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
Deregulation deferred—not defeated—by the Big Beautiful Bill
In my latest Forbes column, I detail how the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) had the potential to revolutionize federal regulatory policy. But…
Blog
The week in regulations: Flight safety and organic pet food
Qatar’s government gave Trump a $400 million jumbo jet that he can use after leaving office. The US and China agreed to lower their tariffs…
Blog
Regulatory reform takes all three branches
Over at The Hill, Wayne Crews and I argue that regulatory reform requires all three branches of government. Not only is a healthy separation…
Search Posts
Products
Chapter 10: Federal regulations affecting state and local governments
State and local officials’ concerns over federal mandates’ overriding their own priorities and prerogatives resulted in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, the requirements…
Products
Chapter 11: Government Accountability Office database on rules and major rules
The federal government’s regulatory reports and databases serve different purposes. The Federal Register presents all proposed and final rules affecting the private sector, as well…
Products
Chapter 2: Why we need a regulatory budget
Well before Biden’s unique transformations, policymakers recognized a role for regulatory restraint, transparency, and disclosure. Federal programs are funded either by taxes or by borrowing,…
Products
Chapter 8: The “Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions”
Along with the Report to Congress, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, another vehicle for regulatory disclosure is the spring and fall editions of…
Products
Chapter 9: Federal regulations affecting small business
The aforementioned National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) report found that average annual per-employee regulatory costs to firms vary by firm size in a way that…
Products
Chapter 3: Page counts and numbers of rules in the Federal Register
The Federal Register is the daily repository of all proposed and final federal rules and regulations. Although its number of pages is often cited as…
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