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…
Blog
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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The Bureaucratic Mind at Work
In an increasingly rare example of investigative journalism, the UK Times finds a ‘ghost bus’ designed to spare ministers’ blushe. The bus, which is…
Blog
Short-seller praised by Mass. Democrat at Madoff hearing
In the House Financial Services Committee hearing Monday on Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion alleged Ponzi scheme, some good points were raised by Congress members…
Blog
Change Is Coming, To Benefit Trial Lawyers
Obama promised change, and it’s already happening, at the expense of the poor, consumers, and small business. “Regulations set to take effect next month could…
Blog
Massive in Massachusetts
The people of Massachusetts, who until now have been entirely clueless about the fat content of any food, will finally be set free from their…
Blog
Let the Sunstein In
I was cheered this morning by the news that Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago is to be the next head of…
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Thousands Die After Zimbabwe Dictator Nationalizes Water Systems
Thousands of people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe after the country’s left-wing dictator Robert Mugabe nationalized municipal water systems to seize their revenue,…
Daily Iowegian
The Hidden Costs of Government Regulation
Newsletter
Coleman v. Franken, Drug War TV and $8 Trillion Worth of Stimulus
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) announces a legal challenge to an election ruling favoring his rival Al Franken. ABC premieres the primetime drama “Homeland Security USA,”…
Blog
Card Check Loses Support, but Threat Isn’t Over
Today in The Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel dissects the shifting political prospects for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), commonly known as the…
Blog
Prediction 2009: No Net Neutrality Regulation
Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but I think that 2009 may see the death of calls for net neutrality regulation and may even see…
Products
CEI Planet: January – February 2009
View the new Montly Planet by downloading the PDF of the issue. Below you’ll find previews of the articles in this issue: From The…
Blog
Davis-Bacon from the Pork Barrel
In today’s Wall Street Journal, the Brookings Institution’s Clifford Winston points out some critical pitfalls likely to face the infrastructure spending element of President-elect…
Blog
Jail Time for Conflict of Interest?
David Bruggeman at Prometheus has what I think can only be described as an extreme view of conflict of interest: An Emory University Researcher…
Blog
Madoff: Hiding in Plain Sight, Thanks to SEC
Contrary to popular belief, Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme was subject to to a variety of financial regulations, something he actually used as a selling…
Letters
Letter To President Obama on Credit Unions and Business Lending
Full Document Available in PDF December 23, 2008 The Honorable Barack Obama President-Elect…
Blog
Fewer Toys for Christmas
Small toy manufacturers may go out of business thanks to the “Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008,” which Congress hastily passed in response to…
Daily Iowegian
The 2008 Year in Poker
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Bush Auto Bailout Illegal, Bailout Supporter Admits
Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who supports bailing out the Detroit automakers (whose unionized workers are paid $70 an hour), nevertheless points out…
Blog
GM-Chrysler Merger Likely Blocked by Antitrust
General Motors & Chrysler could be strengthened by a merger, an option that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. But, the idea has been pushed aside,…
Blog
Mortgage Madness
Here is a letter I fired to the Wall Street Journal: December 17, 2008 Editor, The Wall Street Journal 200 Liberty Street New…
News Release
White House Auto Bailout a Recipe for Failure
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How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
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Credit Card Price Controls Harm Consumers
The Wall Street Journal editorial got it exactly right: The Federal Reserve cut rates to historic lows Tuesday, but today it…
Blog
Paul M. Weyrich, RIP
[Since I wrote this, Paul Weyrich’s last column was published the day of his death, “The Next Conservatism, A Serious Agenda for the Future”…
News Release
Berlau Commends Schapiro Pick for SEC
John Berlau, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, issued the following statement on President-Elect Barack Obama's appointment of Mary Schapiro…
Blog
Coming to an ISP Near You: Google Servers
Over at the Tech Liberation Front, the Internet’s premier free market technology blog, we’re discussing the implications of Google’s OpenEdge program. The program plans to…
Blog
VIDEO: Fred Thompson on the Economy
In a great satire of today's political doublespeak, Fred Thompson tells us why the sophisticated policies coming out of Washington defy common sense. How do…
Blog
Paulson’s Bailout Was a Scam
National Review editor Rich Lowry, who mistakenly supported the financial system bailout because he trusted the Bush Administration, now realizes that he was deceived by…
Blog
Fed Cuts Rates, Punishing Thrift, and Impoverishing Savers
The Federal Reserve has just cut the federal funds rate for loans to banks to an unprecedentedly low rate — ranging from 0.0% to…
Blog
Auto Bailout Would Kill Jobs, Impoverish Taxpayers
A bailout would be worse for the auto industry than automakers filing for bankruptcy, explains banking and bankruptcy expert Todd Zywicki, a law professor,…
Newsletter
Bailout Indecision, Greenhouse Gas Negotiations and Privatizing Electricity
President Bush and Treasury officials continue to evaluate possible bailout proposals for General Motors and Chrysler. Twenty-seven European countries sign a new agreement to reduce…
Blog
The Cloverfield Monster of the Internet
Earlier posts today dealt with the hoo-ha over Net Neutrality. By coincidence, an anonymous colleague put the following old 1996 quote by Sen. James Exon…
Blog
“Net Neutrality,” RIP? Well, One Can Hope
Net neutrality has long been a threat to Internet users. Despite the rhetoric and appeals to “openness,” it was always an anti-consumer enterprise, irretrievably and…
Blog
Why Not a Wal-Mart Bank?
Seems like every business these days is becoming what’s called a “bank holding company” — seeking the shelter of the federal government’s deposit insurance and…
Newsletter
Auto Bailout, Global Warming Controversy and Free Trade
Senators vote down a bailout proposal for U.S. auto companies. Czech President Vaclav Klaus criticizes a new European agreement on global warming as “a silly…
Blog
Bush’s Auto Bailout: Illegal or Unconstitutional
The Bush Administration is planning to bailout the Big Three. It's using part of the $700 bill financial sector bailout package by seizing on TARP's…
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Lawrence Lessig and Fighting Corruption
Lawrence Lessig has recently shifted his focus away from intellectual property and technology policy and toward tackling the larger issue of political corruption. It’s quite…
Blog
Antitrust Liberalization May Avert Need for Bailouts; Outdated Laws Deter Efficient Mergers
In early 2007, the economy was humming along and General Motors was considered to be in the process of a turnaround. To help stabilize itself,…
Op-Eds
Power to the People
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Jay Leno Riffs on the Bailout
A new viral email, claiming to be jokes written by Mr. Leno, adds a bit of humor to the financial crisis. As business and government…
Blog
Federally Sanctioned Propaganda Machine
Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" ad An article over at Ad Age brings up an angle on the whole…
Blog
Auto Bailout Smoke and Mirrors
Mickey Kaus, a moderate Democrat, explains how the proposed auto bailout contains little leverage for the proposed “auto czar” to really cut the excessive…
Blog
Auto Bailout – Destroying Detroit by ‘saving’ it
In a famous quotation from his 1986 address to the annual White House Conference on Small Business, President Ronald Reagan quipped that “government’s view…
Study
The Railroad Competition and Service Improvement Act
Why Government-Enforced “Competition” Will Not Work.
Blog
German Finance Humor
When the Germans are laughing at you, things are in a pretty serious mess. That’s the case with the British version of the bailout, which…
Blog
Unbelievable Gall from the New York Times
As economists and the Wall Street Journal have noted, the Community Reinvestment Act was an important ingredient of the financial crisis, by pressuring…
Blog
Censorship and Bailouts for the Rich
George Will has an interesting column on how the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” that many liberal lawmakers want to reimpose in order to shut down…
Daily Iowegian
Advocacy groups vs. Bush’s 11th hour
Daily Iowegian
Expertise Trumps Ideology in Obama’s Early Picks
Daily Iowegian
auto bailout
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