Issues & Insights
Can Trump Kill This $2.2 Trillion Regulatory Beast?
Issues and Insights quoted CEI’s Ten Thousand Commandments report But that barely scratches the surface. Thursday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released its annual “10,000 Commandments”…
NewsMax
Study: Biden’s ‘Hidden’ Tax on Households Hit $16K in 2024
NewsMax quoted CEI’s expert on Ten Thousand Commandments report Federal regulations imposed by the Biden administration reached costs of $2.16 trillion in 2024, generating a…
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2025 is out now
The 2025 edition of CEI’s flagship report, Ten Thousand Commandments, is out today. For more than 30 years, my colleague Wayne Crews has been…
The Washington Times
Federal red ink now costs businesses more than $2.1 trillion per year, report says
The Washington Times quoted CEI’s expert on 10kc report “Congress should be held accountable for such large regulatory actions,” wrote Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., the…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Reforming Washington’s 10,000 Commandments with Wayne Crews
In this week’s episode we cover the political roots of totalitarianism, why we should put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out to…
Daily Caller
Cost Of Regulatory Burdens Reached Staggering Levels In 2024, Report Says
Daily Caller cited CEI’s expert on Ten Thousand Commandments report Federal regulations added an estimated total cost of a whopping $2.155 trillion for Americans in…
The National News Desk
Biden leaves behind $16,000 hidden tax for everyone
The National News Desk quoted CEI’s expert on Ten Thousand Commandments report That according to a new report released Thursday from The Competitive…
News Release
“Ten Thousand Commandments” report on federal regulatory burdens identifies problems, reforms
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released its annual Ten Thousand Commandments report on the cost burden of federal regulations, revealing a cost exceeding $2 trillion,…
Products
Chapter 11: 2025 Unconstitutionality Index: 19 rules for every law 78
Article I of the Constitution notwithstanding, administrative agencies, not Congress, do most of America’s lawmaking. Congress enacts weighty legislation but delegates the details to agencies.
Products
Chapter 4: Regulatory dark matter
Although executive actions are typically supposed to deal with the internal operations of the federal government, they increasingly can have binding effect and influence private…
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 2: Why we need a regulatory budget
The federal government publicly discloses its fiscal costs. It does not disclose most of its regulatory costs. Federal spending programs are funded either by taxes…
Products
Chapter 7:Unified Agenda of regulatory actions
Along with the Report to Congress, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, another vehicle for regulatory disclosure is the spring and fall editions of…
Products
Chapter 12: An agenda for rightsizing Washington
Rule counts regularly topped 4,000 in the 1990s. That is the wrong comparison for Biden-era lower rule counts. Those fewer rules have higher costs, are…
Products
Chapter 5: Well over 20,000 agency public notices annually
Presidents issue a few dozen memoranda and other proclamations each year. Departments and agencies issue thousands. These include guidance documents, notices, memoranda, letters, bulletins, action…
Products
Chapter 6: A note on rule reviews at OMB
OMB’s Biden-era shift to regulatory advocacy, particularly since the Circular A-4 rewrite, diminishes what can be gleaned from EO 12866 rule reviews. Nonetheless, like pages…
Products
Chapter 1: Biden’s whole-of-government push
Let’s be clear, Kamala and I came into office determined to transform how the economy works—change the way it literally functions. —Joe Biden, September 23,…
Products
Chapter 8: Federal regulations affecting small business
The aforementioned National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) report found that average annual per-employee regulatory costs to firms vary by firm size. The smaller the firm,…
Products
Chapter 10: GAO database on rules and major rules
The federal government’s regulatory reports and databases serve different purposes. The Federal Register presents all proposed and final rules, along with numerous presidential documents and…
Products
Chapter 9: Federal rules affecting state and local governments
State and local officials’ concerns over federal mandates’ overriding their own priorities resulted in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) of 1995. It requires Congressional…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2025
Introduction Record federal debt is contributing to record-setting regulatory burdens. While new spending programs show up in budget figures, new regulations requiring the private sector…
Blog
Otherwise Objectionable episode 6: ‘The Rest of the World’
The sixth episode of Otherwise Objectionable, the narrative-driven podcast that tells the true story of Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, focuses on…
Blog
Earth Day is broken—only private conservation can fix it
With this week’s 2025 Earth Day came the usual media and progressive lawmaker fanfare lauding government programs and regulatory solutions to environmental concerns. But…
Comment
CEI Comments on Waters of the United States (WOTUS)
Dear Ms. Jensen and Mr. Boyd: I appreciate this opportunity to provide comments on the notice “Implementation of the Definition of Waters of the United…
Blog
How valuable will anonymous comments be to the Ferguson FTC?
Comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its “Inquiry on Tech Censorship” are due next month on May 21, 2025, and the public has…
Wall Street Journal
“FTC Sues Uber, Alleging Deceptive Billing, Cancellation Practices”
The Wall Street Journal reports on the FTC’s lawsuit against Uber.
News Release
Escalating trade war with China won’t fix the need for reform: CEI analysis
On Monday, China vowed to retaliate against nations that corporate with President Trump’s tariffs against Beijing, putting potential trade deals between the US and other…
Blog
Regulators right to approve Capital One/Discover merger
On Friday, federal financial regulators made the right decision in approving the merger of Capital One and Discover. In their joint approvals of the merger,…
Blog
Don’t let the next crisis grow the government—again
“Now, I’m going to sign this, and it’s a great honor — $6.2 trillion. I’ve never signed anything with a “T”…
Forbes
Trump Reforms Die Without An Abuse-Of-Crisis Prevention Act
Amid frustrations with interventionist elements of the Trump agenda—such as tariffs and revived antitrust zeal—many have nevertheless been encouraged by the renewed…
Blog
The week in regulations: Wildfire appraisals and portable spas
President Trump and El Salvador president Nayib Bukele confirmed that they would continue to imprison people without due process. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from…
Blog
Trump’s tariffs: Look for the union label
One of the biggest boosters of President Trump’s tariffs has been the United Auto Workers (UAW). The venerable union wants to see domestic factories expanded…
Truth on the Market
“The FTC’s Zombie Antitrust Action Against Meta Continues to Lurch Forward”
Dan Gilman with International Center for Law & Economics discusses various aspects of the FTC’s case against Meta.
Reason
“The Trump Administration Wages War on Meta”
Reason’s Jack Nicastro details the facts in the FTC’s antitrust case against Meta.
News Release
Decision in Google antitrust case a major blow for online competitiveness: CEI analysis
On Thursday, a federal court ruled that Google violated antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly over online advertising. CEI experts caution about the precedent and…
Washington Examiner
FTC’s antitrust crusade against Meta contradicts key parts of the Trump agenda
We’re all about to find out if it’s the White House or what’s left of the administrative state that’s calling the shots on…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Economic ideas for American workers with Ryan Young
In this week’s episode we cover teaching with AI, clearing the way for new nuclear development, and eliminating soda and candy…
The National News Desk
Federal Reserve chair sees growing risk of stagflation as Trump pushes rate cuts
The National News Desk quoted CEI’s expert on tariffs. “It’s a realistic fear,” said Ryan Young, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “If…
Wall Street Journal
Zero Is the Magic Number for Cutting Red Tape
One of President Trump’s executive orders could transform how the federal government reviews and manages energy regulations that rule and constrain our lives.
Blog
President Trump’s three new energy executive orders: A quick overview
On April 8, President Trump signed three new executive orders (EOs) that address the United States’s energy sector. The key themes of the EOs include…
Real Clear Politics
“FTC v. Meta Is All About Politics, Not Antitrust Law”
Yael Ossowski with the Consumer Choice Center argues that the FTC’s antitrust case against Meta is about sticking it to “big tech,” not helping consumers.
Truth on the Market
“Network Effects in FTC v Meta”
Brian Albrecht with the International Center for Law & Economics explains how the FTC’s case against Meta misunderstands how network effects interact with competition in…
Letters
CEI joins ATR to Protect Taxpayers Wallets
Dear Members of Congress, Taxpayer dollars should benefit Americans, not subsidize organized labor. Under current law, federal employees can continue to earn their taxpayer-funded salaries…
News Release
A US/UK trade deal faces barriers: CEI analysis
Amidst the ongoing tariff drama, Vice President J.D. Vance said this week that the United States and the United Kingdom could strike a trade…
Blog
Otherwise Objectionable episode 5: ‘Blowback, and the Dust Settles’
The fifth episode of Otherwise Objectionable, the narrative-driven podcast that tells the true story of Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, recounts how the…
Wall Street Journal
“Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case”
The Wall Street Journal reports on the FTC’s attempt to garner billions of dollars from Meta to settle antitrust suit.
Blog
Trump is right to target showerheads, but he’ll need Congress to finish the job
President Trump is taking another pro-consumer step, this time on showerheads. His April 9th executive order, Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads, reinstates his…
Citation
Happy Hour May No Longer Be So Happy
The American Spectator cited CEI’s expert tariffs Economists aren’t surprised that the alcohol industry is talking about price hikes. “Tariffs are a tax,” said…
Blog
The executive order that could kill trillion-dollar bailouts
The federal government doesn’t just spend—it also regulates through spending. That’s one reason crises so often inflate Washington’s role in American life. But as I…
Wall Street Journal
“Is Lina Khan Back at the FTC?”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board ponders whether FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson’s stance as an antitrust regulator is much different than his predecessor.