Washington gets better at leaving us alone

CEI’s Wayne Crews was cited in the Wall Street Journal regarding new updates in regulations from Washington.

Just in time for the celebration of America’s 250-year experiment in liberty, a new report finds that—with some disappointing exceptions—the Trump administration continues to exercise a welcome and historic regulatory restraint.

At the Competitive Enterprise Institute Wayne Crews issues a midyear report card for 2026:

In terms of conventional issuance of rules and regulations in the Federal Register, the Trump administration continues to set records for “inactivity” and pursue a value of principled federal neglect…

Today’s Federal Register tops out at 1,454 final rules, on track to land at fewer than 3,000 rules at year-end, which has happened only twice before in history, both times under Trump.

Many readers would likely prefer the annual number of new federal rules to be zero, but remember that Mr. Trump’s predecessors in recent decades routinely churned out more than 3,000 a year and often more than 4,000.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.