The Center Square
New Mexico governor seeks to create ‘strategic’ brackish water reservoir
CEI’s Iain Murray is cited in The Center Square regarding strategic water resevoirs: “It is good to see Governor Lujan has realized the value of…
News Release
CEI Statement on CARS Act
Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA) have introduced legislation that is expected to be considered on the House floor this week,…
Blog
House should brake bureaucrats limiting vehicle choice with CARS Act
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to limit the ability of Americans to buy gas-powered cars. That is, the cars that people actually want…
Blog
COP28: The conference on penance
Dubai is currently hosting the 28th Conference on Penance (COP). Well, that’s what the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on…
The Hill
Why are some Republicans pushing new taxes and higher prices?
Here’s a concoction whose toxicity conservatives instinctively recognize: new taxes, higher prices, punishing energy use, and giving foreign countries leverage over how the U.S. regulates.
News Release
Supreme Court hears challenge to a provision of 2017 law that taxes unrealized income
Today the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on behalf of Charles and Kathleen Moore, taxpayers who are challenging a provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts…
Comment
Comments on Proposed Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence
To Shalanda D. Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit public interest organization committed to…
Blog
Central banks are watching. Let’s watch them back.
One of the biggest dangers of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), I and others have warned, is that it would give a government that…
Blog
Is UAW still an automaker union? How Gaza became a top issue
The name “United Auto Workers” would appear to pretty clearly indicate who that union represents, but it is increasingly becoming inaccurate. Today, only about…
Truth on the Market
“Where Are the New FTC Rules?”
Alden Abbott from the Mercatus Center discusses the FTC’s recent “rulemaking blizzard.”…
Real Clear Markets
“Lina Khan Is Between a BlackRock and a Hard Place”
Robert Bork Jr. argues against antitrust challenges to acquisitions by ExxonMobil and Chevron.
Wall Street Journal
“Meta Sues FTC Over Its In-House Courts”
The Wall Street Journal reports on Meta’s constitutional challenge to the structure of the Federal Trade Commission.
Real Clear Markets
“Despite Divestments, the FTC Still Can’t Handle Kroger/Albertsons”
Isaac Schick from the American Consumer Institute discusses antitrust, divestments, and unions regarding the merger between Kroger and Albertsons.
News Release
New CEI paper analyzes the top issues up for negotiation at COP28
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) continues its focus on COP28 in Dubai with a new paper by Henrique Schneider, who is a…
Study
Four Hot Issues at COP28
Over 75 different agenda items will be discussed and negotiated in Dubai at the 28th annual Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Au pairs and processed pears
The 2023 edition of Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments is out now. Henry Kissinger died at age 100. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Comment
Comments RE: Docket No. FDA–2023–N–2177 for “Medical Devices; Laboratory Developed Tests
I am an attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit research and advocacy organization that focuses on regulatory policy.
Politico
Courts, tax bills and impeachment — oh, my
CEI’s coming Supreme Court Case is cited in Politico’s newsletter: SO, A LOT GOING ON: It’s now officially December, which so frequently is crunch time here…
Daily Caller
Here’s Where Americans Are Feeling The Greatest Pain Under Biden’s Economy
CEI’s Ryan Young cited in the Daily Caller on economic conditions: “When some goods are hurt worse than others, the causes are not inflation,”…
Blog
Inflation makes regulations even more expensive
The just-released 2023 edition of Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments report estimates that the total cost of complying with all federal regulations is $1.94…
Blog
The latest on nuclear power bans: Illinois poised to take an important step
The Illinois nuclear construction ban will soon be a thing of the past.Earlier this year, both state chambers, through a supermajority vote, passed a…
Blog
Biden admin: Taxpayers don’t need to know about ‘official time’
The Biden administration is actively rolling back transparency requirements for unions, most recently by no longer posting information on the controversial practice of…
Blog
Equity shmequity: How US government’s ‘discounting’ policy hurts the global poor
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently finalized its Circular A-4 guidance on regulatory analysis, constituting the first update to the guidance in…
American Radio Journal
Wayne Crews with Ten Thousand Commandments
CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews joins the American Radio Journal to discuss Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State. Listen to…
Sound Cloud
Wayne Crews Are Federal Regulations Costing Taxpayers And Companies Almost $2 Trillion Per Year
The Lars Larson Show is joined by CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on November 30th, 2023.
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The future of energy and environmental policy with Travis Fisher
In this week’s episode we cover the political path toward abundance, the need for permitting reform beyond the National Environmental Policy Act,…
Washington Times
Better late than never: New York Times finally admits school shutdowns hurt children
The New York Times has made a “startling” discovery. Its editorial board has recognized that “school closures that took 50 million children out of classrooms…
Blog
The catastrophic consequences of COVID for California constitutional government
COVID-19 hit California hard. The effects of COVID on California’s population were terrible, and the government policies that California imposed on its citizens may have…
Antitrust Education Project
“No Matter How You Slice It, Consumers Should Be What Matters in Subway Antitrust Investigation”
Robert Bork Jr. discusses the FTC’s investigation into Roark Capital’s acquisition of Subway sandwiches.
Reason
“FTC Fights Grocery Store Merger That May Bring Down Prices”
Nate Scherer from the American Consumer Institute argues that the FTC should not ignore the many upsides of a Kroger-Albertsons merger.
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2023 is out now
The 2023 edition of CEI’s flagship annual study, Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments, is out now. For those not familiar, 10KC gives a big-picture…
The Daily Signal
EXCLUSIVE: Here’s How Much Regulations Cost Average American Family—and How Biden Is Making It Worse
“American households pay at least $14,000 in hidden regulatory costs every year,” Wayne Crews, the Fred L. Smith fellow in regulatory studies at the institute,…
Washington Times
Biden’s battle on climate and social programs escalates red tape
Rules on everything from new safety measures for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic to new standards for grades of canned baked beans have…
News Release
Report: Federal regulatory burden undermines economy, financial security
A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute tallies the huge and growing cost federal regulations impose on American businesses and families – $1.939…
Daily Caller
‘Hidden Tax’: Biden Clocks In Biggest Regulatory Burden In Recent Memory, Report Says
Under President Joe Biden, the federal government completed 89 economically significant rules in 2022, defined as those with at least a $100 million economic impact,…
Products
Chapter 5: Page Counts and Numbers of Rules in the Federal Register
The Federal Register is the daily repository of all proposed and final federal rules and regulations. Although its number of pages is often cited as…
Products
Chapter 3: Getting Beyond a Federal Regulatory Budget and the Limitations of Administrative Reform
Federal programs are funded either by taxes or by borrowing, with interest, from future tax collections. When Congress spends, no one questions that disclosure…
Products
Chapter 6: The Expanding Code of Federal Regulations
The page count in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), where the Register’s rules come to rest in small print, is not as dramatic…
Products
Chapter 9: A Note on Rule Reviews at OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Tracking the effects of rules and regulations, executive orders, memoranda, and regulatory guidance is vital. These alternative regulatory actions have become powerful means of working…
Products
Chapter 13: Federal Regulations Affecting State and Local Governments
Ten Thousand Commandments primarily emphasizes federal regulations imposed on the private sector. However, state and local officials’ complaints over federal mandates’ overriding their own…
Products
Chapter 1: Biden’s Regulatory “Modernization” Continues Whole-of-Government Pursuit of Coercive Progressivism
The 2022 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments extensively surveyed the Biden administration’s executive actions, rules, and memoranda that reversed the Trump regulatory policy and attenuated…
Products
Chapter 10: Analysis of “The Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions”
“The Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” (the Unified Agenda) is the document in which agencies have outlined regulatory priorities…
Products
Chapter 8: Another Dimension of Regulatory Dark Matter: Over 22,000 Agency Public Notices Annually
Along with presidential proclamations are those of departments and agencies. These are numerous and sweeping. Through various kinds of guidance documents, notices, and policy statements,…
Products
Chapter 15: Regulation without Representation: The “Unconstitutionality Index”—13 Rules for Every Law
Administrative agencies, not Congress, do most U.S. lawmaking, despite Article I of the Constitution stipulating otherwise. Congress is to blame here, as it routinely enacts…
Products
Chapter 4: The Unknowable Costs of Regulation and Intervention and a $1.939 Trillion Estimate
The federal government undertakes little review of federal regulation to ensure that regulations individually do more good than bad each year, and it performs no…
Products
Executive Summary – Ten Thousand Commandments 2023
The cost of government extends well beyond what Washington taxes. Federal regulations add another $1.939 trillion to Americans’ annual burden. Federal environmental, safety and health,…
Products
Chapter 2: Competition Policy That Exiles Competitive Enterprise Harms Equity
Biden has repeatedly claimed, “I’m a capitalist.” He also rightly says that capitalism without competition is “exploitation.” However the top-down vision Biden promotes, which is…
Products
Chapter 11: Notable Rules and Rulemakings by Agency
In recent Unified Agenda editions and in other venues, federal agencies have noted the regulatory initiatives listed below, among many others pending or recently completed.
Products
Chapter 14: Government Accountability Office Database on Regulations
The federal government’s reports and databases on regulations serve different purposes: The Federal Register details and depicts the aggregate number of proposed and final rules—both…
Products
Chapter 16: Liberate to Stimulate: Framing an Agenda for Rightsizing Washington
It should be hard to enact bad law and regulation, not to get rid of them. A whole-of-government spending and regulatory agenda like the one…
Products
Chapter 12: Federal Regulations Affecting Small Business
Given discrepancies seen in the final rule counts, the overall counts of both small business rules and significant small business rules could also be understated.
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2023
View Full Report Here Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and…
Products
Chapter 7: The Presidential Dimension of Regulatory Dark Matter: Executive Orders and Memoranda
Executive orders, presidential memoranda, presidential directives, ersatz fact sheets of recent administrations, and other executive proclamations make up a substantial component of what has replaced…
Blog
Wall Street Journal reports consumer frustrations with over-regulated appliances
2023 is turning into the year of bad appliance regulations. Since January, CEI has submitted comments critical of proposed Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency…
News Release
Ex Google CEO’s Call for UN Organization Focused on Artificial Intelligence Would Be a “Historic Mistake”
At a forum on Artificial Intelligence in Washington today, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt endorsed the idea of an international body like the United…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Slender salamanders and joint employers
Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary cease-fire. OpenAI’s board of directors fired CEO Sam Altman, then re-hired him and fired themselves. President Joe Biden…
City Journal
Not-So-Affordable Care
In a 2022 book, Seemed Like a Good Idea, health economist Mark Pauly and his University of Pennsylvania coauthors describe how health-care policymakers “often rely on…
The American Spectator
The Forces Behind ESG’s Blacklisting Effect
Underneath the political back-and-forth over environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, we are seeing a sinister shift in targets. What began as a campaign among…
The Wall Street Journal
Why Does My ‘Efficient’ Dishwasher Take a Zillion Minutes for a Load?
Competitive Enterprise Institute was cited in the Wall Street Journal on dishwasher efficiency: The average standard cycle time for a dishwasher has increased from…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Making college pay with Preston Cooper
In this week’s episode we cover Javier Milei’s election as president of Argentina, how much money it takes to be happy,…
Comment
Comment to FAST-41 Steering Council on reducing scope of mining industry
John G. CossaGeneral CounselFederal Permitting Improvement Steering Council1800 M St. NW, Suite 6006Washington, DC 20036 Submitted via Regulations.gov November 22, 2023 RE: Permitting Council Docket…
Blog
Cold truth about government pushing electric: Natural gas is much cheaper
The Department of Energy (DOE) has repeatedly documented that using natural gas in homes is far cheaper than using electricity.This hasn’t stopped the Biden…
Forbes
Effective Altruism Contributed To The Fiasco At OpenAI
In a surprising turn of events, OpenAI’s board abruptly fired co-founder and CEO Sam Altman on Friday. Following a backlash on social media, the board…
Blog
Slice the regulatory turkey this Thanksgiving
The turkeys Liberty and Bell just received a Thanksgiving pardon from Joe Biden. The official presentation of a turkey for a presidential pardon and rescue…
Duluth News Tribune
Point/Counterpoint: Technology once again is altering how, where we work
Technology is making the 40-hour workweek an outmoded tradition. Historically, the workweek concept was based on the cycle of working from sunup to sundown, stopping…
PJ Media
Biden Uses Cold War Law to Nuke Your Gas Furnace
PJ Media cites CEI’s Ben Lieberman: The money comes from a presidential slush fund authorized by the Democrats’ trillion-dollar Inflation Reduction Act (that did not…
Blog
CEI’s The Surge: Carbon tariffs, CAFE standards, and more!
If you are interested in analysis and perspective on current energy and environmental issues, then we encourage you to subscribe to this new publication…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: California raisins and debit card fees
There was a pro-Israel and anti-Hamas rally on the National Mall of more than 200,000 people. A fight nearly broke out at a Senate hearing.
Fox News
Biden invokes wartime powers to fund electric heaters as he cracks down on gas appliances
Discourse Magazine
What America’s Recent Bank Failures Tell Us About ESG Phasing
Financial institutions that radically phase out fossil fuel and other politically scorned investments pose a serious risk to their own business, to investors and ultimately…
Fox News
Experts raise alarm after Biden strikes agreement with China to shut down fossil fuels
Fox news cites CEI’s Marlo Lewis: “The cooperative initiatives outlined by State Department will create make-work for bureaucrats, subsidies for rent-seekers, photo ops for…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Getting out of control with Neil Chilson
In this week’s episode we cover the American Nuclear Society’s Winter 2023 conference, the opportunities and pitfalls of online side-hustles, and the…
Forbes
Schedule F And The Myth Of Apolitical Regulator Expertise
The Trump administration’s Schedule F executive order aimed at making it easier to hire and fire career civil servants in policy roles, but…
Blog
Vehicle kill switches and other horrible things Washington is doing to us from a distance
The remote kill switch for automobiles authorized by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021 is a prime…
Blog
Exposing the federal bureaucracy’s blurry courts
Many federal agencies prevent regular Americans from understanding what they are up to by obscuring the work being conducted by their little-known administrative law courts…
Antitrust Education Project
“The Federalist Society’s Weak Interview of Lina Khan”
Robert Bork Jr. discusses some of the missed opportunities during the Federalist Society’s interview with FTC Chair Lina Khan.
News Release
COP explainer begins CEI’s focus on United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today begins its focus on the 28th meeting of the Conference of Parties of the the United Nations Framework…
Study
The UN’s Annual Climate Conference
I remember the first Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) I participated in.1 It was back in…
Blog
Ringside seats at today’s Senate cage match
A lot of preparation goes into testifying before a Senate committee. To borrow from the late Donald Rumsfeld, there are the “known” things that…
Blog
Labor Department would ignore law to change overtime rules
I submitted a comment on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute to the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor (DOL) regarding…
Blog
Biden admin appliance regulations are bad for small businesses and homeowners
Department of Energy (DOE) bureaucrats are making 2023 a bad year for homeowners with an avalanche of proposed and final appliance regulations impacting stoves, washing…
Letters
CEI Joins Letter on Joint Employer CRA
Dear Member of Congress, Small business needs protection. As you are aware, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued their final rule “Standard for Determining…
News Release
Good News on Inflation during October, but It’s Still Too High: CEI Analysis
The consumer price index did not increase from September to October, according to newly released government numbers. But because core CPI is still higher…
Testimony
Testimony before the Senate HELP Committee, November 14, 2023
Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Sean Higgins and I…
Daily Caller
Biden Admin Tries To Spin Faltering EV Market, But Its Talking Points Don’t Add Up
“Even a mediocre pizza restaurant could sell lots of pies if they give them away,” Marlo Lewis, senior fellow for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told…
Blog
White House report reveals tens of billions in new annual regulatory costs
A consolidated Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations hit the shelves at the end of October, catching…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Junk fees and dehumidifiers
It was a four-day week due to Veterans Day. Another government shutdown deadline is less than a week away. The FTC issued a proposed rule…
Citation
As more workers take to picket lines, the labor movement is having a moment
Higher wages are also driving up inflation, said Sean Higgins, a labor policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank. “I don’t…
The Hill
New Biden ‘Joint Employer’ regulation is a boon for unions
What if you could get in legal trouble simply because you knew somebody else who got in trouble? You didn’t do anything wrong with them.
Op-Eds
Creating An IPCC For AI Would Be A Historic Mistake
The recent artificial intelligence safety summit convened by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has revived a bad idea—creating an “…
National Review
Biden Order on Artificial Intelligence Puts Too Much Faith in Regulators
President Biden’s executive order (EO) on artificial intelligence (AI) directs more than a dozen federal agencies to, among other things, “establish guidelines…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Personal finance and YouTube with Spencer Johnson
In this week’s episode we cover how states can reform higher education, ways that managers can make their employees happier at work,…
DC Journal
Point: 40-Hour Workweek Is Under Scrutiny
Technology is making the 40-hour workweek an outmoded tradition. Historically, the workweek concept was based on the cycle of working from sunup to sundown, stopping…
Comment
Comment on notice of proposed rulemaking: Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees
Dear Ms. DeBisschop: I am an attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. I was a senior policy advisor in Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour…
Testimony
Ben Lieberman Testimony: Hearing on “Burdensome Regulations: Examining the Effects ofDepartment of Energy Regulations on America’s Job Creators.”
Chair Williams, ranking member Velazquez, and members of this committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Ben Lieberman and I…
The Hill
The rise and fall of ESG investing
Blog
NLRB responds to CEI on government ‘encouraging’ unionization
The National Labor Relations Board recently issued a rulemaking that included a direct rebuttal to an argument made by the Competitive Enterprise Institute regarding…
Blog
10 important amendments for the House Transportation spending bill
The US House of Representatives is currently debating H.R. 4820, its Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development spending bill. There are many good amendments being…
News Release
CEI supports Rep. Foxx’s amendment to halt OMB’s A-4 rewrite
The House of Representatives will soon consider an amendment from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to the 2024 Financial Services and General Government spending bill…
News Release
Amendment prohibiting funding for Biden administration fuel economy regulations would benefit consumers
The House is expected to consider an amendment offered by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) to the Transportation and HUD spending bill (H.R.