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.
The College Fix
Stop clearing thousands of acres to build solar panels: Harvard study
The College Fix cites CEI’s Paige Lambermont on a Harvard Study. “For decades, solar power has been highly subsidized and its use even mandated…
FEE
“Why the FTC Should Stop Going After Amazon”
Dr. Kimberlee Josephson, professor at Lebanon Valley College and research fellow at the Consumer Choice Center, explains why the FTC’s case against Amazon is patronizing…
Reason
“The Wildly Misleading Statistic at the Center of the FTC’s Antitrust Case Against Amazon”
Eric Boehm from Reason sets the record straight on a misleading statistic used by the FTC in their antitrust suit against Amazon.
Comment
Comment on WHD NPRM on executive, administrative, and professional exemption
Amy DeBisschop Division of Regulations, Legislation, and Interpretation Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Room S–3502, Washington, D.C. 20210…
Blog
Experts weigh in: Sen. Cassidy’s carbon tariff bill would mean more taxes
A carbon tax is both bad policy and dumb politics. Yet Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has just introduced legislation, the Foreign Pollution Fee…
Blog
Justice Department ignores consumers, boosts Bing in Google antitrust trial
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) case accusing Google of having and unlawfully maintaining a monopoly in search is in full swing in US District…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Gas cans and shorts reporting
President Biden issued an Executive Order on AI regulation. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. Jobs growth slowed, but still grew.
Forbes
Congress Must Halt The Ascendance Of Regulation By Subsidy
Excessive regulation is one of those perennial Washington issues, which makes sense given that Washington pops out new rules like chocolate bunnies. A …
New York Post
New Yorkers can’t stop complaining about their blocked views
New York City has many fine museums — it isn’t one. Yet. But New York is the home of the nation’s second-dumbest urban political ecosystem…
The Center Square
Op-Ed: Illinois needs to undo its nuclear ban
Illinois has banned construction of new nuclear power plants for the past 36 years, since 1987. That’s a real predicament for a state that already…
News Release
CEI welcomes Supreme Court review of censorship ‘jawboning’ case
Competitive Enterprise Institute Attorney Devin Watkins praised the U.S. Supreme Court for agreeing to hear a lawsuit challenging government “jawboning,” pressuring private entities like social…
News Max
AI Not Science Fiction and Can Wreck Our Lives
News Max cites CEI’s James Broughel on the AI reality: Writing for Forbes, Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute James Broughel did not mince…
Blog
Is the Fed done with interest rate hikes?
The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee held the federal funds rate steady this week at its most recent meeting, as expected. It will range…
News Release
Economy added 150,000 jobs in October, fewer than average months: CEI analysis
The U.S. economy added 150,000 jobs in the month of October, fewer than in average months, according to government data released today. That suggests…
DC Journal
Senate Credit Card Bills Will Cost Working Class Consumers
Senators from both sides of the aisle claim they are taking on big banks to help the working class by regulating credit cards. Sen. Josh…
Blog
12 important amendments for the House Interior, environment spending bill
The House is currently debating H.R. 4821, its Interior and environment spending bill. There are many good amendments being considered on the floor. Here…
Blog
5 bad appliance regulations Congress should reject with the Congressional Review Act
This is the third article in CEI’s Special Briefing Series: Defending the Personal Energy Choices of Americans. It isn’t just gas stoves. The Biden administration has…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The trouble with big-government conservatives with André Béliveau
In this week’s episode we talk about which state has the least-bad business taxes, how many Americans really love America, the continuing…
Citation
House GOP demands Biden admin reveal impacts of war on appliances: ‘Burdensome regulations’
CEI’s Ben Liberman is cited on Fox Business about the current war on home appliances: “It’s just spreading to more and more appliances. It…
Blog
UAW strike epilogue: Big Three will continue to shrink
The United Auto Workers has won, according to the headlines. What the union has won will force three companies, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, owner…
Blog
SEC commissioner bashes private markets, shows why public capital flight is happening
Caroline Crenshaw, a designated Democratic commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently was sharply critical of private markets. “Investor protection and systemic risk…
Blog
H.L. Mencken channels Adam Smith
Over at Liberty Fund’s AdamSmithWorks website, I have an article drawing a parallel between Adam Smith’s moral philosophy and H.L. Mencken’s satire:…
News Release
Biden’s Junky Retirement Rule Would Raise Fees & Take Away Choices for American Savers
President Biden today announced the details of a new rule governing retirement savings, echoing an earlier “fiduciary rule” issued by the Obama administration that was…
Blog
Three Supreme Court justices have gone public about the fundamental unfairness of civil forfeiture
Yesterday, I was able to get out of the office to watch the oral argument in Culley v. Marshall before the Supreme Court of…
Forbes
Biden’s New AI Executive Order Is Regulation Run Amok
Signed yesterday, President Biden’s new executive order on artificial intelligence safety is already making waves across the technology industry. While the intention of…
News Release
CEI leads coalition calling on Congress to repeal drug price control provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and a coalition 43 conservative and free market groups sent a letter to Congress today calling for the…
Letters
Coalition Letter to End IRA Prescription Drug Price Controls
October 31, 2023 Dear Members of Congress, When the Inflation Reduction Act was passed and signed into law a year ago, the legislation granted the…
Blog
CEI’s The Surge: Climate change slush fund, the true cost of EVs, 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…
Daily Caller
“Consumers Will Pay the Price for Biden’s Progressive Antitrust Crusade”
Steve DelBianco, president and CEO of NetChoice, addresses the FTC’s case against Amazon and the unfortunate effects it could have on consumers.
Real Clear Markets
“FTC Opposition to MSFT/Activision Jumps Regulatory Shark”
Daniel Savickas from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance discusses the FTC’s continued obsession with Microsoft’s acquisition of gaming developer Activision.
Real Clear Markets
“Lina Khan Would Be Wise to Conduct a DVD Search on Amazon”
John Tamny from the Market Institute argues that FTC’s case against Amazon ignores the fluid nature of markets.
Washington Examiner
“Lina Khan’s FTC Is the Avatar of Bidenomics Failure”
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, explains why the FTC’s case against Amazon is just the latest example of how Lina Khan is…
Blog
Biden administration cites fanciful numbers to support ‘right to repair’
The Biden White House hosted an event on right to repair last Tuesday to provide information “about federal and state efforts to strengthen the…
News Release
Biden EO on artificial intelligence rushes in with regulation rather than problem-solving: CEI analysis
The Biden administration today released further details about the president’s executive order on regulating artificial intelligence. CEI Senior Fellow James Broughel, author of a…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Joint employers and almond taxes
GDP grew 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Mike Johnson became Speaker of the House. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from Kraft…
News Release
Biden executive order on artificial intelligence will be a problem: CEI analysis
President Biden is reportedly poised to sign an executive order aimed at monitoring artificial intelligence technology and moving toward new regulations for AI. CEI experts expressed…
Forbes
Biden Gambles On Industrial Policy Tech Hubs
The Biden administration last week announced the designation of 31 regional “tech hubs” across the United States, as part of a new program…
Blog
FCC wants European-style broadband regulation, would throttle American consumers
Aristotle said that nature abhors a vacuum so that every space in nature must be filled. Apparently, the FCC has taken inspiration from ancient Greek…
Blog
What we’re not seeing here: Why policy debates need Bastiat
I was honored to give a presentation this week to the George Mason University Economics Society. The title of my presentation was “Unseen Consequences: Frederic…