President announces memorandum to EPA supporting 'freedom to fix' for vehicles

The president announced a presidential memorandum to the Environmental Protection Agency backing a "freedom to fix" policy that, he said, will lower the cost of car ownership and let owners repair vehicles themselves.

The move, introduced during remarks and described onstage by a staff member as "a presidential memo to the Environmental Protection Agency," was framed as extending the right‑to‑repair approach the administration applied to farm equipment on Feb. 2. "Americans have the freedom to fix their vehicle," the staff member said when summarizing the memo. The president told reporters he will sign the measure and said it will "save them a lot of money" and allow some owners—"Some of these people are better mechanics than the mechanics in the shop"—to perform their own repairs.

The staff member who introduced the memorandum criticized the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as "the only third‑party certifier for these aftermarket parts," calling its process "backlogged and faulty" and saying the memorandum would "break that monopoly." The president repeated concerns about arrests for people fixing cars, saying he had seen reports of people being arrested for repairs and calling the policy "common sense." He also said the memorandum would address aftermarket parts that he described as "cheap knockoff" components that harm small businesses.

The administration presented the action as building on an earlier right‑to‑repair step for farmers; the staff member noted a February action covering farm tractors and non‑road equipment. The president did not provide an effective date for the new memorandum during the session and the staff member did not offer implementing details or specific regulatory language. The memo was described as supporting the policy goal and as targeting the certification process rather than specifying immediate regulatory changes.

The president said he planned additional outreach, including a potential press conference, and repeatedly framed the change as reducing costs for vehicle owners. The memorandum's text, the EPA's planned implementing steps (if any), and an effective date were not provided during the remarks.