Fighting to Expand the Boundaries of Freedom Since 1984

Since its founding in 1984, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been an effective advocate for freedom on a range of regulatory policy issues, including energy, environment, business and finance, labor, technology and telecommunications, transportation, and food and drug regulation. CEI has consistently supported free market solutions to public policy issues instead of government regulation. 

Our goal is to remove as much power and decision-making authority as possible from bureaucrats and politicians and entrust families, communities, and free enterprise to make choices for themselves.

Ambitious goals require big ideas and a full-service approach to advancing public policy.

Ideas 

Each year, our research and analyses are cited thousands of times in major media outlets, relied upon by scholars and advocates, and used by members of Congress, executive branch officials, and other federal, state, and local policy makers.

Our work provides policymakers with user-friendly data and analysis, as well as concrete, actionable reform proposals.

CEI scholars are thought leaders on the most critical regulatory and economic issues of our time. Our scholars’ articles are frequently published in National Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fox News, The Atlantic, Investors Business Daily, The Daily Signal, The New York Times, The Hill, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, and other such publications.

Advocacy

We not only publish original and insightful analysis, we then use that intellectual ammunition to craft advocacy and education campaigns designed to change minds and transform policy. 

We also build coalitions, joining with allies to advance specific reforms at the state, national, and international levels. We meet regularly with members of Congress and senior congressional staffers, regulatory agency staff, and senior administration officials to engage in direct advocacy.

Through an active law and litigation program, CEI also initiates lawsuits and files amicus briefs in on-going cases that challenge the constitutionality of dubious statutes and the legality of onerous regulations. 

In the past 11 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has heard four of our advocacy-related cases, with two wins and one case still pending. We have also achieved victory in a large number of lower court cases, which similarly helps ensure greater economic liberty and a stronger rule of law.

Results

In just the past few years alone, CEI has helped implement major reforms of federal red tap on issues ranging from energy and environmental regulation to employment policy and labor law, and from health care to transportation and technology regulation.

CEI has also won multiple precedent-setting rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, lower federal appeals courts, and state courts. But no matter the venue, CEI’s cases ensure greater economic liberty, increased government transparency and accountability, and a stronger commitment to the rule of law.

Our recent policy victories include:

• CEI’s public awareness campaign highlighted “never needed” regulations impeding response to and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
• President Trump recently issued two executive orders to curb the use of guidance documents to implement policy without accountability to Congress or the public. The White House drew inspiration for the move from a CEI report.
• CEI’s years of work advocating against the Paris Climate Agreement bore fruit when the United States withdrew from the Agreement in November of 2020.
• In response to a CEI regulatory petition, the Energy Department finalized a new rule that will relax energy and water use restrictions for home dishwashing machines.
• After years of CEI’s advocacy efforts, the Transportation Department admitted its fuel efficiency rules for automobiles forced manufacturers to make lighter and less safe vehicles, and the Department rolled back the Obama Administration’s scheduled increase in the standards.

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