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Achieving Change at the Federal Trade Commission
Introduction “Never mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden Although small in budget, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sometimes had an outsized impact. Created to fulfill one of…
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Major Questions on Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised once again to change and classify broadband internet access service (BIAS), the mass market wireline and wireless broadband…
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Forcing the UN’s Hand on China
Most United Nations (UN) environmental treaties are a bad deal for America that are made worse by classifying China as a developing nation and thus…
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Toward a US-Swiss Trade Agreement
This paper examines the benefits and challenges of a potential free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Switzerland. Such an agreement would do…
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Big Problems with SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finalizing its mandatory climate disclosure rule[1] that will require publicly traded companies to provide the…
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Conflict of Justice
Introduction Imagine that a federal agency has charged you with violating a law or regulation, and you have to defend yourself in court. But you…
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Four Hot Issues at COP28
Over 75 different agenda items will be discussed and negotiated in Dubai at the 28th annual Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework…
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The UN’s Annual Climate Conference
I remember the first Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) I participated in.1 It was back in…
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Rules for Robots – A framework for governance of AI
Introduction With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies in recent years, we have seen increasing calls for regulation to mitigate the…
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Threats Then and Threats Now
Executive summary In 1971 Lewis Powell, a prominent Republican lawyer who would go on to serve on the Supreme Court, wrote a memo warning about…
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FTC’s Subscription Deception
Proposed Negative Option Rule has no opt-out from bureaucratic overreach Introduction The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a Negative* Option Rule Notice of…
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Four Principles for Real Permitting Reform
Federal legislators continue to focus on permitting reform. For example, the Senate is reportedly1 working on more ambitious reform than those recently enacted in the…
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M&As Are A-Okay
Fretting about “killer acquisitions” and “kill zones” is common among regulators in Washington these days, but entrepreneurs and investors at work in the tech industry…
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Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right to Repair
Should you have the legal right to fix your own stuff? At first glance, the answer would seem like a simple “yes.” That simple answer…
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Unleashing America’s Energy Abundance
As a side deal to the Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed to streamline infrastructure permitting.
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Strategies to Improve the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan
Few policy issues are as crucial to the future of U.S. national security and global economic competitiveness as the development of artificial intelligence (AI)…
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How Regulatory Sandbox Programs Can Promote Technological Innovation and Consumer Welfare
Around the world, leading financial centers seek to attract companies capable of developing innovative financial products and services. From blockchain-based payments to alternative credit scoring…
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Terrible Tech Bills from the 117th Congress
Congress is considering an onslaught of legislation targeting the largest tech platforms in the U.S., addressing topics such as mobile apps, advertising, merger review,…
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How Congress and the Federal Communications Commission Can Help Improve Affordable Internet Access to Underserved Populations
June 30, 2022 …
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The SEC’s Costly Power Grab
The concept known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has gained an increasingly high profile in recent years, with advocates producing a large volume…
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The High Costs of the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act
Concerns about plastics waste in the world’s oceans have raised genuine issues about the impact of plastics on the environment. In response, Sen. Jeff Merkley…
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Why Carbon Taxes Are Anti-Growth, Anti-Consumer, and Politically Dangerous for Conservatives
A tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, contrary to its advocates’ claims, is a market-rigging policy, not a free market one. Its purpose is to…
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Ban Overboard: Exploring Solutions to Ocean Pollution
Heartbreaking photos and videos of wildlife harmed by plastics litter have rightly raised public concerns about plastics in the ocean. In response, state and local…
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The Immeasurable Benefits of Plastics to Humanity
It is popular these days for people to proclaim that they are giving up plastics. Just browse the Web and you will find all sorts…
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How Plastics Benefit Wildlife and the Environment
Several proposals designed to end America’s so-called addiction to plastics are currently pending in Congress. They include the Break-Free from Plastics Act (H.R. 2238, S.
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Preserving Section 230 Is Key to Maintaining the Free and Open Internet
Passed as part of the Telecommunications Decency Act of 1996, Section 230 was intended to clarify liability rules online and to encourage sites to create…
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The Protect the Right to Organize Act Empowers Unions at Workers’ Expense
View the Full Document as PDF The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is touted by its supporters as advancing the rights…
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A Way Forward for Vaccination Passports
View Full Document as PDF Countries around the world have announced plans to implement vaccine passports—electronic or paper credentials that show the person…
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The Annual Percentage Rate Is the Wrong Metric for Assessing the Cost of a Short-Term Loan
Think calculating the cost of a loan is simple? Not under the longtime rules of the federal government and many states. Consider the following recent…
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Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help People Stay Home and Safe During the COVID-19 Crisis
As individuals and businesses continue to address the COVID-19 health crisis, access to technologies and services that have enabled large swaths of the economy to…
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Government-Run Payment Systems Are Unsafe at Any Speed
For people quarantining during the COVID-19 health crisis, electronic payments proved essential to obtaining needed supplies, from groceries to medicines, while maintaining social distancing and…
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How Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis
A number of factors are combining to stress the American economy in the spring of 2020—the global and domestic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an…
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Federal Health Agencies’ Misleading Messaging on E-Cigarettes Threatens Public Health
The scientific community is increasingly unified in the assessment that e-cigarettes are vastly safer than smoking, help smokers quit, and are a net positive for…
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California Ride Share Contracting Legislation Is a Solution in Search of a Problem
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5) into law on September 18, 2019.[1] The legislation, which generally takes effect…
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Union Time on the Taxpayer Dime
“Forcing free and independent individuals to endorse ideas they find objectionable is always demeaning,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion in Janus v…
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The Push to Raise the Legal Age to Buy Tobacco to 21 Has Little Basis in Fact
The notion that raising the tobacco purchasing age to 21 helps reduce adolescent smoking seems plausible enough. But there is little evidence in support of…
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How the Ex-Im Bank Enables Cronyism and Wastes Taxpayer Money
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is a federal agency that seeks to boost exports by private U.S. businesses. It pursues its mission through loan guarantees,…
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The Case against the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2019 (H.R. 2474) would radically overhaul United States labor relations law to facilitate labor union organizing without…
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Modernizing the Passenger Facility Charge to Increase Airport Investment, Reduce Federal Spending, and Save Travelers Money
The passenger facility charge (PFC) is a congressionally authorized, federally regulated local airport user fee. The PFC exists alongside the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), a…
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What the Green New Deal Could Cost a Typical Family
In early 2019, a handful of progressive Democrats galvanized their party around a set of ideas that—even if only partially implemented—would restructure vast areas of…
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A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change
Climate change is not a hoax, but as a political matter, it is a persistent pretext for expanding government control over the economy, redistributing wealth,…
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Transforming Surface Transportation Reauthorization
The United States Interstate Highway System serves as the backbone of American commerce and personal travel. Funded as a pay-as-you-go basis largely through federal excise…
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Cryptocurrency and the SEC’s Limitless Power Grab
Many questions are being asked about cryptocurrency. Is it a major innovation that will improve standards of living in ways we cannot yet imagine? Or…
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Anti-E-Cigarette Puritans Put Lives at Risk
Big tobacco companies were publicly pilloried when they were found to have misled the public about the dangers of their products. To this day, that…
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EPA’s Flawed IRIS Program Is Far from Gold Standard
Environmental activists claim that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) represents the gold standard for risk assessment.[i] In…
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Will the Trump Fuel Economy Reform Proposal Create Deadly Air Pollution?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have proposed to partially roll back the corporate average fuel economy…
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A Partial Eclipse of the Administrative State
Deterioration of checks and balances via regulatory overreach and over-delegation by Congress to agencies are central to most modern critiques of the administrative state. Less…
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U.S. Should Stop Funding the International Agency for Research on Cancer
Numerous scientific bodies around the world, both public and private, attempt to assess the cancer-causing potential of various industrial chemicals. Ideally, those research programs should…
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“Whatever the Cost” of the Endangered Species Act, It’s Huge
For years, the snail darter, a little fish found in the upper Tennessee River basin, has been a symbol of the extraordinary regulatory power of…
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EPA Transparency Rule Will Bolster Science and Improve Rulemaking
Transparency is a cornerstone of the scientific process and a well-recognized goal long-extolled within the scientific community.
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European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and Lessons for U.S. Privacy Policy
The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which enters into effect on May 25, 2018, is the most significant policy change regarding data…
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The CFPB and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
View Full Document as PDF Freedom, equality, and justice are all bedrock principles of the American experiment. Yet it is no secret…
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Legalizing Sports Betting in the United States
Every March, millions of Americans join friends, relatives, and coworkers in “March Madness” betting pools, centered on the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball…
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Supreme Court Can Strike a Victory for Worker Freedom in Janus Case
View Full Document as PDF Mark Janus is a state child support specialist in Illinois. He works to ensure that children receive…
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How the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Payday Loan Rule Hurts the Working Poor
View Full Document as PDF Ariane is a 22-year-old single mother from Oakland, California. Working a low-wage job, she gets by paycheck…
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Modernizing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
View Full Document as PDF Thousands of times per year in the United States, automobile drivers are temporarily blinded by the high…
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Improving America’s Broadband through Competition, Not Regulation
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The Case against the Volcker Rule
View Full Document as PDF The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has severely restricted business and consumer access…
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A Veneer of Certainty Stoking Climate Alarm
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Still Endanger U.S. Economy
View Full Document as PDF Nearly a decade since the housing bust of 2008 sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin, much…
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Let States Regulate Sports Gambling within their Borders
View Full Document as PDF Every year, millions of Americans gamble on sports. Whether betting on the Super Bowl or filling out…
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Bureaucratic Dark Energy
View Full Document as PDF There are thousands of felonies committed every day in Washington, D.C. Not in the places one might…
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EPA Denial of Chlorpyrifos Ban Sets Pro-Science Precedent
View full document as PDF Some consumers may wonder why some staples of a healthy diet, such as orange juice and many…
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Ending the EPA’s Billion-Dollar Green Energy Rip-Off
View Full Document as PDF The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in recent years has established a pattern of making industrial policy…
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Why Wall Street Loves Glass-Steagall
View Full Document as PDF Debates over financial regulation often refer to “Wall Street” and “Main Street” as shorthand for, respectively, 1)…
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Kyoto: The Issue Is Power
View Full Document as PDF…
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A Net Neutrality Primer
View Full Document as PDF If you have watched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver recently, you will have noticed that its…
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Polluted Logic Taints WHO Reports on Children’s Health
View Full Document as PDF The world has been getting wealthier in recent decades. That economic growth has enabled millions of people…
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Five Key Financial Regulation Reforms
View Full Document as PDF First there was “fintech,” now there is “regtech.” Fintech—short for “financial technology”—is the popular term to describe…
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Economic Freedom Is Key to African Development
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It Is Time to End Official Time
View Full Document as PDF For years, federal employee unions have enjoyed a government subsidy that enables their members to perform union…
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Toward Performance-Based Transportation Safety Regulation
View Full Document as PDF Businesses and entrepreneurs have long complained about having to comply with unnecessarily rigid regulations that stress adherence…
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Time to End the Madness around March Madness
View Full Document as PDF This March, millions of Americans will join friends, relatives, and coworkers in the annual rite of betting…
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REINing In Regulatory Overreach
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Regulatory Hurdles Impede Zika Control
View Full Document as PDF Ever since the discovery that the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus can cause serious birth defects, policy makers have…
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Congress Can Protect Workers Using the Power of the Purse
View Full Document as PDF In 2016 to date, the Obama administration has burdened the American public with nearly $100 billion in…
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Ending Payday Lending Would Harm Consumers
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Redefining Workers out of a Job
View Document as PDF Federal agencies should be cautious when overturning established policies. Doing so creates uncertainty and frequently generates unintended consequences.
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Running Drivers into the Blend Wall
View Document as PDF A bipartisan group of 39 Senators is trying to make it more expensive to fill up your car—effectively…
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Channeling Reagan by Executive Order
How the Next President Can Begin Rolling Back the Obama Regulation Rampage…
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Toward a Federal Regulatory Budget
The Pitfalls in Quantifying Regulatory Costs and How to Avoid Them…
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Soda Taxes: a Failed Experiment that Needs to End
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TSCA “Reform” Is Likely To Do More Harm Than Good
Full Document Available on PDF According to news reports, congressional aides from both houses of Congress are currently engaged in private meetings…
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Why Congress Must End Regulation by Guidance Document
Regulators are imposing new restrictions on American businesses and economic activity through guidance documents, memoranda and even blog posts, with little oversight from Congress or…
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The Paris Climate Agreement Is a Treaty Requiring Senate Review
Why and How Congress Should Fight President Obama’s Power Grab…
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A Remedy for Fairfax County’s Taxpayer Giveaway to Unions
Full Document Available in PDF Use of taxpayer funds should be reserved for purely public purposes, not the private benefit of an…
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Keeping the Skies Open for Drones
Drone technology could transform the way we live and work, offering great potential in precision agriculture, aerial photography, to infrastructure inspection, and disaster response. But overzealous…
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Government’s Unfounded War on BPA
During the past decade, the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) has become a target of environmental activists who make a host of unfounded claims about the…
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How Government Unions Undermine Upward Mobility
Full Document Available in PDF A common claim made by government employee unions and their supporters is that they stand up for…
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The Case Against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Full Document Available in PDF The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is a U.S. federal government agency with three key policy objectives:…
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Why Right to Work is Right for Missouri
No individual should be forced to financially support an organization they disagree with or risk penalty. However, in Missouri and 24 other states, private sector…
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Federal Labor Agencies Ambush American Economy
As it enters its final stretch, the Obama administration has launched an unprecedented campaign to reward the president’s union allies, using the regulatory process.
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EPA’s Clean Power Plan Overreach
Could the Clean Power Plan make the EPA an Electricity Czar? …
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A Remedy for the Lone Star State’s Taxpayer Giveaway to Unions
Full Document Available in PDF Use of taxpayer funds should be reserved for purely public purposes, not the private benefit of an…
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How Dodd-Frank Harms Main Street
The financial crisis of 2007-2008 was a drastic shock to the American economy. Now five years after being signed into law, Dodd-Frank was just as powerful…
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Time for a Sensible Sense of Congress Resolution on Climate Change
Read the full OnPoint here: During Senate debate on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced an amendment affirming that…
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A Remedy for Taxpayer Giveaway to Unions
Full Document Available in PDF Use of taxpayer funds should be reserved for purely public purposes, not the private benefit of an…
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Declaration of Crowdfunding Independence
Crowdfunding regulation threatens entrepreneurs and their ability to start businesses, create jobs and bring innovative products to the market.
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Why British Columbia’s Carbon Tax Is Not Applicable to America
A carbon tax does not boost growth. It does not lower the tax burden, but merely shifts it around—and can even open the door to…
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How the EPA Is Undermining Cooperative Federalism under the Clean Air Act
When it crafted legislation to fight air pollution, Congress relied on America’s unique system of federalism. For most of the Clean Air Act’s history, states and…