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Defending the Right to Donor Privacy
The campaign to safeguard the right to privacy for charitable donors is moving one step closer to reality. Last Friday was the deadline for members…
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Politically Correct Transgender Pronoun Mandates Violate First Amendment
The First Amendment is being violated by recent government demands that people use pronouns others than “he” and “she” to refer to their transgender peers.
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India Stops Short of Committing to “Join” Paris Treaty in 2016
President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi met on Wednesday to discuss energy-related issues including the Paris Climate Treaty. In contrast to the United…
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House Passes Resolutions Opposing Carbon Tax and Obama’s Oil Tax
The House of Representatives on 10th June passed two resolutions opposing taxation of fossil fuel consumption. The vote on H. Con. Res. 89, which expresses…
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CEI Dinner 2016 Keynote Address
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House Plan to Replace Dodd-Frank Provides Long-Needed Alternative
On Wednesday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling announced the main features of his comprehensive plan to replace Dodd-Frank, the flawed response to the…
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What’s Right with Business Schools?
Jane Shaw of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy has a compelling new commentary out this week on the state of business schools.
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House Committee Examines Overtime Rule’s Negative Impact on Non-Profits and Universities
The House Education & Workforce Committee held a hearing today that examined the Department of Labor’s recent overtime regulation’s impact on non-profits and universities.
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Obama Administration Fosters Zika through Red Tape
Zika’s spread is being aided by red tape the Obama administration left unchanged, even as it illegally diverted money needed to fight Zika to…
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Rounding Up the Cowards: EU Leaders Block Glyphosate
As reported in the Wall Street Journal this week, yet another valuable pesticide product may eventually be removed from the market place. But despite…
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2016 Dinner Movie Bloopers: A Night in Casablanca
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House to Vote on Carbon, Oil Taxes
The House is scheduled to vote Friday on two bills opposing efforts to rig U.S. energy markets against fossil fuels.
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Heavily Scrutinized NLRB Joint Employer Standard Heads to Court
Most people can pretty easily tell you who their boss is, but the Obama administration has made that a difficult question. In a decision last…
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GIGO Strikes Again: EPA’s Social Cost of Methane
The Environmental Protection Agency’s final methane emission standards for new, modified, and reconstructed oil and gas sources were published in the Federal Register last Friday.
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FCC Could end up “Protecting” Consumers from Cheaper Internet Access
Net neutrality proponents have seen their lines splinter over the issue of “zero rating,” the practice of not counting data used to access certain sites…
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Time to End the Failed Experiment of “Sin” Taxes
It seems like an economic no-brainer that if you can raise the cost of a good or service, people will buy and consume less of…
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Affordable Energy Is Important to Conquering Poverty
When economists and politicians talk about income inequality, they rarely consider the effects of their policies on the poor, as my co-author Ryan Young has…
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Obama Illegally Diverts Money Needed to Fight Zika to UN
President Obama raided $500 million needed to fight the Zika virus, and instead illegally gave it to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund. Sen. James…
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Controlling Federal Agency Guidance Documents: A To-Do List for Congress and Reformers
When I wrote about the proliferation of federal agency guidance documents and other regulatory “dark matter” that skirts Congressional oversight and even normal…
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A Complaint We Didn’t Expect to Hear: Virgin Islands Attorney General Now Says We’re Wasting His Time
Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker filed his opposition last week to CEI’s motions for attorney fees and sanctions. As you may know if you’ve…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Fighting Injustice & Igniting Prosperity
This week on RealClear Radio Hour, professors Stephanos Bibas and Donald Boudreaux discuss injustice in the plea bargain system and the dangers of the dismal…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Last week’s Federal Register fell short of 2,000 pages, mainly because it was a four-day work week due the Memorial Day holiday. While the Federal…
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2016 CEI Dinner Movie: A Night in Casablanca
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First Amendment Forbids Ideological Discrimination in Protecting Rallies
Anti-Trump demonstrators beat up Trump supporters outside a Trump rally in San Jose, California this week, while police initially did nothing but watch. As Buzzfeed…
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Attorney General Lynch Refuses to Defend Law to Speedily Terminate Wrongdoers
Attorney General refuses to defend law passed by Congress to speedily terminate wrongdoers One of an Attorney General’s fundamental duties is to defend laws passed…
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Administration’s War on Work Reflected in Jobs Numbers
The administration and its allies are currently engaged in a regulatory onslaught on employers that can only be described as a war on work. Today’s…
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Six People You’ll See at the CEI Dinner
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The Seventh Circuit Considers a Costly But Useless Shareholder Settlement in the Walgreens Merger
OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. In recent years, about 97 percent of sizable mergers (those valued at $100 million or more) have been hit by…
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One Enlightened Statesman: Sen. Rand Paul Pauses TSCA Bill
Three cheers to Senator Rand Paul for actually caring enough to read legislation before voting on its passage. Last week, he held up legislation…
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Inequality: Policies That Work, and Policies That Don’t
CEI recently released a pair of papers by Iain Murray and me about economic inequality. The first encourages activists to ask the right questions: think…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Latin American Politics, Jazz, and Freedom
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Congressional Review Act deadline for the possible midnight regulation rush has now likely passed, though the Federal Register once again topped 2,000 pages last week. That…
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Federal Regulations Affecting Small Business
It is often said that there is no such thing as a free lunch, something particularly true for the small businessperson. The “Small Business…
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NLRB Downplays Pro-Union Threats
Union bias permeates the actions of the current National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This is hardly surprising since a former union lawyer, Richard Griffin,…
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Court Will Soon Decide Fate of FCC’s Ill-Conceived Internet Regulations
Any day now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is expected to release its decision in U.S. Telecom Association v. FCC.
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More on “Inequality”
In serendipitous timing, the Institute of Economic Affairs in London released a new study this week entitled “Never Mind The Gap: Why we…
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Unions and Environmentalists Oppose Plan to Address California’s Rising Housing Costs
Everyone’s for affordable housing—except, it seems, some unions and environmentalists. On May 18, a coalition of unions and environmental advocacy groups—including the State Building &…
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Raise, Don’t Level: New CEI Papers on Inequality and Poverty Relief
Economic inequality is one of today’s defining issues. How to address it? Iain Murray and I offer an unconventional approach in a new two-part CEI…
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Obama Administration Harms Students in Many Ways
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CEI Asks Court to Sanction U.S. Virgin Islands AG for Baseless, Retaliatory Subpoena
On Monday, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker agreed to revoke a subpoena he obtained from the D.C. Superior Court last month,…
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Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists: No Illusions about Germany’s “Energy Turnaround”
In a previous post I poked fun at the “Doomsday Clock” of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. For 60 years, the Bulletin has…
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RealClear Radio Hour: On-Demand Internet Service & Medical Testing
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Appeals Court: Students Qualify for FOIA Fee Waivers
Under the Freedom of Information Act, you can obtain government records, but usually you have to pay for them. But the law limits the fees…
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White House Supports Bill that Exempts Puerto Rico from New Overtime Regulation
Progressives praised the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule as a way to fatten workers’ pockets and a means to strengthen the middle class. If…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
As mentioned earlier, something of a regulatory midnight rush is happening right now. The Federal Register topped 2,000 pages for the third time in four weeks—a rare…
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CFPB Moves to Cut Off Any Loans to People with Bad Credit
According to the federal government, people may have to live on the streets, but at least they aren’t being “exploited” by companies who are willing…
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Muggles for Free Speech
J. K. Rowling made international headlines this week by defending free speech in an address to the PEN Literary Gala in New York. She…
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Regulation: A 28 Percent Hidden Tax For The Family
When corporations pay taxes, you pay taxes. That is, while it’s popular to tax rich corporations, and even if they write the check to the…
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How the Overtime Rule Hopes to Design Higher Salaries, But Can’t
The Labor Department has just issued a new regulation for overtime pay for salaried employees. Under the new rule, all salaried workers earning less than…
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New York Times Ad Attacks AGs’ Abuse of Power, Defends Free Speech
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Deadline for Major New Regulations This Week?
An early midnight rush of controversial new regulations might be on the way over the next week or so. Why now instead of the very…
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Free Market Organizations Call on Congress to Block the DOL Overtime Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute along with 16 other organizations sent a letter to Congress in support of the Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity…
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RICO 20 Ringleader’s Implausible Denial of Intent to Silence Skeptics
After a recent victory in a FOIA lawsuit, Horner and CEI v. GMU, a Richmond court allowed the Competitive Enterprise Institute to release records on…
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Air Traffic Control Reform Opponents Still Miss the Big Picture, Repeat Errors
Air traffic control is in dire need of reform and modernization, and there is a great plan in the House FAA bill to do just…
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Members-Only Unions Benefits Unions and Individual Workers
There has been a surge in right-to-work laws over the past couple of years. Since 2012, four states (Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and West Virginia) revoked…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Middle East & Panamanian Renaissance
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Leave DFS Regulation to the States, But Don’t Kneecap Skilled Players
Congress is abuzz with the issue of gambling. Last month, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) inserted language from his failed online gambling ban into the…
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Crowdfunding Rules: Four Years Late and Millions Short
Today, Monday, May 16, more than four years and one month after Congress passed and President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Federal Register broke the 30,000-page barrier last week, with new regulations covering everything from baked beans to e-cigarettes. On to the data: Last week, 58 new…
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Senator Vitter Introduces Bill To Enforce Law and Stop Funding of UNFCCC and Green Climate Fund
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EPA Finalizes Methane Rule for New Gas and Oil Production
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Virginia Court Releases RICO 20 Documents from George Mason University
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Obama Administration Decree Usurps Control over Locker Rooms and Bathrooms
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Unpopular Online Gambling Ban Sneaked Into Spending Bill
For more than two years a cadre of congressmen have worked, without any luck, to enact a bill that would create a de facto national…
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Air Traffic Control in Urgent Need of Reform… If Only Critics Could See That
CEI has for years called for air traffic control reforms now being considered in the House. It is critical for the future health of the…
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Small Businesses and Nonprofits Ill-Equipped to Handle DOL’s Overtime Rule
The Department of Labor's overtime rule may be published as early as next week. The rule's "one-size-fits-all" nature is set to harm small businesses the…
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Thomas Piketty’s False Argument for Expanding the Government
Left-wing economist Thomas Piketty is treated like a “rock star” by many progressives for giving a veneer of legitimacy to the economic myths they…
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Regulatory Cost Blowout: Burden Is Triple the Deficit, Greater than Personal and Corporate Income Taxes Combined
The last time the federal government balanced the budget was between 1998 and 2001. But those were days when a $2 trillion federal budget…
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Facebook’s Alleged “Curation” of Conservative News Isn’t the Government’s Business
Facebook is under fire for allegedly manipulating its “Trending Topics” section to reduce the visibility of conservative topics and stories about the social media platform,…
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CEI’s Marc Scribner Discusses TSA Lawsuit on Cato Daily Podcast
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner, one of the petitioners in CEI’s lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration’s final rule on airport body scanners, joined Cato’s…
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Conservatives for Big Government: Air Traffic Control Reform Opponents Have Lost Their Minds or Principles
UPDATE: Diana Furchtgott-Roth has responded. I offer my reply. Right now in Congress, there is a proposal to end a government monopoly, replace…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Dodd-Frank Star Chamber & Fighting Forced Unionism
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Seattle Regulators Go After Rideshare Driver Privacy
Today, I have a column up at FEE.org on the need for classical liberals to make financial privacy as important an aspect of their…
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Ten Thousand Commandments
The brand new 2016 edition of Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr.’s Ten Thousand Commandments report is out now. You can read it here. If you…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
After a slow start, 2016 is back to a normal regulatory pace. The Federal Register is on a nearly 80,000-page pace, and the number of new rules…
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FDA’s Attack on E-Cigarette Will Cost Lives
While the public health goals of protecting consumers from possibly harmful vaping products and preventing kids from becoming addicted to nicotine are laudable goals, this…
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FCC’s Cable Box Mandate: Costly, Illegal, and Unnecessary
Regulators at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) want to dictate how cable and satellite television providers design their so-called “set-top boxes”—a fancy term for…
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The Barack Obama Regulatory State Towers over that of Bush
A glance at the overall count of rules and regulations leads one to suppose regulatory burdens are decreasing. After all, since Obama took office the…
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George Mason University Should Obey Court, Release Public RICO-20 Records
Today, the Virginia Circuit Court in Richmond issued a ruling in our case under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA), Christopher Horner and…
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NYT’s Sensationally Incorrect Headline and Other Climate Notes
The silliest news items are those that belie their headlines, as is the case with a sensational front-page story in today’s New York Times, titled…
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Companies May Scrutinize Employee Activity More under DOL’s Proposed Overtime Rule
The battle over the Department of Labor’s proposed overtime rule is heating up. A number of business groups, labor unions, and progressive organizations have met…
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Burning Ivory Is Not the Solution
A few days ago, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to giant pile after giant pile of elephant ivory confiscated from poachers. Some 105…
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Reason’s Bob Poole Sets Record Straight on Air Traffic Control Reform
Reason Foundation Director of Transportation Policy Bob Poole has an excellent article in National Review debunking the myths peddled by a handful of conservatives on the House’s AIRR Act…
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Congress Needs to Halt DOL Regulatory Onslaught
Last week, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) called out recent Department of Labor policies as having a “chilling effect” on the economy. Ryan’s statements were…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Criminal Justice Reform
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EPA Tries to Cover Its Tracks in Texas by Sending 17 Years of History Down the Memory Hole
Background: The Regional Haze rule is a Clean Air Act regulation whose purpose is to improve the view at National Parks. Because it is…
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CEI Sues over TSA’s Body Scanners
Today, CEI, The Rutherford Institute, CEI Vice President Iain Murray, and yours truly filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. Court…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
As the Federal Register passed the 25,000-page mark, new rules for the week ranged from fluorescent lamps to disaffected youth. On to the data: Last week, 65…
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State Department Tells 28 Senators To Go Pound Sand
The U. S. State Department replied this week to the 18th April letter to Secretary John Kerry from 28 Senators that pointed out that Palestine…
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Power Plant Rule: EPA Defies Stay to Develop Legally Dubious Incentive Program
The EPA yesterday took another step to advance the Obama administration’s flagship domestic climate policy, the so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP). As Politico…
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Why Is Employee Involvement an Unfair Labor Practice?
U.S. labor law is largely based on the false narrative of an inequality of bargaining power between employees and employers. The theory goes that an…
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CEI Supports Vote to Block Labor Department’s Fiduciary Rule
Today, Congress has the opportunity to block the costly "Fiduciary Rule."…
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CEI Challenges Illegal “Vapes on a Plane” Regulation
Today, CEI, the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA), and CEI employee Gordon Cummings, as a private individual, filed a lawsuit challenging the…
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Congress Must Pass Email Privacy Act
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) sponsored by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.). The Competitive Enterprise…
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Wind Energy Industry Suffers Fuel Shortage in 2015
Wind energy can’t compete. Instead, it exists only by the grace of favorable politics. On the supply side, the industry enjoys the federal production tax…
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FSOC Misunderstands Leverage, Threatens Risk Management
The Financial Stability Oversight Council recently released its “Update on Review of Asset Management Products and Activities,” in which it questions “how certain asset…
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The Proliferation of Federal Agency Guidance Documents
Recently we looked at some prominent recent examples of federal agency guidance—costly to-dos for the private sector. Today I wanted to say just a…
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The Chilling Effect of Dark Matter
Here at CEI, we know all about the chilling effect of executive power. We also know quite a bit about the extent to which…
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Bureaucratic Double Jeopardy: Feds Order University of New Mexico to Restrict “Unwelcome” Speech
Even if you convince one bureaucratic agency to leave you alone, another may come along and harass you. The possibilities are endless in an age…
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When Bureaus Attack: Recent Examples of Federal Regulation by “Guidance Document”
In the recent paper “Why Congress Must End Regulation by Guidance Document,” I described the rise of federal agency regulatory dark matter and…