President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum on June 29, 2026 aimed squarely at one of the quiet drivers of repair costs in America.

It is titled Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix.

The short version: the administration wants Americans to be able to fix their own vehicles without getting tangled up in a slow, California-dominated parts certification process.

This is a cost-of-living story before it is anything else.

According to the White House, the memorandum directs the EPA Administrator to issue guidance within 30 days clarifying what individuals may do to conduct emissions repairs, or have those repairs done, consistent with the Clean Air Act.

The document lays out the problem plainly. Consumers and aftermarket-parts makers are stuck in regulatory uncertainty over whether aftermarket parts can be used in repairs at all, thanks to Clean Air Act tampering rules.

The memo points the finger at the California Air Resources Board certification process, calling it slow, costly, and effectively the only recognized path to get aftermarket parts approved.

It says CARB certification now drags on well over a year even when the paperwork and testing are in order. That creates bottlenecks, drives up costs, and chokes off the supply of compliant parts.

So the memorandum tells EPA to encourage, expedite, and act on requests from organizations capable of testing aftermarket parts for Clean Air Act conformance. In plain English, that means opening alternative pathways instead of leaving California holding the only key.

It also directs EPA to consider deprioritizing civil tampering enforcement actions against people who in good faith try to restore their own vehicle to its original configuration.

That is the part that matters to a guy in his own garage on a Saturday.

One caution worth stating up front: this does not magically make every aftermarket part legal, and it does not repeal the Clean Air Act.

What it does is direct EPA guidance and push for new certification pathways while signaling that good-faith owners should not be treated like outlaws for wrenching on their own cars.

The White House fact sheet frames the move as expanding Americans’ freedom to fix their own vehicles and reducing reliance on California’s slow and costly certification process.

It says the memorandum tells EPA to clarify lawful emissions repairs, move faster on alternative certification pathways, and consider backing off civil enforcement against good-faith owners restoring vehicles to original configuration.

The fact sheet also folds the memo into President Trump’s broader cost-of-living agenda, pointing to earlier action on agricultural and non-road equipment, vehicle emissions rules, CAFE penalties, and California’s EV mandates.

That sequence is the real story. The White House is presenting repair access, cheaper compliant parts, and relief from one-state regulatory bottlenecks as pieces of the same affordability fight.

The argument is simple and it lands. More approved parts and more competition mean lower repair bills.

For families squeezed at the pump, the grocery store, and the mechanic’s counter, a cheaper and faster way to keep an older vehicle on the road is real money.

This is the kind of fight the swamp usually ignores because it is unglamorous. Nobody throws a press conference over aftermarket parts certification.

But California has spent years writing rules that quietly become the national standard, and Washington has spent years going along with it.

President Trump just told the EPA to stop treating Sacramento’s bureaucracy as the only game in town, and to stop treating ordinary Americans like suspects for fixing what they own.