Blog
Pennsylvania’s Liquor Privatization Plan Forgot about the Beer
Beer wholesalers are testifying yesterday morning in the Pennsylvania Senate, expressing their opposition to the proposed plans to privatize the state-run liquor store system.
Study
Reducing Passenger Train Procurement Costs
Full Document Available in PDF Interest in passenger rail around the United States has increased in recent years. With their ability to…
News Release
Reducing the Costs of Passenger Rail
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5, 2013 – With passenger rail funding expiring in less than four months, Congress is poised to scrutinize core features of the…
News Release
White House Claims on Emails ‘Outrageously False,’ Says CEI Senior Fellow
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5, 2013 – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney finally got asked about the growing email scandal in the Obama administration…
The American Spectator
Twenty Years of Non-Stop Regulation
Twenty years ago saw the release of the first edition of Ten Thousand Commandments, an annual report that tracks the cost and scope of the…
National Review
The Climate’s Alright
“Progressive” politicians, pundits, and organizations continue to wage political warfare on affordable energy, and their team still controls the Senate and the EPA. Their worldview,…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Education Department Can’t Ban Speech
As a former Education Department lawyer, I share George Will’s dismay that the Education Department is now pressuring colleges to ban speech such as sexual…
Blog
Graph: More Visas, Less Illegal Immigration
The graph below comes from University of Pennsylvania economist Douglas Massey. It depicts the three ways Mexican migrants have come to the United States–guest…
Blog
Union Invasion: UAW Targets Tennessee
One hundred and fifty years ago an invading Union army was halted at Chattanooga by the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. The…
Blog
Wisconsin Town Criminalizes Parents for Kids’ Bullying and Offensive Speech
Law Professor Eugene Volokh has an interesting post on a Wisconsin town's "bullying" ordinance, which criminalizes speech by minors as "bullying" or "harassment" if…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Top political appointees use secret email accounts
This article was also featured on the Drudge Report. The EPA’s secret email accounts were revealed last fall by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Secret Emails Shake Confidence in Embattled Administration
The discovery of the Windsor emails by the Competitive Enterprise Institute created a stir in the world of EPA regulation, especially among those who say…
Washington Post
Ex-EPA chief allegedly used alias e-mail for certification tests on ethics, cybersecurity
Jackson, who left the agency earlier this year, used an e-mail account associated with the pseudonym Richard Windsor to take online training programs on subjects…
Politico
BRB, LOL FOIA
The Competitive Enterprise Institute isn’t happy with the answer it got from EPA to a Freedom of Information Act request for air chief Gina McCarthy’s…
Washington Post
One Ethical Sock Puppet
CEI senior fellow Christopher Horner said that use of an alias account for work activities was troubling. “The best one can say is that if…
Citation
VIDEO: EPA Playing Favorites with Fee Waivers
Competitive Enterprise Institute and Senior Fellow Christopher Horner featured on Fox News’ Special Report. [VIDEO::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ls7i9_XE6o::aVideoStyle]…
Blog
Senate Bill: Better for Legal Immigration
Free market immigration advocates recognize that freeing up America’s legal immigration system creates economic benefits for Americans while simultaneously expanding their rights of…
Study
Don’t Forget the Beer
Pennsylvania’s beer distribution system, designed to provide competitive advantages to in-state brewers, is nearly identical to Michigan’s wine distribution system that was the subject of…
Blog
George Will on Ten Thousand Commandments
George Will's latest column highlights the main findings of Ten Thousand Commandments.
Blog
European Skepticism of Minimum Wage Falls on Deaf Ears in America
Spain’s central bank—operating within the European country with the highest rate of unemployment—just recommended to the government in Madrid a suspension of the minimum…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
61 new regulations, from Cotton taxes to endangered Hawaiian plants.
Forbes
The Real Reason Amazon Flip-Flopped On Internet Sales Taxes
Proponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act claim it’s about fairness to traditional retailers and cash-strapped states. But the flip-flop by Amazon.com, now one of…
Free Beacon
Richard Windsor, Model Employee
Jackson set up a secret email address under the pseudonym “Richard Windsor.” The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Chris Horner first discovered it in November. Republicans and…
Free Beacon
Abuse of Power Is Clearly Obama Policy
But maybe the answer lies in the workings of the Environmental Protection Agency, which appears to have been operating like a brother from another mother…
Journal of Commerce
Mandatory Switching Proposal for Class I Railroads Draws Fire
“NITL and supporters of its flawed proposal ignore the underlying economics of network industries and seek to require the board to make arbitrary and capricious…
The Hill
State-based drug tracking puts Americans at risk
When consumers take prescription and over-the-counter drugs — as more than half of all Americans do each month — they expect those medicines to improve…
Long Island Newsday
Colleges Paranoid Over Sexual Speech
As a former U.S. Education Department lawyer, I largely agree with Cathy Young's criticism of the department for demanding that colleges treat as "sexual harassment"…
News Release
‘Richard Windsor’ Was Up on His Ethics, Cybersecurity and Records Management Training
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 3, 2013 — Richard Windsor may not ever have existed as an employee at the Environmental Protection Agency. But he was up…
News Release
Time to Cut Out the Middle-Man in Beer Sales
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 3, 2013 – Prohibition ended in 1933, but we’re still stuck with an unfortunate legacy of the era—a government-enforced, anti-competitive mandatory “three-tier…
Blog
CEI Joins Push for Corporate Tax Reform
Blog
Union Buyer Remorse on Obamacare?
Be careful what you wish for. That's the lesson Big Labor is learning now that Obamacare is unfolding in all its mighty messiness. Labor leaders,…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Pollution & profit-seeking, safe chemicals, and over-regulation
Blog
Who is Bob King?
The United Auto Workers union is desperately trying to organize Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant. The union’s President, Bob King, has made it his personal mission to…
Blog
Senate Bill Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration Without More Work Visas
When the Senate “Gang of 8” released their immigration reform principles earlier this year, they made an important admission: that drastic restrictions on low-skilled…
Washington Post
A mandate that is off the rails
Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has recently published his “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State.” This year’s…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 30, 2013: The Politics of Caffeine
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced plans to investigate, and possibly regulate, caffeine consumption. Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton prefers separation of…
Blog
Retailers Should Keep Consumers — Not Greens — In Mind
As part of its Culture of Alarmism project, the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) has recently launched a coalition letter -- which includes CEI --…
Blog
Regulatory Opacity
In today’s Investor’s Business Daily, Wayne Crews and I make the case that one of the biggest obstacles to regulatory reform is a lack of…
Blog
TTB to Allow, Not Require, Nutritional Labeling on Alcoholic Products
It’s a rare occasion that we get to praise government agencies. While the federal agency governing alcoholic beverages certainly took it’s time to make a…
Washington Post
EPA stonewalled records requests by Republican-led states
The free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute obtained documents showing that since January 2012, the EPA granted fee waivers for 92 percent of FOIA requests from major…
Comment
Reply Comments before the STB in EP 711
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise…
Legal Brief
CEI v EPA – May 29 Complaint
The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit in federal court to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to turn over text message records of Gina McCarthy, Assistant…
Blog
Education Department Attack on Free Speech and Due Process Criticized in Washington Post, Chronicle, and Other Papers
Earlier, I wrote about a recent letter from the Education and Justice Departments demanding that the University of Montana define as a reportable "sexual…
News Release
CEI Sues for EPA Nominee Text Messages on Dates She Testified Before Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 29, 2013 — Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit in federal court to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to turn…
Washington Post
Obama uses government to crush opponents
The Freedom of Information Act provides citizens access to government documents for a reasonable fee. When Obama’s environmental supporters seek a fee waiver, they get…
Washington Post
Group goes to court over text messages of Obama’s EPA nominee
The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking potential messages to or from McCarthy, the agency’s top air…
Washington Post
A Legacy Litigated
Here’s the thinking behind the lawsuit, funded in part by the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. The problem, apparently, is a drafting…
Investor's Business Daily
America’s Soaring Regulations Cost $1.8 Trillion A Year
Politicians from both parties routinely tout the need to roll back unnecessary regulations. But how much overregulation is there exactly? Most politicians have no idea,…
Forbes
Once The Obama Narrative Implodes, Reality Breaks Through
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of…
Blog
Canada Not Happy with New Country of Origin Labeling Rules
Protectionism through non-tariff trade barriers is alive and well in the trade arena, even with the U.S.’s largest trading partner, Canada. New U.S. Department…
Blog
How to Have Enough Water for Everybody
Last week I testified in the Water and Power Subcommittee in the House of Representatives (hearing linked…
Blog
More than Taxing and Spending
The cost of government is far more than it taxes and spends. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s editorial board agrees, as they opined yesterday:…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Potato Administrative Committees to Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes.
Powder & Bulk Solids
Analyst Says Chemical Safety Improvement Act Not an Improvement
Senators David Vitter, R-LA, and Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, surprised the Senate with their introduction of legislation to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act on Wednesday,…
Politix
Will Politics Take Away Your Caffeine?
Forbes
The IRS Fiasco Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
You certainly hear some amazing things in congressional testimony. Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS unit that determines whether organizations receive tax-exempt status, claimed…
Forbes
The cost of regulations: Economic tyranny
The big-government Obama administration’s propensity for end runs around Congress exacerbates the unchecked growth of federal regulations that diminish both liberty and prosperity.
Boston Herald
EPA out of control
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative advocacy group, has sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking an explanation of why it has been denied waivers of…
Washington Post
‘Alice in Wonderland’ coercion
Hans Bader, a former OCR lawyer now with the limited-government Competitive Enterprise Institute, notes that this “Alice in Wonderland” — “sentence first, verdict afterwards” —…
Comment
Comment Letter on Third Upton Waxman White Paper
This comment letter addresses Question 1(a) of your Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) White Paper on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Other Environmental Impacts, which asks: “Is…
Blog
IRS Political Harassers Could Theoretically Be Fired, as Required by 1998 Law
Earlier, I wrote about how, thanks to civil-service regulations, it is hard to fire government employees for misconduct, despite often-ignored Constitutional provisions, such…
Blog
Oh, the Irony: Unions vs. The Liberal Agenda
In a new study released by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Senior Fellow Daniel DiSalvo found that the increasing cost of binding union contracts…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: New Report Reveals ‘Hidden Regulatory Tax’
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: The Life of Julius
Newsletter
CEI Today: Senate votes for Big Sugar, chemical regulation, and UN mandates on disability
Blog
Victory in HP Inkjet
A 2-1 decision of the Ninth Circuit agreed with us that the district court incorrectly applied the coupon-valuation provision of the Class Action Fairness Act…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: When the First Amendment Is Repealed by Bureaucrats
Greg Lukianoff is right to criticize the Education Department for illegally trying to abolish the requirement that comments must be offensive to a "reasonable person"…
Blog
Entrepreneurship Visas in Senate Immigration Bill Are Critical
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Gang of 8 immigration bill. One provision of this bill will be welcome news to potential…
Blog
Regulation of the Day Update: Olive Oil Victory
I recently posted that new EU regulations would require restaurants to use factory packaged and sealed bottles of olive oil. This would put small…
Comment
Testimony by Wayne Crews on the Water Desalination Act of 1996
CEI’s Wayne Crews testified before the House Subcommittee on Water and Power on Thursday, May 23, 2013 on the subject of the Reauthorization of Water…
Blog
NLRB Nominees March Through the U.S. Senate
On May 22, 2013 the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved President Barack Obama’s five nominees for the National Labor Relations Board…
Blog
Anti-Business and Anti-Freedom: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
In the American Spectator, CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray and Geoffrey McLatchey explain why the Senate should be skeptical of the United Nations Convention…
Blog
Does Austerity Really “Kill”?
Does austerity kill? In a recent New York Times op-ed, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu claim that fiscal austerity leads to a worsening of health…
News Release
CEI Analyst: Senate Food Labeling Amendment ‘Uncommonly Silly’
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 23, 2013 – In today’s Senate Agriculture Committee markup hearing on the 2013 Farm Bill, members will consider an amendment introduced…
Wall Street Journal
More mischief
Now comes word that the Environmental Protection Agency has been abusing the Freedom of Information Act. Agencies can charge FOIA request makers for the…
National Review
The Enviro-Fix Is In
“It’s another insidious angle to this,” says William Yeatman, the assistant director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and the Environment. “In essence,…
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Dark Cloud Over Academic Freedom: How the Education Department Would Limit Dating
Recently the Education Department issued a controversial "blueprint" for dealing with sexual harassment that could expose colleges that follow it to First Amendment lawsuits and…
Washington Times
Letter to the Editor: Free Speech Isn’t Harassment
The Washington Times rightly criticizes the Obama administration for demanding unconstitutional college speech codes (“Repealing free speech,” Comment & Analysis, May 17). The…
Blog
Firing Government Employees Is Too Hard; the Constitution Intended for It to Be Easier
It's hard to get rid of a career bureaucrat, even at the managerial level. "After you've been here for a year, it's easier to kill…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 22, 2013: Twenty Years of Ten Thousand Commandments
The twentieth anniversary edition of Ten Thousand Commandments was released this week. Author Wayne Crews discusses the study, and how regulation has evolved over the…
Blog
Five Reasons Immigration Creates Economic Benefits
First, if each new immigrant lowers living standards, new people also lower living standards. But without new people, America’s economy would lack the workers it…
Blog
No Duh: IRS Union Loves Obama
In other news, mice like cheese. "NTEU supported the re-election of President Obama as being in the best interests...of the dedicated men and women of…
Blog
Arizona: Busting Official Time
Use by state and local governments of tax dollars to reward special interests is a longstanding plague on the health of our government finances. But…
Blog
Possible Unintended Consequences in New Obamacare Regulation
The PCIP program gives health care providers an incentive to refuse treatment to people who desperately need it.
Blog
Legal Fallacy Underlies Defense of IRS Harassment by Progressives
Progressives such as those at the Daily Kos are arguing that it would have been just fine to for the IRS to investigate all groups…
Blog
IRS Protest: A Firsthand Report
On May 21, 2013 Tea Party Patriots coordinated protest rallies at over 100 IRS offices throughout the nation. I arrived at the national office in…
One News Now
CEI report: Uncle Sam loves his regulations
Americans spent an estimated $1.8 trillion in 2012 to comply with federal regulations, reports the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The public policy organization has just released…
Breitbart
Cost of Complying with U.S. Regulations Higher Than Canada’s GDP
$1.8 trillion buys a lot of red tape. That’s how much the federal regulatory machine is costing Americans each year, according to the…
The American Spectator
Disabling American Sovereignty
Coauthored with Geoffrey McClatchey. The United States Senate will likely soon consider ratification the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),…
News Release
‘Chemical Safety Improvement Act’ Not, In Fact, An Improvement, Analyst Says
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 22, 2013 — Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., surprised the Senate with their introduction of legislation to overhaul the Toxic…
News Release
Another Sweet Deal for “Big Sugar” in Senate Vote
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 22, 2013 — In a loss for consumers and taxpayers, Congress once again voted to continue the outdated, wasteful sugar program. The…
Blog
Chicago Teachers Union: We Decide When Your Kids Learn
Yesterday the Chicago Teachers Union wrapped up a three-day protest over the yet to be determined but possible closure of more than 50 public schools.
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments Released Today
Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne and I briefly summarize of few of the report’s findings.
Blog
IRS-Gate: Time to End Government Unions
What did the President know, and when did he know it? That is the question many are asking in the wake of the unfolding scandal…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2013
The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering. Yet the government's reach extends well beyond taxation and spending. Federal regulations cost hundreds of…
News Release
Ten Thousand Commandments: Regulations Increasingly Used to Enact Measures Voters Wouldn’t Approve
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2013 – In the twenty years since the creation of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory…
News Release
Udall-Paul Legislation Spreads Freedom for Credit Unions and Entrepreneurs
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2013 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based free market think tank, commends legislation introduced by Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and…
Investor's Business Daily
Environmental Fear-Mongering Isn’t Just Silly, It Kills People
Dr. Henry Miller, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in a Forbes article "Rachel Carson's…
Daily Caller
The Towering Federal Register
This week marks the publication of the 20th anniversary edition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the federal regulatory state, Ten Thousand Commandments.
Forbes
Self Help Africa: Why Only Profits Can Cure Poverty
The importance of profiting from one’s efforts ought to be an easy concept to embrace. It is why humans no longer live in caves. If…