There are two main areas in which Congress can enact meaningful reform. The first is to rein in regulatory guidance documents, which we refer to as “regulatory dark matter,” whereby agencies regulate through Federal Register notices, guidance documents, and other means outside standard rulemaking procedure. The second is to enact a series of reforms to increase agency transparency and accountability of all regulation and guidance. These include annual regulatory report cards for rulemaking agencies and regulatory cost estimates from the Office of Management and Budget for more than just a small subset of rules.
In 2019, President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at stopping the practice of agencies using guidance documents to effectively implement policy without going through the legally required notice and comment process.
Featured Posts
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Lime emissions and stabilizing the Western Balkans
The 2024 Federal Register set a new all-time record page count on December 3. It surpassed 2016’s record of 95,894 pages with nearly a month to spare. Syria’s dictatorship…
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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 in…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Milk marketing and sport fishing
It was a shortened week on account of Thanksgiving. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from fed cattle to general service lamps. On to the data: • Agencies issued 57 final regulations last week,…
Search Posts
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Fraud in More Ways Than One
The news of the federal fraud charges against billionaire Texan financier Sir Allen Stanford (he got the knighthood from his dual citizenship from Antigua)…
Blog
Will Lisa Jackson turn the Clean Air Act into a gigantic de-stimulus package?
Earlier this week, in a letter to Sierra Club climate council David Bookbinder, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the Agency would reconsider, via…
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Michigan Steps Aside for Stimulus
Oregonian brewers looking for a new home may want to consider moving to Michigan where a state authority may just understand the principle…
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Bad McCarty! Bad!
Will regulators never learn? You can’t force businesses to actively pursue a business model that is unprofitable. Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist and Insurance regulator Kevin…
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Null Government
Well, the Spendulus/Stimulus will be signed into law within minutes. We’ll soon learn that even this Leviathan-In-A-Box is only the beginning of the Age…
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“Spendulus” conference report has passed the House
But thought you might be interested in one congressman’s last-minute appeal to sanity. You, dear reader, are a person things are done to.
Blog
Who Cares About the Consumer?
Electricity consumers beware! The so-called-stimulus bill includes provision for something called “decoupling.” E&E Daily reports: Also included in the final version is a requirement that…
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Wyeth v. Levine: Policy Arguments Regarding Preemption
The Wyeth v. Levine case presents a narrow set of facts in which the Food and Drug Administration had, for many years, known about the…
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Preemption in Wyeth v. Levine: Broader Implications
The legal arguments of the parties, and the incremental approach typical of the Supreme Court, strongly suggest that the Court will issue a narrow legal…
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Uber-Attorney Bert Rein to Guest Blog on Federal Preemption Case
Back in November, I wrote about the pending Supreme Court case Wyeth v. Levine, the decision in which will have a huge impact on the…
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What unlimited government means to you.
Ran across this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal piece that I thought I’d pass along. And this was before the Anti-Stimulus added…
Blog
Coming to a Pharmacy Near You: One Size Fits All
Tucked away in the stimulus bill is $1.1 billion to fund a new agency modeled after the UK’s NICE, which has repeatedly denied Brits access…
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“Porkulus” has no relation to economic recovery; But other reforms do.
Today CEI and other free-enterprise analysts and advocates are making one last pitch to stop the anti-stimulus package that President Obama is likely to…
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Iain Murray on the Anti-Stimulus
On behalf of my distinguished colleague Iain Murray, who is busy speaking at a very important press conference this morning, let me present his…
Newsletter
Stimulus Upon Us, Lethal Wildfires Down Under and Satellite Radio Takes a Hit
Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress reach a deal to spend $789 billion in taxpayer money on “economic stimulus.” The death toll from wildfires in…
Citation
Property insurance reform in Florida
Florida Real Estate Journal
Property insurance reform in Florida
TMC Net
There Being Little Chance of OFC Opponents Being Swayed by ‘New-and-Improved’ Bill
TMC Net
Critics Hitting U.S. Insurance Regulator Bill Proposal
Property and Casualty Insurance News
Critics Hitting U.S. Insurance Regulator Bill Proposal
Op-Eds
Don’t Punish the Shareholders, Too
In justifying a change of policy on negotiating corporate penalties, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, stressed the…
Blog
Environmental Policies Kill – Again!
One of the main themes of my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, is that misguided environmental policies often lead to humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Newsletter
Senate Stimulus, Geithner’s Banking Plan and a Florida Insurance Bailout
The Senate passes an $838 billion economic stimulus package. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announces a new plan to revitalize troubled U.S. banks. Florida officials look…
Study
Let Credit Unions Lend More
Eli Lehrer makes the case for expanding credit union business lending, which would unlock otherwise idle capital and thereby help create jobs.
News Release
Public Interest Groups Unite to Oppose Stimulus
Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Iain Murray will join representatives from the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), the National Taxpayers Union and several other…
Blog
Sirius XM Bankruptcy: Thank Washington for the Delay
Sirius XM Satellite Radio—the company born from the merger of Sirius Satelllite Radio and XM Satellite Radio—has “been working with advisers to prepare for a…
Blog
Stimulus Package Shrinks Economy, Expands Welfare Rolls
The Stimulus Package passed by the Senate will encourage people to stop working and go on welfare, undermining the 1996 welfare reform…
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Championing Economic Liberty in a Time of Crisis
From CEI’s Agenda for Congress: Fred Smith, President and Founder of CEI on the economic crisis, the threat of bad policies, and the real change…
Blog
Geithner’s “bad bank” is a big bad idea: fix bad mark-to-market accounting instead
The Obama’s administration $1 trillion plus bank bailout plan — on top of the $800 billion stimulus that just passed the Senate — will explode…
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No Florida Insurance Bailout
It seems that the state of Florida has overpromised insurance coverage to its citizens in the case of a catastrophic storm, and now is…
Blog
Book-Banning, 21st Century Style
Remember the fuss when it was revealed that Sarah Palin had enquired about removing books from her town library? It would have been so much…
Newsletter
Stocks Drop, Thrift Stores Threatened and Spending Tobacco Money
Stock values drop as investors await the passage of an economic stimulus bill and the new rules and restrictions that it will come with. New…
News Release
Senate Approves Stimulus, Steps off Economic Cliff
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Dickie Scruggs Back in Court
But, alas, not as a litigator – the role that made him rich and famous – but as a defendant. According to Legal Newsline,…
Blog
Amid Recession, Congress Forces Thrift Stores to Close
According to statements from the National Association of Retail & Thrift Shops and the National Association of Manufacturers, a law designed to protect kids…
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Stimulating Comment
Comment from a friend watching Obama’s Indiana town hall promoting the stimulus: “Some chump just told Obama to mail a check to the people who…
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Tilting at Food Safety Windmills
Unfortunately, as long as the world's food production system continues to be highly decentralized and fragmented, there will continue to be foodborne illness outbreaks like…
Blog
Why “doing nothing” is something really big: Stopping the Anti-Stimulus
Robert Higgs, he of the famous “ratchet effect” theory of government growth (up but never down in answer to a crisis), has…
Newsletter
Stimulus Showdown, New SEC Rules and Obama’s Labor Pains
Aides on Capitol Hill prepare for negotiations between House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill. New Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro…
Blog
Broadband Stimulus Cut
Bloomberg is reporting that an agreement on a stimulus package has been reached in the Senate. Included in the compromise was…
Blog
Should the Anti-Stimulus Package be tan or beige?
President Obama more than once last week called it “inexcusable” for Congress to get “bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual” over the…
Blog
Today’s Gift to Big Labor
Even as the nomination of Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary remains stalled due to tax and potential ethics rules troubles, organized labor got a…
Blog
Senate Broad Stimulus & Avoiding Federal “Strings”
Aside from the fact that the Senate lacks the necessary votes to pass its version of the stimulus, the bill does…
Blog
Obama’s New Appliance Efficiency Mandates, Consumers Better Run For Cover
President Obama today announced that he is pressuring the Department of Energy (DoE) to speed up some long-delayed efficiency standards for appliances. His move…
Blog
Support for Stimulus Collapses Internationally
Rasmussen reports that support for the borrow-and-spend plan is falling rapidly: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the…
Letters
Oppose the Federal Stimulus Bill
We the undersigned public interest organizations, representing millions of members and supporters nationwide, hereby call upon you to reject the $819 billion spending bill that…
Blog
Obama’s defense of weatherizing homes as “stimulus” with Anderson Cooper on CNN is priceless
The President actually said: –it puts people to work –it saves families on their energy bill –it reduces dependence on foreign oil.
Op-Eds
Eli Lehrer: “The U.S. government has no business taking over banks.”
Nationalize U.S. Banks: In light of the financial crisis, the U.S. should nationalize banks, taking over the most troubled ones. Pro: The…
Letters
No Midnight Rulemaking
Full Document Avalible in PDF Chairman Steve Cohen 1004 Longworth House Office Building Washington DC 20515 February 3, 2009 Dear Chairman Cohen:…
Blog
The Smart Way to Provide Power
It’s not often I disagree with Ron Bailey, but his article about the “Smart Grid” today glosses over the main reason why electric companies…
Staff & Scholars
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment