Obama Unveils Last-Minute Regulatory Agenda

The Heartland Institute discusses Obama's plans to release midnight regulations with Wayne Crews.

Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says passing “midnight regulations” are part of a larger problem.

“We have a president who has made it very clear that ‘we’re going to get things done,’ and he has expressed a willingness to go around Congress to look for ways to fulfill the agenda,” Crews said. “The president is so aggressive that the midnight regulations won’t even matter in the transition.”

Crews says executive agencies regularly bypass accountability and oversight by Congress.

“The Federal Register for 2015 has topped 80,000 pages,” Crews said. “Every year, Congress passes a few dozen laws—it can be anywhere from 30 to 40—but the agencies every year put out 3,500 regulations. But on top of that, the agencies are issuing what I call ‘dark matter.’ [These are] guidance documents and memoranda, manuals, circulars … all these things can have regulatory effect.”

Read the full article at The Heartland Institute.