Blog
Raul Labrador’s Sane Immigration Policy Reflects His “Libertarian Streak”
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) has led the effort in the House to fix immigration laws in the most conservative and free market way possible.
News Release
After Nearly 20 Years, CEI Applauds Victory on REINS Act
WASHINGTON, DC, August 2, 2013 – Wayne Crews, vice president of policy and director of technical studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, had the following…
News Release
Adverse District Court Opinion on Dodd-Frank Deeply Flawed, Case Now on Appeal
Washington, D.C., August 2, 2013 – A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by CEI, 11 state attorneys general, and the State National…
Overlawyered
Big Ted Frank victory on attorney fee markups
Overlawyered features Ted Frank's victory on behalf of class members in a case objecting to a Citigroup settlement. Longtime Overlawyered blogger Ted Frank…
Blog
CEI Podcast for August 1, 2013: Is Washington the Next Detroit?
Comment
Comments to the OMB on its 2013 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Agency Compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
Wayne Crews submitted comments to the OMB on its 2013 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Agency Compliance…
Letters
Coalition Letter to Congressman Scalise in Support of H.R. 367
Full Document Available in PDF We write to express our support for your amendment to HR 367, the Regulations From the Executive…
Products
Letter to Rep. Paul Broun and Attached Comments on EPA’s Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment
Full Document Available in PDF I want to thank you for holding a hearing in your Oversight Subcommittee on 1st August on…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: In Praise of Big Banking
Newsletter
CEI Today: REINS Act vote, Dodd-Frank court ruling, and EPA stonewalling
Overlawyered
As Bristol Bay fight heats up, EPA’s McCarthy may visit proposed mine site
Overlawyered
Federal judge dismisses states’ challenge to Dodd-Frank law
Judge Ellen Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the lawsuit brought last year by State National Bank of…
News Release
CEI Urges House Science Committee to Investigate Stratus Consulting’s Work on EPA’s Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 1, 2013 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute has sent a letter to Representative Paul Broun asking him to investigate the…
News Release
Senate Concocts Notion of “Regulatory Paralysis” in Hearing Today
Reuters
Judge approves Citigroup $590 million settlement
Reuters reports on Center for Class Action Fairness' victory in the case In re: Citigroup Inc Securities Litigation. A federal judge gave final…
Forbes
Judge Cuts Fees In Citigroup Settlement, Citing `Waste And Inefficiency’
Forbes reports on Center for Class Action Fairness' In re Citigroup Inc. Securities Litigation case. A federal judge approved a $590 million settlement…
Wall Street Jourtnal
Judge: Plaintiff’s Firms Inflated Contract Lawyer Rates
The Wall Street Journal reports how Judge Stein sided with Ted Frank's argument that lawyers in class action lawsuits place large markups on their frees.
Blog
Court Wrong to Make Dodd-Frank Durbin Price Controls More Draconian
Today, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the Federal Reserve's implementation of the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, which sets price controls on…
Blog
Detroit Bankruptcy Focuses Attention on Public Pensions
For people watching it from afar, the bankruptcy of Detroit — the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history — may have brought a sense of…
Blog
Regulation of the Day Update: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
The USDA is temporarily suspending its magician's rabbit-license regulations "in order that we may undertake a review of their requirements."…
Forbes
The Founders’ Greatest Fears About Democracy Are Playing Out
Our Founders’ greatest fear that pure democracy would inevitably destroy itself is being played out in two distinct dramas, both headed toward the same ending.
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 31, 2013: REINS Act Hits the House Floor
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which is expected to pass the…
Blog
Meet the New Boss(es): NLRB Nominees Clear Senate
Well, it's official: We finally have a fully staffed National Labor Relations Board. On July 30 the Senate, as part of a deal worked out…
Blog
REINS Act to Hit House Floor Tomorrow
The bill would add some oversight to a regulatory process that has far too little of it.
Blog
House National ID E-Verify Bill: 6 Dangerous Provisions it Includes (And 5 Worker Protections it Excludes)
The House of Representatives has passed out of committee a bill (H.R. 1772) to mandate E-Verify electronic employment verification for all employers. This bill…
Blog
House National ID E-Verify Bill: 5 Worker Protections it Excludes (And 6 Dangerous Provisions it Includes)
The House of Representatives has passed out of committee a bill (H.R. 1772) to mandate E-Verify electronic employment verification for all employers. This bill…
Blog
Tracking the Cultural Exception, Part Four: A Double-Edged Sword
Americans generally think of subsidies to audiovisual industries like film and television as a foreign phenomenon. Yet that is hardly the case. In fact, one…
Forbes
Congress Confronts ‘Laws Gone Wild’
How extensive is federal regulation? The “hidden tax” now tops $1.8 trillion annually, an immense drain on innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity and living standards. Federal…
Washington Examiner
Examiner Editorial: No wonder McCarthy wants to ignore job-killing EPA regulations
The 2013 edition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's annual "10,000 Commandments" report on the regulatory burden imposed on Americans by red tape is replete with…
Hot Air
New EPA chief: Can everybody please “stop talking about environmental regulations killing jobs?”
What’s more, they’re increasingly getting in the way of state sovereignty, because they know better, of course: The ALEC report showed that in President Obama’s…
News Release
Dodd-Frank Ruling Goes Wrong Way
Washington, D.C., July 31, 2013 – Today, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon struck down debit card price controls in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul as not…
News Release
Odds That EPA Is Not Destroying Gina McCarthy Text Messages: 1 in 7.9 Sextillion
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2013 — Documents obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute after it filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency prove Gina…
Blog
Not Lovin’ It: Angry Fast Food Workers Strike
"Hold the burgers, hold the fries, make our wages supersize!" This is one of the many chants shouted by the thousands of fast food workers…
Blog
Big Labor and NLRB Tactics Evolve
With total union membership at its lowest rate since 1916, Big Labor is desperate to organize non-union workers. Labor unions latest approach comes in the…
Blog
New USTR Discusses Trade Agenda, How U.S. and EU Can Address Divergent Regulatory Regimes
At a forum this morning hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the new U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, discussed the next steps…
Blog
Bloomberg’s Soda Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Today, an appeals court ruled that New York City’s Board of Health overstepped its authority when, at the behest of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it attempted…
Blog
The Modified State of the GMO Debate
The debate over whether or not to label products of genetically modified (GM) crops has seen a small revival after the Natural Products Association, a…
Blog
Tracking the Cultural Exception, Part Three: For Your Grandad’s Audiovisual Industry
Protectionist audiovisual policies are not only inefficient, they’re outdated. Protectionist policies don’t translate into profits because they are built for an audio-visual industry that…
Blog
The Rip-Off that Is Occupational Licensing
Occupational licensing rules allow trade schools in some states to force students to attend them, enabling the schools to charge students lots of tuition for…
Law 360
Facebook User Pushes High Court To Nix ‘Beacon’ Pact
Law 360 reports on CCAF's work to challenge cy pres awards which do not benefit class members in their objection to the Facebook privacy settlement.
Blog
Regulating E-Cigarettes Creates the Wrong Incentives
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is gearing up to regulate electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) by early October. These regulations, rather than protecting the public…
Newsletter
CEI Today: IRS employees on Obamacare, ozone court ruling, and European austerity
Blog
Is the AFL-CIO Biting off More than it Can Chew?
Organized labor has long been a major force within the broader progressive coalition at the Democratic Party’s left wing. Unions regularly work with environmental and…
Blog
Our first cert petition, challenging Facebook Beacon cy pres settlement
We weren’t involved in the 2-1 Lane v. Facebook cy pres decision disadvantaging consumers, and jumped at the…
Blog
Empire of Rust: How the UAW Killed Detroit
On Detroit’s east side, the abandoned Packard automaking facility looms tomb-like over 40 acres of once-prime real estate, its hollow buildings ringed with mounds of…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from turtle-killing to felon financiers.
Huffington Post
To Save the Planet, Obama Sets White House A/C to 85 Degrees
President Barack Obama, rebounding off his pivot from giving speeches on race relations in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict to giving speeches about…
Bloomberg BNA
Google Agrees to Pay $8.5 Million to Settle Claims It Disclosed Internet Search Queries
Bloomberg BNA discusses Center for Class Action Fairness' case In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation. Google Inc. has agreed to establish an…
Reuters
Class Action Activist asks SCOTUS to Review Charity-Only Settlements
Reuters reports on Ted Frank and the Center for Class Action Fairness' move to bring the Facebook Beacon case to the Supreame Court to object the…
Legal Newsline
Federal Judge Closes Portion of Garlock Bankruptcy Trial
Legal Newsline quotes Ted Frank on the Garlock Sealing Technologies bankruptcy trial. "The closure violates the Bankruptcy Code's provisions for public access, and…
Blog
The HuffPo’s Sloppy Austerity Analysis
Mark Gongloff, a writer for the Huffington Post, claims to show “The Complete Failure of Austerity, In 1 Chart.” Wow! Either he has found…
News Release
IRS Employees on Obamacare: “Not For Me, Thanks”
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 26, 2013 – IRS employees aren’t big fans of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—at least, not as far as it concerns their…
Politico
Summers nomination fear: Market jitters – Has the economy already peaked? – Democrats blur line on tax policy
WSJ’s op-ed by Competitive Enterprise Institute’s John Berlau and Kyle Tassinari: “Here's some good financial news for millions of Americans: The provision in Dodd-Frank that imposed a…
Spectator
Rep. Chabot Challenges EPA Power Grabs, Federal Mandates
Chabot’s legislation dovetails with a new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assault on State Sovereignty.” The…
Citation
Think tanks worry what Binz-led FERC would do on grid cost allocation, demand response
The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Colorado-based Independence Institute are concerned that Binz will not keep consumers’ interests in mind if he leads FERC and…
Daily Online Examiner
Facebook User Wants The Supreme Court To Nix Beacon Settlement
The Daily Online Examiner details the Center for Class Action Fairness' objections to the Facebook privacy settlement which did not benefit class members and set…
Blog
Ronald Coase on Blackboard Economics
Newsletter
CEI Today: House vote on NSA spying, California granting Big Labor protections, and the “social cost of carbon”
Blog
CEI Podcast For July 25, 2013: The UAW And Chattanooga
The United Auto Workers union is campaigning to organize a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Senior Fellow Matt Patterson talks about his recent trip to…
Blog
Come On Into The Immigration Pool, Republicans … The Water Appears To Be Safe
Daily Online Examiner
5 questions on high-speed rail and its U.S. future
According to a June report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, the Federal Railroad Administration “has strict crash safety regulation for passenger…
Daily Mail
‘MILLIONS WILL DIE’ without a carbon tax to fix global warming, says a New Jersey U.S. Senate candidate in hysterical online campaign ad
Chris Horner, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told MailOnline that 'you could kill millions trying' to implement a carbon tax. 'Possibly…
Blog
More Economic Suffering Due to Obamacare
The Washington Post reports on the ever-growing number of people losing wages and facing pay cuts due to the 2010 healthcare law: For Kevin…
Blog
End Of Compulsory Dues Has Led To Plummeting Union Membership In Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker “can deny that he wanted to weaken public sector unions, but whatever his motivation, that’s what has happened.” Thus concluded an eye-opening…
Letters
Coalition Letter in Support of the Amash Amendment
Full Document Available in PDF Dear Member of the U.S. House of Representatives: We write to urge you to vote yes on…
Blog
California Close to Granting Big Labor Protections from Disclosure
California is going where only two other progressive bastions—Maryland and Illinois—have gone before in terms of providing unions with special privileges. If Assembly Bill 729…
Blog
Public Forum Re-cap: Chattanooga, UAW & Free Markets
WPC’s Matt Patterson was invited to speak at a public event about the possible costs and consequences Tennessee might face should the United Auto Workers…
News Release
Free Market Coalition Urges House to Defund Suspicionless NSA Spying
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2013 – A free-market coalition today urged members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote yes on Reps. Justin Amash…
Forbes
Want To Revive Glass-Steagall? Try This Wall Of Separation Instead
A debate is raging on the left, the right, and even in libertarian circles on the best way to escape from the Too-Big-To-Fail quagmire. But…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Politico wrong on EPA, Dodd-Frank anniversary, and Detroit bankruptcy
Free Beacon
Harry Reid May Invoke Nuclear Option to Achieve Confirmation of Mel Watt
“Mel Watt’s career has been all about granting government goodies to big banks as well as his favored liberal constituencies,” said John Berlau, senior fellow…
Free Beacon
Is the EPA committing deadly human tests? Or just bad policy?
Steve Milloy, a regulatory scholar with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and publisher of JunkScience.com, is calling the EPA’s bluff. Milloy is suing researchers like U-M’s…
CBN
Detroit Officials Defend Bankruptcy Decision
Is the bankruptcy filing a good thing for Detroit? Bill Frezza, a Boston based venture capitalist and fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, talks about…
Wall Street Journal
In Praise of Banking at Big-Box Stores
Cowritten by Research Associate Kyle Tassinari Here's some good financial news for millions of Americans: The provision in Dodd-Frank that imposed a three-year moratorium on…
Watch Dog
Lawmaker favors innovation over litigation in legislation addressing clean water
Chabot’s legislation dovetails with a new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assault on State Sovereignty.” The…
Huffington Post
Want to Revive Glass-Steagall? Try This Wall of Separation Instead
A debate is raging on the left, the right, and even in libertarian circles on the best way to escape from the Too-Big-To-Fail quagmire. These…
Blog
D.C. Council Bows to UFCW, Votes No on Walmart, Yes to High Prices
Washington, D.C., has some of the highest living costs in the country. Its metro area contains six of the nation’s ten wealthiest counties, making it…
Blog
On Dodd-Frank’s 3rd Anniversary, “North Star” is Further Out of Reach
Over the weekend, President Obama hailed the third anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank “financial reform.” In his weekly radio address, the president…
Blog
The Government’s Wasteful Obsession with Subsidized Homeownership
The government has spent vast sums of money promoting homeownership through subsidies, tax exemptions, and bailouts. For example, in prosperous Alexandria, Virginia, certain people who…
Blog
Motor City Runs Out of Gas
And here it is, the news we’ve all been expecting: The Motor City has finally sputtered to a halt. On Thursday July 18, 2013, the…
Blog
Time To Make Federal Employees Accountable
Government labor unions have long been able to conduct union business while on the job and on the taxpayer dime, under a little-known policy called…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Topeka shiners to room air conditioners.
News Release
Horner on Politico Story: ‘When the law is inconvenient, pretend it’s something else’
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 2013 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute responded today to a story published by Politico, which takes issue with an…
Legal Times
Court Denies SLAPP Motion Against Scientist’s Libel Suit
The defendants filed separate, although similar, motions to dismiss. Lead counsel for National Review, Steptoe & Johnson partner Shannen Coffin, said they were "considering our…
New Britain Herald
BUSINESS SCENE: Dodd-Frank bill not living up to expectaions
Others aren’t so sure. John Berlau, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said if the president wants to focus on the “north star” of…
Daily Caller
EPA admin: It’s our ‘responsibility’ to fight global warming
“By confirming Gina McCarthy to head EPA, senators are endorsing President Obama’s war on affordable energy and ensuring that there is much more to come,”…
Bloomberg
New Sexual Harassment Rules Openly Defy Reason
The new federal guidelines for how colleges should handle sexual-harassment cases aren’t just unreasonable. They’re hostile to reasonableness in principle. The Justice Department and the…
Policy.Mic
The Curious Case Of Michael Mann and the Most Controversial Chart in Science
Both Mann and the researchers at East Anglia have been investigated by almost a dozen different organizations, including both the governments of the…
Legal Brief
Michael E. Mann v. National Review, Inc., et al. – complaint
The Competitive Enterprise Institute received a letter on August 21 from an attorney representing Penn State University Professor Michael E. Mann that demands that CEI…
Legal Brief
DC Superior Court denial of National Review’s anti-SLAPP motion in Michael Mann. v. National Review, CEI, et al
Legal Brief
DC Superior Court denial of CEI’s anti-SLAPP motion in Michael Mann. v. National Review, CEI, et al
Blog
The Million-Dollar Bus Stop Breaks
A new cooling fan should arrive in the next two weeks. Until then, the super stop will be a bus stop like any other, unless…
Blog
Are Markets Rational When It Comes to Economic Fundamentals?
We hear frequently that financial markets thrive on irrational fears. That they are wrong to be wary of unreformed economies and that central banks are…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 18, 2013: The NSA Gets Sued
In the wake of the NSA’s spying scandal, several groups are filing a lawsuit challenging the NSA’s actions as unconstitutional. Associate Director of Technology Studies…
Policy.Mic
UAW slammed at forum on labor organization efforts at Chattanooga’s Volkswagen factory
The Chattanooga Volkswagen plant’s former head of manufacturing on Thursday hit the idea of unionizing the factory, saying the United Auto Workers would take employees…
Daily Caller
A culture of freedom: the first casualty of the U.S.-EU trade deal
Co-written by Research Associate Alex McHugh The proposed trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment…
Daily Caller
Twelve Attorneys General Sue the EPA
According to a study by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), EPA granted FOIA fee waiver requests to environmental groups 92 percent of the time, but…
Daily Caller
‘Ideological mercenary’: World Bank follows in Obama’s footsteps on coal
“One might say this signals the war on coal has gone global,” Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Chris Horner told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Daily Caller
Apple, Facebook, Google and others urge greater government transparency
More than 50 parties signed the letter, including the ACLU, American Library Association, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Demand Progress, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Salesforce.com,…
Daily Caller
Citizens For Free Markets To Host Free Public Forum To Discuss Costs Of Unionizing
Speakers will include Matt Patterson, labor specialist and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Dr. Charles Van Eaton, labor economist and Don Jackson, former…