OpenMarket

The Jones Act, originally passed in 1920, is a law that requires ships that service U.S. ports to be entirely U.S. owned and operated. This protectionist measure unnecessarily increases costs on American consumers (and producers), especially in places like Puerto Rico and Hawaii, which depend on ocean-shipped cargo for much of their consumer goods.

President Trump’s doubling of tariffs has already cost the economy almost 1.8 percentage points of growth. That means 2018’s 3.4 percent third quarter growth could have been 5.2 percent instead. If the economy veers into recession in the near future, President Trump’s trade policies will have played a major role. Congress needs to act as soon as possible to prevent further damage. Our trade policy recommendations follow four general themes that have bipartisan appeal—important in a newly divided Congress.

Wealthier is healthier—and environmentally cleaner as well. Despite the fact that the most prosperous nations are also the cleanest, and that prosperity is best achieved through free markets and limited government, Washington, D.C. insists on an intrusive approach that does more economic harm than environmental good. This is especially so regarding costly federal interference in energy markets, as energy is the lifeblood of the economy and its affordability is critical to growth.

When Rory Broomfield and I were examining the prospects for Britain leaving the European Union in 2014-16, we recognized that there was no easy way out. No off-the-shelf solution existed apart from the “Norway model,” which suffered from much the same problems that full membership of the EU inflicted upon Britain. Britain had become so entangled in the EU system that it amounted to a Gordian Knot incapable of being unraveled.

Congress was not vague in its intent when it enacted the Wire Act in 1961. The law, developed and supported by then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was never meant to establish new prohibitions on any type of gambling. Rather, it was designed to provide federal enforcement support for illegal interstate sports gambling or, as a House Judiciary report in 1961 put it, to “assist the various States and the District of Columbia in the enforcement of their laws pertaining to gambling, bookmaking, and like offenses…”

Last week, American fuel manufactures filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to review a lower court decision upholding an Oregon law which the manufacturers say was designed to inappropriately favor Oregon businesses and which regulates activities that occur entirely outside of the state. CEI has previously commented on the absurdity of the lower court decision when it was issued.

This week the public comment period closes in regards to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) proposed rule to modify the standard for joint employment. This concept determines when multiple employers are considered one for the purposes of collective bargaining and liable for unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act.

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have broken down. UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl called the contract offer from the school district “unacceptable.”

The second-to-last chapter in the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s agenda for the 116th Congress focuses on consumer freedom. Specifically, the chapter recommends ways Congress can rein in federal agencies from infringing on adults’ right to decide how they spend their money and what they put in their own bodies.

Today, I submitted comments to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on behalf of CEI in response to a notice of proposed rulemaking on promoting innovation in the use of patented and proprietary products. This may sound like an esoteric transportation regulatory issue, but it has very serious real-world implications.