Blog
Here’s how one-in, ten-out is successfully cutting rules — but not draining the swamp
It’s October already, and while there’s no real fiscal year for federal regulation, the September 30 closing of the 2026 budgetary fiscal year marks…
Blog
Protestations aside, Washington wants to regulate AI. It also wants to run it
Washington’s latest AI summit between Trump and tech executives was billed largely as a meeting about safety. Ultimately, it was a meeting about something…
Wall Street Journal
How to Stop the Shadow Regulators
Legislating is out of fashion in Washington, but the current Congress does have opportunities left to do some good before riding off into the…
Blog
Stop rogue government AI
Performative Washington, responsible for funding AI weaponry and R&D for years, purports to have suddenly discovered the dangers of artificial intelligence. Recent incidents…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition for the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act
Dear Leader Thune: We write to urge Senate passage of the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act, S. 252 / H.R. 1515 during…
Blog
The rules Congress never gets to see
The 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA) has been used to overturn only a few dozen federal regulatory directives since its enactment, most during the…
Daily Wire
Trump’s $5,000 Down Payment On The Entitlement State
Donald Trump’s $5,000 “dividend” proposal to every U.S. adult should be taken seriously, not because the arithmetic has been worked out, since there isn’t…
American Family News
President Trump criticized for dangling a ‘dividend’ in front of voters if GOP wins midterms
CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews was cited by American Family News about the Presidents offer of a winning dividend for the midterms. he…
News Release
Another dividend check? Not so fast: CEI analysis
Blog
Misalignment by design: How AI could become the operating system of the administrative state (Part 2)
Read Part 1 here. The AI deregulatory alternative: Liberalize networks and what flows through them This is where the…
Blog
Misalignment by design: How AI could become the operating system of the administrative state (Part 1)
The AI debate asks how the federal government should regulate commercial artificial intelligence and “big tech,” with little recognition or appreciation that the government…
Blog
The regulatory costs we still aren’t counting
Several years ago, I assembled a “Costberg” working paper surveying the largely impenetrable and undisclosed costs of regulation. The project grew out of…
Blog
The Regulatory Plan needs a regulatory plan
As the Trump administration’s early emphasis on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has tapered off, so too has its emphasis…
Blog
The Regulatory Costberg is melting — or is it? An update on Trump’s ‘one-in, ten-out’ initiative
In the first Trump administration, the longstanding Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Agenda) was instrumental in assessing…
Bloomberg Law
Trump push to slash regulatory red tape opens a crucial chapter
CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews was cited regarding regulatory reform under the Trump administration in Bloomberg Law. Clyde Wayne Crews, a regulatory studies…
Blog
The Rulemakers: Which federal agencies dominate Trump’s 2026 Agenda?
Over the Independence Day holiday, the Trump administration released its 2026Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda), which…
Blog
Diary of deconstruction: White House releases 2026 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Since 1983, the often-tardy semiannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Agenda) has surveyed recently completed and forthcoming rulemaking priorities across…
Blog
Mid-year 2026: Is Washington actually deregulating?
It’s June 30, mid-year 2026 — almost America’s birthday. In terms of conventional issuance of rules and regulations in the Federal Register, the Trump…
Wall Street Journal
Washington gets better at leaving us alone
CEI’s Wayne Crews was cited in the Wall Street Journal regarding new updates in regulations from Washington. Just in time for the…
Blog
With apologies to The Who, agencies just met the new boss, not the same as the old boss
The Supreme Court overruling Humphrey’s Executor restores an important constitutional principle: those who exercise executive power are not protected from at-will removal and should…
News Release
Supreme Court overrules Humphrey’s Executor in a major win for constitutional accountability: CEI analysis
Today, in a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court held that statutory restrictions on the President’s authority to remove Federal Trade Commission commissioners violate…
Blog
An America250 funeral for the 80-year-old Administrative Procedure Act
Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, another institution reaches a milestone of its own. The Administrative Procedure Act of…
Blog
The Trump-Sanders plan to nationalize AI
“As far as economics is concerned, we have certain things that aren’t that far apart.” —President Donald Trump on Bernie…
Representative Harriett Hageman
Rep. Hageman Targets Agency Overreach with Two New Judicial Reform Bills
Representative Hageman features statement from CEI Fred L. Smith Fellow Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. on two new reform bills. “Rep. Hageman’s new…
News Release
CEI Report: AI Industrial Policy Schemes Create “Misalignment by Design” and a New AI Welfare State
A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute contends the greatest risk associated with artificial intelligence is not technological misalignment but what author…
Study
Welcome to the Machine
The transition toward superintelligence will come with serious risks—from economic disruption, to misuse in areas like cybersecurity and biology, to the loss of alignment…
News Release
Trump EO on AI recognizes innovation imperative but leaves room for overreach
The Trump White House today put forward an executive order on “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security.” CEI regulatory…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Urging Passage of Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act (H.R. 1515) and the Information Quality Assurance Act (IQAA) (H.R. 6329)
Dear Leader Thune and Senator Paul: We write to urge the passage of the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act (H.R. 1515) and…
Blog
OPFAIL: Establishing a Congressional Office of Political Failure Analysis
For decades, reformers have proposed some version of a Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis (CORA), a congressional counterpart to the regulatory oversight apparatus housed…
Blog
America 250 election year rightsizing: Time to get things undone
The new 2026 Ten Thousand Commandments survey of federal regulation and reform landed at an awkward moment. Election cycles tend to crowd out serious…
Blog
Deregulation by the numbers: One-third into 2026 — a rulebook rewrite?
At the close of the first third of the year, a spring 2026 Unified Agenda formally outlining agency priorities has yet to appear. In…
Blog
The Little Red Hen goes digital: No data centers, no internet
The politics of data centers increasingly resemble the fable of The Little Red Hen. Everyone wants the bread — AI, cloud computing, streaming,…
Issues and Insights
After Iran, Trump Needs To Bomb The Administrative State Into Submission
Issues and Insights cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. “The regulatory…
Reason
Report: Federal Regulatory Compliance Costs $2 Trillion Annually
Reason cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. “Federal regulation’s total compliance…
Politico
Ethics, DeFi and memecoins, oh my
Politico cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. The Competitive Enterprise Institute…
InsideEPA.com
CEI questions Trump’s deregulatory agenda
InsideEPA.com cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. The Competitive Enterprise Institute…
The Washington Times
Impact of Trump’s 646 deregulatory actions diluted by tariffs, executive orders
The Washington Times cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. Report author…
News Release
Report: Regulations cost $2 trillion annually, but only Congress can fix the problem
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released its annual report documenting the vast burden that federal regulations impose on American businesses and citizens. “Government regulations continue…
Products
Chapter 13: Getting things undone: An agenda for rightsizing Washington
We close with an appeal to restore enumerated powers. This would solve the overregulation dilemma, and would have prevented it in the first place. Reforms…
Products
Chapter 7: Unified Agenda of regulatory actions
Along with the Report to Congress, the Federal Register, and the Code of Federal Regulations, another vehicle for regulatory disclosure is the spring and fall…
Products
Chapter 5: Over 19,000 agency public notices annually
Presidents issue a few dozen memoranda and other proclamations each year. Departments and agencies, however, issue thousands of public notices in the Federal Register every…
Products
Chapter 4: Regulatory dark matter
Although executive actions are typically understood to deal with the internal operations of the federal government, they increasingly can have binding effects and influence private…
Products
Chapter 10: Federal rules affecting state and local governments
State and local officials’ concerns about federal mandates overriding their priorities resulted in passage of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) of 1995. The law…
Products
Chapter 2: Why we need a regulatory budget
Federal spending programs are funded either by taxes or by borrowing, with interest, from future tax collections. The public can readily inspect the costs of…
Products
Chapter 8: Economically significant rules
From 1993 until April 2023, rules with annual economic effects of at least $100 million were classified as economically significant. Biden’s EO 14094 raised the…
Products
Chapter 9: Federal regulations affecting small business
The National Association of Manufacturers report reaffirmed that average annual per-employee regulatory costs vary by firm size. The smaller the organization, the higher the per-employee…
Products
Chapter 3: Numbers of rules and page counts in the Federal Register
The Federal Register is the daily repository of all proposed and final federal rules and regulations. Although its page counts are often cited as a…
Products
Chapter 1: Trump 2.0: Year one and the regulatory state’s uneven reset
“It is the policy of my Administration to focus the executive branch’s limited enforcement resources on regulations squarely authorized by constitutional Federal statutes, and to…
Products
Chapter 11: GAO database on rules and major rules
The federal government’s regulatory reports and databases serve different but intertwined purposes. The Federal Register presents all proposed and final rules, along with numerous presidential…
Products
Chapter 6: A note on rule reviews at OMB
Rule reviews at OMB are a useful variable to examine alongside costs, page counts, rule counts, and guidance documents, among others. Figure 17 depicts 449…
Products
Chapter 12: The 2026 Unconstitutionality Index: 18 rules for every law
Article I of the Constitution vests legislative power in Congress. In practice, however, administrative agencies issue the vast majority of binding rules governing economic activity…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2026
Introduction Record federal spending and record-setting regulatory burdens often march in lockstep. New spending is straightforward to track, but regulations obliging the private sector…
Freedom Works Radio
AUDIO: CEI’s Wayne Crews Joins Freedom Works Radio to Discuss the 2026 Release of Ten Thousand Commandments
CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews joined Freedom Works Radio to discuss the current state of regulations in America, as outlined in his new report, 2026’s…
Blog
Federal regulation 1st quarter 2026 report: Bureaucracy on the back foot
Here at the close of the first quarter of 2026, the March 31 Federal Register stands at 16,115 pages, containing 609 final rules and…
Bloomberg Law
Trump’s Deregulatory Project Gets Mixed Grade in New Report
Bloomberg Law cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. The…
Blog
Trump’s AI plan clears the field — then occupies it
Preempting state overreach in artificial intelligence (AI) regulation is urgent — but it’s only half the job. Firm limits on federal power matter just…
Blog
The infrastructure cartel trap
At last week’s BlackRock US Infrastructure Summit in DC, federal and state policymakers, investors, and corporate leaders gathered to map out the next…
Blog
The missing guardrail in crisis politics: Discipline
Modern American governance has developed a troubling pattern. Economic shocks like the 21st century’s financial panics and pandemic are often met with vast expansions…
Issues and Insights
Who’s The Biggest Monopolist Of All? (Hint: It’s Not A Corporation)
Policymakers often argue over whether capitalism works and how aggressively it should be restrained. But they rarely ask the more pertinent question: where, exactly,…
Blog
The most powerful monopoly isn’t a corporation: Introducing the Capitol Control Quotient
Policymakers often argue over whether capitalism works and how aggressively it should be restrained. But they rarely ask the more pertinent question: where, exactly,…
Blog
Abolish, shuffle, repeat: The SOTU’s ill omen for federal retrenchment
Shrinking the federal government and abolishing agencies sounds simple — decisive, even. In practice, however, it appears neither can be done under modern…
Blog
Trump’s SOTU conundrum: Deregulation today, swamp tomorrow?
Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union (SOTU) address presents an opportunity to confront the federal spending, entitlement, and regulatory behemoth in a new…
Blog
Merger relief vs. the consolidation regulators ignore
A federal court’s decision blocking a 2024 Federal Trade Commission’s expanded merger-disclosure rule is welcome. But its significance risks being overstated. Skirmishes over…
Las Vegas Review-Journal
EDITORIAL: Real progress on federal regulatory reform
Las Vegas Review Journal cited CEI’s expert on the Federal Register It was a herculean task, given President Joe Biden’s slavish devotion…
Blog
Trump’s deregulation meets invisible rulemaking: The real 2026 challenge
After a brief shutdown, most fiscal year 2026 appropriations have been enacted, despite continued debate over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding. We may…
Th Daily Caller
GOP Rift Erupts After 57 Republicans Work With Democrats To Protect ‘Orwellian’ Way To Shut Off Cars
The Daily Caller cited CEI’s expert on government overreach “The vehicle ‘kill-switch’ is precisely the kind of overreach that will empower regulatory agencies…
News Release
House vote today could help end vehicle ‘kill switch’ mandate
The House today may vote to block enforcement of “kill switch” technology that allows too much remote control of drivers and automobiles. Specifically,…
Blog
The executive order explosion: When counting counts
What stands out in the Trump administration is the unnerving tension between executive orders (EOs) that shrink government and those that expand it.
Citation
Federal agencies drown Americans with unreleased regulatory ‘guidance’
The Washington Post cited CEI’s Regulatory Dark Matter A bill that passed the House by voice vote last March would give Americans a…
News Release
Statement in Support of Provisions of the RSC’s Budget Reconciliation Framework
I write to commend the Republican Study Committee for certain key deregulatory provisions contained in Making the American Dream Affordable Again: a Framework…
Blog
Lots of good in the RSC’s “Restoring America’s Golden Age” Budget Blueprint
The Republican Study Committee’s new 119-page Budget for the 119th Congress, Restoring America’s Golden Age, covers a wide range of policy priorities—notably a 10-year…
Blog
The 2026 Unconstitutionality Index: 18 rules for every law
Article I of the Constitution vests enumerated legislative powers solely with Congress. In practice, however, administrative agencies do most of the lawmaking. Congress enacts…
Fox News
Levin: There’s no ‘conflict’ between Trump and Congress, just ‘talk’
Mark Levin from Fox News mentioned CEI’s expert on 10kc report Watch more at Fox News…
The Orange County
America’s AI electricity ‘crisis’ is easily fixed: Unleash market forces
The Orange County Register cited CEI’s expert on data centers public utility price. Communities are rebelling against the construction of massive…
Orange County Register
America’s AI electricity ‘crisis’ is easily fixed: Unleash market forces
Orange County Register cited CEI’s expert on data centers Communities are rebelling against the construction of massive data farms.
Blog
AI and the electricity blackout America needs
The Washington Post’s latest coverage of the so-called “data center rebellion” highlights a trend building across America: communities rising up against server farms…
Reason
Federal Red Tape Plunges Under Trump
Reason cited CEI’s expert on regulatory activity “While Biden’s 2024 Federal Register totaled 106,109 pages—the highest in history—the 2025 volume closed the year…
Pacific Legal Foundation
Federalism 240 years after the Constitutional Convention: Federalist 32
Pacific Legal Foundation cited CEI on 10kc Federal regulatory accumulation has swarmed the states and localities with hundreds of requirements. Congress has…
Blog
Trump slashed rulemaking in 2025. The hard part starts in 2026
The new year, 2026, marks nearly the first full year of Donald Trump’s second administration. It’s a moment to assess whether regulatory liberalization has…
Blog
Deregulation’s year-end illusion
As the year winds down, The Trump administration is congratulating itself on deregulation. In a White House statement and in what it described…
Blog
Trump’s AI order: Preempting the states without unleashing Washington
A new Trump executive order, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” pushes back on most state law and rulemaking affecting AI.
Blog
Trump’s baby accounts: Wealth builder or redistribution trap?
A White House roundtable this week spotlighted Michael and Susan Dell’s $6.25 billion philanthropic contribution seeding newborn investment “Trump Accounts” beyond the…
Blog
Two cheers for ending Humphrey’s Executor
Oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter begin today. While debates over the legitimacy of presidential removal authority and the degree of Senate…
Blog
Stop the snapback: Congress can make small-business deregulation stick
This week, CEI sent a letter to Congress urging the House to pass Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s (R-TX) H.R. 2965, the Small…
Letters
CEI Letter of Support on the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act
Members of Congress, We write to reiterate our strong support for Rep. Van Duyne’s (TX-24) Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act…
Blog
DOGE cancellation theatrics change nothing in the regulatory power game
“Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists.” That admission came 10 paragraphs into a widely reported “exclusive” Reuters…
Blog
A tariff-funded UBI? Trump just gave progressives their blueprint
Donald Trump’s pitch for a $2,000 “tariff dividend” check to be issued sometime next year (during election season) is being marketed as a…
InsideHealthPolicy
Shutdown Stalled Deregulatory Action At HHS, In Congress
“Jeremy Nighohossian, a health policy expert and economist at regulatory reform organization the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told Inside Health Policy in a statement…
Blog
An executive order to make freedom mandatory
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) new “Streamlining the Review of Regulatory Actions” memorandum signals a potentially transformative shift in…
Forbes
Regulation Renovation: The Executive Order To Make Deregulation Permanent
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s new Streamlining the Review of Regulatory Actions memorandum signals a preferential stance toward deregulation,…
Blog
The deregulation machine hits bureaucratic resistance
A new White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo, “Streamlining the Review of Deregulatory Actions,” poses an ambitious test: can agencies…
Blog
Darklore Depository 2025: An unofficial inventory of guidance documents and other regulatory dark matter
Halloween can remind policy wonks that some of the ghastliest regulatory chills come not from ordinary notice-and-comment regulation buried in the daily Federal Register,…
Forbes
Washington’s Hidden Rulebook: The 2025 Darklore Depository And The Case For Guidance Document Reform
Agencies also say “BOO” with guidance documents, statements of policy, memoranda, notices, bulletins, advisory opinions, directives, news releases, letters and even blog posts.
Forbes
$1 Trillion And Counting: Do Federal Grants Sabotage Regulatory Reform?
There’s been much attention to Donald Trump’s streamlining and “deconstruction” of conventional notice-and-comment regulation this year – a campaign that…
Blog
Has Washington bought off the deregulatory movement?
Back during the Biden administration, I noted how rising federal spending and regulation seemed to swap unfunded mandates for funded ones – turning what…
Blog
The hidden growth of government in an age of less red tape
Recent editions of Ten Thousand Commandments detail how regulatory red tape mushroomed under Biden. For vulnerable small business, the Small Business &…
Forbes
Small Business Regulation Is Cratering – Here’s The Hidden Catch
But during the Biden administration, red tape proliferated. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council noted, for example, the toll from credit…
Forbes
Turn Shutdown Theater Into A Slim-Down: Cut Spending And Regulation At Once
Looming federal government shutdowns should be treated as opportunities to cut both spending and regulation. So as we barrel toward a…
Blog
Shutdown? Take the win
Last-ditch negotiations are underway as another fiscal year comes to a close on October 1. It’s that familiar crossroads: a threatened shutdown if…
Blog
A provisional look at the Trump 2.0 deregulation record
Early in his first term, Donald Trump ordered agencies to eliminate at least two rules for every “significant” one added – rules generally carrying…