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.