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Misalignment by design: How AI could become the operating system of the administrative state (Part 2)
Read Part 1 here. The AI deregulatory alternative: Liberalize networks and what flows through them This is where the…
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Misalignment by design: How AI could become the operating system of the administrative state (Part 1)
The AI debate asks how the federal government should regulate commercial artificial intelligence and “big tech,” with little recognition or appreciation that the government…
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The regulatory costs we still aren’t counting
Several years ago, I assembled a “Costberg” working paper surveying the largely impenetrable and undisclosed costs of regulation. The project grew out of…
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The Regulatory Plan needs a regulatory plan
As the Trump administration’s early emphasis on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has tapered off, so too has its emphasis…
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The Regulatory Costberg is melting — or is it? An update on Trump’s ‘one-in, ten-out’ initiative
In the first Trump administration, the longstanding Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Agenda) was instrumental in assessing…
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The Rulemakers: Which federal agencies dominate Trump’s 2026 Agenda?
Over the Independence Day holiday, the Trump administration released its 2026Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda), which…
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Diary of deconstruction: White House releases 2026 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Since 1983, the often-tardy semiannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Agenda) has surveyed recently completed and forthcoming rulemaking priorities across…
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Mid-year 2026: Is Washington actually deregulating?
It’s June 30, mid-year 2026 — almost America’s birthday. In terms of conventional issuance of rules and regulations in the Federal Register, the Trump…
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With apologies to The Who, agencies just met the new boss, not the same as the old boss
The Supreme Court overruling Humphrey’s Executor restores an important constitutional principle: those who exercise executive power are not protected from at-will removal and should…
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An America250 funeral for the 80-year-old Administrative Procedure Act
Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, another institution reaches a milestone of its own. The Administrative Procedure Act of…
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The Trump-Sanders plan to nationalize AI
“As far as economics is concerned, we have certain things that aren’t that far apart.” —President Donald Trump on Bernie…
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OPFAIL: Establishing a Congressional Office of Political Failure Analysis
For decades, reformers have proposed some version of a Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis (CORA), a congressional counterpart to the regulatory oversight apparatus housed…
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America 250 election year rightsizing: Time to get things undone
The new 2026 Ten Thousand Commandments survey of federal regulation and reform landed at an awkward moment. Election cycles tend to crowd out serious…
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Deregulation by the numbers: One-third into 2026 — a rulebook rewrite?
At the close of the first third of the year, a spring 2026 Unified Agenda formally outlining agency priorities has yet to appear. In…
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The Little Red Hen goes digital: No data centers, no internet
The politics of data centers increasingly resemble the fable of The Little Red Hen. Everyone wants the bread — AI, cloud computing, streaming,…
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Federal regulation 1st quarter 2026 report: Bureaucracy on the back foot
Here at the close of the first quarter of 2026, the March 31 Federal Register stands at 16,115 pages, containing 609 final rules and…
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Trump’s AI plan clears the field — then occupies it
Preempting state overreach in artificial intelligence (AI) regulation is urgent — but it’s only half the job. Firm limits on federal power matter just…
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The infrastructure cartel trap
At last week’s BlackRock US Infrastructure Summit in DC, federal and state policymakers, investors, and corporate leaders gathered to map out the next…
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The missing guardrail in crisis politics: Discipline
Modern American governance has developed a troubling pattern. Economic shocks like the 21st century’s financial panics and pandemic are often met with vast expansions…
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The most powerful monopoly isn’t a corporation: Introducing the Capitol Control Quotient
Policymakers often argue over whether capitalism works and how aggressively it should be restrained. But they rarely ask the more pertinent question: where, exactly,…
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Abolish, shuffle, repeat: The SOTU’s ill omen for federal retrenchment
Shrinking the federal government and abolishing agencies sounds simple — decisive, even. In practice, however, it appears neither can be done under modern…
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Trump’s SOTU conundrum: Deregulation today, swamp tomorrow?
Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union (SOTU) address presents an opportunity to confront the federal spending, entitlement, and regulatory behemoth in a new…
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Merger relief vs. the consolidation regulators ignore
A federal court’s decision blocking a 2024 Federal Trade Commission’s expanded merger-disclosure rule is welcome. But its significance risks being overstated. Skirmishes over…
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Trump’s deregulation meets invisible rulemaking: The real 2026 challenge
After a brief shutdown, most fiscal year 2026 appropriations have been enacted, despite continued debate over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding. We may…
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The executive order explosion: When counting counts
What stands out in the Trump administration is the unnerving tension between executive orders (EOs) that shrink government and those that expand it.
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Lots of good in the RSC’s “Restoring America’s Golden Age” Budget Blueprint
The Republican Study Committee’s new 119-page Budget for the 119th Congress, Restoring America’s Golden Age, covers a wide range of policy priorities—notably a 10-year…
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The 2026 Unconstitutionality Index: 18 rules for every law
Article I of the Constitution vests enumerated legislative powers solely with Congress. In practice, however, administrative agencies do most of the lawmaking. Congress enacts…
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AI and the electricity blackout America needs
The Washington Post’s latest coverage of the so-called “data center rebellion” highlights a trend building across America: communities rising up against server farms…
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Trump slashed rulemaking in 2025. The hard part starts in 2026
The new year, 2026, marks nearly the first full year of Donald Trump’s second administration. It’s a moment to assess whether regulatory liberalization has…
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Deregulation’s year-end illusion
As the year winds down, The Trump administration is congratulating itself on deregulation. In a White House statement and in what it described…
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Trump’s AI order: Preempting the states without unleashing Washington
A new Trump executive order, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” pushes back on most state law and rulemaking affecting AI.
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Trump’s baby accounts: Wealth builder or redistribution trap?
A White House roundtable this week spotlighted Michael and Susan Dell’s $6.25 billion philanthropic contribution seeding newborn investment “Trump Accounts” beyond the…
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Two cheers for ending Humphrey’s Executor
Oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter begin today. While debates over the legitimacy of presidential removal authority and the degree of Senate…
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Stop the snapback: Congress can make small-business deregulation stick
This week, CEI sent a letter to Congress urging the House to pass Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s (R-TX) H.R. 2965, the Small…
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DOGE cancellation theatrics change nothing in the regulatory power game
“Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists.” That admission came 10 paragraphs into a widely reported “exclusive” Reuters…
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A tariff-funded UBI? Trump just gave progressives their blueprint
Donald Trump’s pitch for a $2,000 “tariff dividend” check to be issued sometime next year (during election season) is being marketed as a…
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An executive order to make freedom mandatory
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) new “Streamlining the Review of Regulatory Actions” memorandum signals a potentially transformative shift in…
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The deregulation machine hits bureaucratic resistance
A new White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo, “Streamlining the Review of Deregulatory Actions,” poses an ambitious test: can agencies…
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Darklore Depository 2025: An unofficial inventory of guidance documents and other regulatory dark matter
Halloween can remind policy wonks that some of the ghastliest regulatory chills come not from ordinary notice-and-comment regulation buried in the daily Federal Register,…
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Has Washington bought off the deregulatory movement?
Back during the Biden administration, I noted how rising federal spending and regulation seemed to swap unfunded mandates for funded ones – turning what…
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The hidden growth of government in an age of less red tape
Recent editions of Ten Thousand Commandments detail how regulatory red tape mushroomed under Biden. For vulnerable small business, the Small Business &…
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Shutdown? Take the win
Last-ditch negotiations are underway as another fiscal year comes to a close on October 1. It’s that familiar crossroads: a threatened shutdown if…
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A provisional look at the Trump 2.0 deregulation record
Early in his first term, Donald Trump ordered agencies to eliminate at least two rules for every “significant” one added – rules generally carrying…
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GOOD Act markup: The first step in illuminating regulatory dark matter
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) is soon expected to mark up the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act, an important…
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Trump’s Unified Agenda of deconstruction: Writing rules to erase rules
“It is the policy of my Administration to focus the executive branch’s limited enforcement resources on regulations squarely authorized…
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There’s something wrong with the Federal Register
The Trump-era Federal Register website has been glitching recently. Nearly two weeks ago, I noted on X/Twitter (tagging both @USNatArchives and @FedRegister) that…
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Washington just bought Intel—and sold capitalism
Back in 2010, I testified before Congress against reauthorizing the so-called America COMPETES Act. That legislation was the precursor to the much-ballyhooed CHIPS…
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Trump revokes Biden’s bogus competition order, but it’s only a start
President Donald Trump just revoked President Biden’s 2021 “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” That’s welcome news, as I explain…
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Half of 2025’s public laws are Biden rule killers
In a notable twist, Congress has spent half of 2025’s lawmaking undoing Biden regulations. So far in the 119th Congress, 31 public laws…
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AI’s real job threat is to Washington, not workers
There’s no denying artificial intelligence (AI) can replace a lot—including, eventually, the very think tankers analyzing its effects as we do occasionally here at…
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How ‘Unrules’ are powering down the bureaucracy
The year 2025 may be remembered as the year regulation hit pause. As of the end of July, 1,518 finalized federal rules have been…
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Trump’s AI Action Plan: Deregulation on paper, industrial policy in practice?
Donald Trump’s follow-up executive orders to his 2020 artificial intelligence (AI) offerings and the new Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan…
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The Dreck Equation: Charting the regulatory cosmos
Most people think of federal regulation as the 3,000 or so rules published each year in the Federal Register and archived in the Code…
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The year the red tape died? Trump’s 2025 rule count hits historic lows
At the halfway point of 2025, the federal regulatory machinery is running at an unprecedented crawl. That’s good news. As tracked annually in…
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Trump executive order establishing a portal for regulatory dark matter
Even at the insistence of Congress in 2018, 46 federal agencies could only uncover only about 13,000 of their guidance documents and policy…
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Trump’s deregulation shines, but tariffs and antitrust cloud the scene
The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) this month released a new report on the Trump administration’s regulatory rollback efforts. Titled “The…
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Trump’s newborn nest egg accounts
In the face of recurring economic shocks—we’ve suffered 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19 in the 21st century alone—the reflex to throw hundreds…
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DOGE after Musk: From meme to momentum
Elon Musk’s short but headline-grabbing stint with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has concluded, but the broader deregulatory agenda remains robust and far…
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Deregulation deferred—not defeated—by the Big Beautiful Bill
In my latest Forbes column, I detail how the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) had the potential to revolutionize federal regulatory policy.
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What the DOGE debates really reveal
Last week I took part in a point/counterpoint on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), making a brief case for its mission…
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Commencing deconstruction of the administrative state – Trump’s next 100 days
Federal regulation costs trillions of dollars each year. Call it the “costberg”—a vast, submerged amalgam of rules, guidance, and paperwork reshaping the economy without…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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Trump’s deregulation push: Several steps forward—and some sideways
As I cover in a new column at Forbes, Trump 2.0 has brought a flurry of executive orders aimed at deregulation—one-in, ten-out…
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Let the deconstruction commence
Congress’s actionable hierarchy for administrative state burial & constitutional resurrection Alongside restoring fiscal sanity, Congress must establish a hierarchy of actions to make Donald…
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14 priorities in slashing spending and regulation before ‘America 250’—#7 will shock you!
This past week, the House and Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) that preserves Biden-era spending levels while largely turning a blind eye…
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Shutdowns are fake, but government growth is very real
With a government funding deadline looming on March 14, the House passed a continuing resolution (CR) to freeze non-defense spending at Fiscal Year…
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DOGE’s first cut at bureaucracy: A target inventory
Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14219, “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Regulatory Initiative,” has set the stage for a…
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The FROGs are back: Will White House hop to it on guidance documents?
Donald Trump’s 2019’s Executive Order 13891, “Promoting the Rule of Law through Improved Agency Guidance Documents,” established online portals and inventories…
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The SCRUB Act: Washing away Washington’s regulatory grime
The Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, introduced today by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), is a key step …
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Trump executive order puts independent agencies on a leash
President Trump’s new executive order, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies,” marks a major shift in regulatory oversight by bringing independent…
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Goodbye to the roaring twenties of regulation? A cost roundup
The final Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations from the Biden administration appeared January 15. Here at the…
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Zero to prosperity? New Trump executive order is a good start
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought a wave of executive orders, including his new “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation” directive.
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A game-changing Trump executive order could nuke regulatory dark matter
In the wake of Donald Trump’s flurry of executive actions—including implementing a regulatory freeze, eradicating Biden’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and staffing,…
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Trump executive orders target Biden’s regulatory big bang
Joe Biden wrapped up his term with a parting regulatory surge, epitomized by today’s 872-page Federal Register—marking the apex of his aggressive midnight-rule…
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Safeguarding innovation from bureaucracy: The techno-libertarian pivot
The just-concluded 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) highlighted the relentless pace of technological innovation—from robotics and AI to rollable laptops and transparent TVs. Yet,…
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Is Congress even trying? 3,248 new rules vs. 175 laws
In 2024, federal agencies issued 3,248 rules and regulations, while Congress enacted only 175 laws. I refer to the simple ratio—19 rules…
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Biden’s regulatory landscape: A year-end analysis
As we ring in 2025, the Federal Register reveals a noteworthy chapter in regulatory history under the Joe Biden administration. We take our traditional year-end look at it here. The…
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Charting a glide path to overturn Biden regulations in the 119th Congress
As the 119th Congress and incoming Trump administration prepare to govern, one key weapon in their arsenal will be the Congressional Review Act (CRA)…
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Biden’s Fall 2024 Unified Agenda of regulations: The numbers, trends, and what’s next
The Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) dropped the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions this past…
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Can Trump’s DOGE team outmaneuver regulatory dark matter?
As Donald Trump prepares for a second term, his administration inherits a far more expansive regulatory state than it did in 2017. As…
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Biden breaks Federal Register record
Joe Biden’s administration has set a new Federal Register record with 96,088 pages as of December 3, 2024, surpassing the Obama administration’s 95,894 pages…
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Fred Smith and the Hourglass of Market Evolution
Our much–loved CEI founder Fred L. Smith Jr. would often insist that we not refer merely to antitrust or antitrust policy,…
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From cuts to costs: Why federal paperwork keeps piling up
The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) release of the 2023 Information Collection Budget (ICB) paints a troubling picture of not just of growing…
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Swamp things: Why DOGE moving Beltway agencies to states isn’t deregulation
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), expected to be established by president-elect Trump and led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, aims to slash…
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Biden’s regulatory report is in, but key costs remain in the shadows
The election is over and among much else, federal regulations are emerging front and center for the incoming administration. While the federal debt…
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Biden’s 2024 Federal Register page count already second highest ever
We’ve not closed the Book of Regulation for 2024, Biden’s final calendar year in office, but we can mark a milestone nonetheless. The…
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A 2024 CEI HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: A new inventory unmasking federal agency guidance documents
In my new Halloween-themed article at Forbes, I explore the eerie expanse of federal agency guidance documents. We have to try to have…
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The compliance crisis: Unveiling the regulatory loopholes agencies love
While federal regulatory reform is critical, it’s equally important that existing oversight laws be followed. Unfortunately, many of these laws are routinely disregarded, with…
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Kamala’s Opportunity Agenda for Black Men: Regulatory frameworks masquerading as economic help
Recent developments signal a troubling trend for America’s small businesses, one that could alter the nation’s entrepreneurial landscape in a big and detrimental way.
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Next time, let’s try emergency powers that shrink government
As the nation deals with the aftermath of successive natural disasters, the need for a renewed debate on federal emergency powers is increasingly clear.
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Pen and phone power: How presidential documents are changing the rules
Presidential executive orders and directives have long played a pivotal role in shaping federal policies and regulations. As President Obama famously remarked in 2014,…
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Congress decides, not agencies: The significance of the REINvented REINS Act
It’s been repeated a million times that in our constitutional republic, lawmaking power belongs to Congress. But over the years, this authority has increasingly…
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Scaling deregulation: Can Trump achieve a 10-for-1 rule elimination?
In a speech at the Economic Club of New York, Donald Trump pledged if re-elected to eliminate—not two rules for every one added as…
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Congress needs to fight the bureaucracy – and itself
After testifying before the House Committee on Administration in July on Congress in a Post-Chevron World, I received a series of Questions…
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Congressional Review Act votes could claw back some of Biden’s regulations
As the Biden-Harris baton-passing administration approaches the final stretch of its first term, a critical deadline has passed that could render subsequent major federal…
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The social significance of the Consolidated Audit Trail
Personal privacy is important. The ability of citizens to communicate and do business with one another – and to do so with some degree…
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Congress in a post-Chevron world
The House Committee on Administration conducted a regulatory reform hearing today entitled “Congress in a Post-Chevron World.” The title refers to the anticipated…
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How major rules are surging under the Biden administration
We’ve taken a look at the total numbers of significant regulations issued this year in the Biden administration as well as at the…