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…