamline the rebuilding and recovery process.”

That all sounds great to us, but why hasn’t he been more forcefully pushing his party in the supermajority Democratic Legislature to “cut permitting delays” and eliminate regulatory “roadblocks” to construction?

If we know such policies amount to “bureaucratic red tape,” are “roadblocks” and “delay” needed construction, why are we letting such barriers remain in place? Why aren’t we more carefully calibrating our laws to be effective without being oppressive?

Likewise, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued her own executive order to expedite housing construction in response to the fires. She used much of the same sort of language as Newsom.

“This unprecedented natural disaster warrants an unprecedented response that will expedite the rebuilding of homes, businesses and communities,” Bass said in a statement. “This order is the first step in clearing away red tape and bureaucracy to organize around urgency, common sense and compassion. We will do everything we can to get Angelenos back home.”

Again, “red tape’ and “bureaucracy.”

Newsom and Bass are right to remove these barriers to help the victims of the wildfires. We just think they ought to apply those insights more broadly and help unleash the full potential of developers to fill the needs of Californians.