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: Marine ingredients and tips
The reconciliation bill process was more chaotic than usual. There were more than 100 new regulations this week, and more than 800 agency notices. The…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Mortgage market analysis with Mark Calabria
In this week’s episode we cover weaponization of financial regulation, the Kroger-Albertsons merger, and a spirited defense of ultra-processed foods. Our…
Blog
Biden’s Fall 2024 Unified Agenda of regulations: The numbers, trends, and what’s next
The Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) dropped the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions this past weekend.
Search Posts
Blog
One Nation, Ungovernable? Confronting the Modern Regulatory State
(Note: What follows is a hyperlinked version of the introductory paragraphs to the chapter of the same name in the new Fraser Institute/Mercatus…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Federal Register passed the 35,000-page mark with new regulations covering everything from food additives to chimpanzees. On to the data: Last week, 81 new final regulations…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a prolific week for the Federal Register, with more than 1,700 pages covering everything from real estate appraisal to water banks. On to the…
Blog
How Many Significant Regulations Escape Congress’ Notice?
The Spring 2015 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions was released in late May, presenting recently completed actions and ongoing priorities of the federal…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
New regulations last week covered everything from growing cherries to airport security fees to preventing collisions at sea. On to the data: Last week, 65…
Blog
Obama Has Issued More “Economically Significant” Rules in 6.5 Years than Bush Did in Eight
It happens to be the case that, in terms of overall counts of rules and regulations published in the Federal Register as final rules, the George W.
Blog
Here Are All 205 “Economically Significant” Rules in the Spring 2015 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
The Spring 2015 Unified Agenda of Federal Deregulatory and Regulatory Actions was released by the Obama administration just before Memorial Day weekend. It’s less of a…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a four-day work week because of the Memorial Day holiday, but regulators still had a busy week, with new regulations covering everything from…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The big regulatory news from last week was the publication of the semiannual Unified Agenda, which lists most upcoming regulations from rulemaking agencies at various…
Forbes
A Comprehensive Regulatory Reform Agenda, Barack Obama Veto Pen Notwithstanding
Congress passes a few dozen laws each year, but regulators meanwhile issue several thousand rules and regulations. On top of that, “regulatory dark matter“…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a slow week despite more than 1,300 Federal Register pages, with just 36 proposed regulations and fewer than 50 final regulations, ranging from spearmint oil…
US News
The Real Cost of Regulation
Peter Roff cites Wayne Crews' work on the cost of regulation in U.S. News. These costs are not insignificant. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Fox Business
Cost of Federal Regulation: $1.88 trillion
Fox Business features Wayne Crews' Ten Thousand Commandments report. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is out with its annual report that estimates that the U.S.
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2015: A Fact Sheet
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American…
News Release
Report Reveals Hidden Tax of Federal Regulation Reaches $1.88 Trillion
In the latest edition of Ten Thousand Commandments released today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) reveals the latest on the large, growing “hidden tax”…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Last week’s raft of new rules covers everything from school lunch workers to Flugzeugbau gliders. On to the data: Last week, 65 new final regulations…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The 1,000th new regulation of 2015 was published in Friday’s Federal Register, which itself hit the 25,000-page mark on the year. Even so, agencies are still…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The big news in regulation for the week came from Canada, which made official its one-in, one-out policy for new regulations. New regulations from agencies…
Blog
Balanced Budgets and Regulatory Budgets
The Joint House-Senate Conference Meeting on the federal budget has begun. Chairman Tom Price of Georgia remarked: Completing a budget is one of…
Study
No Spoof
Several states had serious doubts about the validity of tax credits for individuals purchasing insurance on Obamacare's federally facilitated exchange as early as 2011. Questions still remain,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a fairly typical week, with nearly 70 final regulations and more than 50 proposed regulations hitting the books, covering everything from potato handling…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Along with last wwek’s usual slew of final regulations covering everything from power plants to televisions, an additional 55 proposed regulations also hit the books.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
New rules published in the last week include everything from the IRS and Executive Office of the President declaring themselves exempt from select transparency laws,…
Blog
The Republican Budget and Middle Class Economics
Yesterday the House Republicans released their “Balanced Budget for a Stronger America” and the Senate Republicans will release their budget proposal today. House Republicans…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
An otherwise slow week ended with a bang on Friday, with 27 new regulations, or nearly half the week’s total, covering everything from calorie counts…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the King v. Burwell case last week. The decision, likely to appear in June, will determine in part whether regulatory…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The FCC, inspired by a law passed in 1934, unveiled its controversial plan to regulate the Internet as a public utility. Beyond that it was…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
In a very cold, holiday-shortened week, federal agencies issued 40 final and 33 proposed regulations covering everything from lithium-ion batteries to small fish in Oregon.
Blog
How to Help Tesla and Taxpayers
Policies aimed at reducing auto emissions in California and 10 other states are having a troubling set of unintended consequences, according to a recent editorial at…
Blog
Does Regulation Hurt Innovation?
How much does regulation crimp innovation? Not very much, according to a new study from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Nathan Goldschlag and George Mason University’s Alex…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
In a week like any other, regulatory agencies issued more than 50 new rules covering everything from from rockfish to wine. On to the data:…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Last week’s batch of new rules covered everything from fluorescent lights to postage rates. On to the data: Last week, 59 new final regulations were…
The Washington Post
Defining Economic Failure Down
George Will cites Wayne Crews' regulatory calculations in his column. The lingering economic anemia is astonishing, given plummeting energy prices. To a…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Regulators stepped up their pace last week, with nearly 80 regulations covering everything from defibrillators to Korean oranges. On to the data: Last week, 77…
Forbes
Obama’s 2016 Federal Budget And Middle Class Economics
To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate…
Washington Times
Analysis Tracks Costly Path of 3,541 New Federal Regulations, Provides Antidote for Congress
The Washington Times heavily cites CEI's Agenda for Congress and regulatory cost calculations. The frugal but liberty-minded analysts at the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
RealClear Policy
The Crushing Burden of Government Regulation
Anyone concerned about the future of jobs and economic competitiveness in America must have been disappointed by the litany of free lunches and new government…
Study
Free to Prosper
With the start of the 114th Congress comes a fresh opportunity to address the challenges created by a broken government. To kick off this new…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Even in a shortened work week due to Martin Luther King Day, federal agencies still put out 40 final regulations and more than 50 proposed…
Blog
President Obama Says We’ve “Turned the Page” – Really?
In previewing his 2015 State of the Union Address, President Obama said … "2014 was the fastest year for job growth since the 1990s.
Forbes
Obama’s State Of The Union Address In Five Words
Even before presidents become lame ducks, their State of the Union Address proposals often don’t materialize. President Barack Obama is one of five lame…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
40 new regulations, from solid waste to washing machines.
Blog
Free to Prosper: Top Priorities for the 114th Congress
With the start of the 114th Congress comes a fresh opportunity to address the challenges created by a broken government. To kick off this new congressional…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Happy New Year to all of our regulatory followers! Wayne Crews previously summed up 2014’s year-end statistics in this post. Among the highlights are 3,541…
The Blaze
Obama’s Abuse of the Veto Makes Him an ‘Imperial President’
Just a few days into the new Congress, and President Barack Obama already has made three—count ‘em—credible veto threats. Representatives and Senators had barely started…
Forbes
CES And A Case For Separation Of Technology And State
As the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) winds down, there’s a lot of stuff you probably hope doesn’t stay in Vegas. Creative contributions to the…
Human Events
Welcome to 2015 and the Year of the Regulators
The tinsel had hardly fallen from the trees and the family reunion squabbles barely subsided—and the Washington Redskins’ disastrous season just ended—before two Washington Post…
Washington Examiner
Unconstitutionality Index: Feds Issued 27 Regs for Every New Law, 3,541 in 2014
Wayne Crews discusses the year in regulation with Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard: In a brand new calculation done by the Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
CEI’s 2015 Unconstitutionality Index: 27 Regulations for Every Law
There’s this idea floating around about America’s do-nothing Congress, that laws aren’t being passed. The Los Angeles Times called Congress “ineffective,” in 2013 since it passed…
Blog
2014 Ends with a 78,978-Page Federal Register; 3,541 Rules and Regulations
At year-end 2014, the Federal Register stands at 78,978 pages, the fifth-highest count ever. (The published version contains 79,066 pages, but I net out blank and skipped…
Washington Examiner
Report: 21,000 regulations so far under Obama, 2,375 set for 2015
Wayne Crews is cited in the Washington Examiner: The pace of agencies issuing new rules and regulations has hit a record high…
Forbes
Obama’s Veto Warning To The GOP Disregards His Record-Setting Regulation
In a widely cited year-end interview with National Public Radio, President Obama warned Republicans that: Now I suspect there are going…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The federal government took Thursday and Friday off to celebrate the holidays. Despite the rare three-day work week, agencies still published 25 proposed regulations, more…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
69 new regulations, from washing machines to plants for planting.
Breitbart
Federal Register Adds Nearly 1600 Pages of New Regulations
Breitbart discusses the latest regulatory numbers with CEI's Ryan Young. Not to be outdone by the congressional 1,603 page Cromnibus spending bill,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
While Congress was busy with the 1,603-page Cromnibus bill (full text), agencies added nearly that many pages to the Federal Register with new regulations for everything…
The Washington Examiner
Obama Outdoes Bush on Small Business Rules
The Washington Examiner excerpts Wayne Crews' CEI blog post on President Obama's rules affecting small businesses: President Obama has issued nearly half…
Blog
Deteriorating White House Regulatory Disclosure Needs Active Congressional Review
Recently we’ve spent time reviewing Washington’s “Unified Agenda” of federal regulations, which came out just before Thanksgiving. It purports to tell what the alphabet soup…
Blog
The Future and the Regulated
Lawrence Summers, the enfant terrible of the economics profession, has written a thoughtful column on “Our Loss of Faith in the Future,” noting that…
Blog
Small Business Regulations: Obama Red Tape Exceeds Bush Level
As we noted last week, President Obama has issued nearly half again as many “major,” $100-million regulations during his six years as President as George…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
While the number of new regulations last week was normal, their cost was abnormal, totaling well over half a billion dollars just for the four…
Fox News
Regulation Nation: Gov’t regs estimated to pound private sector with $1.8T in costs
Fox News cites Wayne Crews' work on regulatory compliance: For America's businesses, the Obama administration has an unpleasant holiday surprise.
Blog
Obama’s Major Regulations 50 Percent Higher than Bush
Back in 2012, President Obama emphasized that he had issued fewer rules in his first three years as president than his predecessor President George W. Bush.
Washington Examiner
Regulation Nation: Obama Issues Nearly 50% More Costly Regs Than Bush
The Washington Examiner cites Wayne Crews' work comparing President Bush's regulations to President Obama's: "According to an analysis by Clyde Wayne Crews Jr.,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Regulators had much to be thankful for during the short Thanksgiving work week, with new rules covering everything from grocery store ads to wireless signal…
Washington Examiner
Easy Come, Easy Go
The Federal Reserve announced Oct. 29 that it was ending quantitative easing, its program to keep interest rates low. Two days later and halfway around…
Blog
Washington’s Thanksgiving Turkeys: Here Are All of the White House’s 200 Economically Significant Rules
As usual, the president will pardon a turkey again this year for Thanksgiving; For us turkey eaters, though, our federal holiday treat is lots and lots…
News Release
Thanksgiving Regulation Report: 3,415 Rules & Regs
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the federal government dropped its Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which is supposed to shed some light…
Blog
The Federal Register Topped 70,000 Pages Today
The Federal Register, where federal agencies’ daily rules, regulations, notices, “guidance,” bulletins and other material accumulate each day, just topped 70,000 pages for 2014. 70,052…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a bit of a slow week as these things go, but regulators still published new rules on everything from stress testing to sage…
Forbes
Big Sexy Holiday Fun With The 2014 Unified Agenda Of Federal Regulations
The fall Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions always seems to appear just before the Holidays. You know, when nobody’s really looking. The…
Blog
President Obama’s Executive Overreach Compounded by Regulatory Dark Matter
In recent years the Federal Register has topped out at well over 70,000 pages, two times at more than 80,000. Each year over 3,500 rules issue from…
Forbes
U.S. Senate Keystone Pipeline Defeat Shows The Hazards Of Over-regulation
The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights. …
Study
Top 5 Things Congress Should Consider During Lame-Duck Session
View the document here During Congress’ lame-duck session, both Republicans and Democrats will dig into a number of stalled pieces of legislation…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Federal Register took Tuesday off to observe Veterans’ Day. The short week was still a busy one, with Thursday’s edition alone totaling 783 pages. On to…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Election week was a busy one on the regulatory front, with new rules on everything from fuel taxes to wireless spectrum. With the Senate changing…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
In the final week before the midterm election, agencies published new regulations ranging from dairy profits to Japanese oranges. Fittingly, the total number of new…
Fox Business
What Small Business Owners Think About Income Tax
Fox Business cites Wayne Crews' work on regulatory compliance costs: With so much revenue potential when taxpayers and businesses thrive, one would…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet – Fall 2014
Blog
How Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Has Grown since President Clinton
In recent five-part series called The 2014 Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Roundup, I took a look at hours of paperwork for various departments and…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was business as usual, with new rules hitting the books on everything from political speech restrictions to butterflies to football broadcasts. On to the…
Blog
The 2014 Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Roundup, Part 5: Executive Agency Regulatory Costs
In Parts 1 through 4 of The 2014 Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Roundup we compiled a basic picture of federal paperwork costs with respect to…
Blog
The 2014 Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Roundup, Part 4: Independent Agency Paperwork Costs
A recent post here at OpenMarket noted the Annual Costs of Independent Agency Rulemakings and presented an annual cost placeholder of $6.14 billion annually stemming from compliance with…
Blog
The Great Unknown – Federal Independent Agencies’ Regulatory Costs
Let’s be independent together! —Herbie the Dentist Elf to Rudolph in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Independent agencies are not subject to Office of Management and Budget…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The federal government took Monday off for Columbus Day, but still managed to pack more than 50 new regulations into a short week. On to…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Even with a mid-term election coming up next month, agencies are cranking out a dozen or so new regulations every workday. The federal government also…
Blog
A Pen and Phone Strategy to Shrink Government
President Obama is right that Congress doesn’t do much. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. But the pen and phone strategy Obama proposed…
Blog
The 2014 Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Roundup, Part 2: Billions of Dollars and 13,000 Lifetimes Annually
Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and…
RealClear Markets
Obama’s Pen and Phone Can Achieve Great Things
"[I]f Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will," President Obama warned in 2013. "I will direct my cabinet to come up with…
Blog
The 2014 Federal Paperwork and Red Tape Roundup, Part 1: Big Bucks for Pencil Pushers
The more restrictions and prohibitions are in the Empire, the poorer grow the people. —Lao-Tzu When it comes to red tape and federal paperwork,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Federal Register topped the 60,000-page mark on Friday, and is on pace for the 6th-highest page count in its 79-year history. Along the way,…
Forbes
How Entrepreneurs Can Speak Out About The Cost Of Regulation
When federal bureaucrats in Washington released the Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations for fiscal year 2013, their hope was…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
A busy week ended with a flourish, with Friday’s Federal Register alone containing 28 final regulations and 542 pages.
Washington Examiner
Federal Regs Cost $1.88 Trillion, More With Obama’s ‘Pen and Phone’ Rules
Burdensome federal regulations cost American taxpayers and businesses a shocking $1.88 trillion annually — far more than the administration estimates — and that doesn’t include…
The Hill
Black Markets Do Not Protect Minorities
Originally published at The Hill Former Denver mayor Wellington Webb argues in a Sept. 14 op-ed in The Hill that legalized online gambling would…
Blog
Regulator: True Ridesharing Illegal in California
In the past, I’ve noted that carve-outs for ridesharing providers leaves more innovative and disruptive business models—particularly future automated services—illegal. While self-driving on-demand transportation…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The number of new regulations topped 2,500 on the year, while the Federal Register added 1,853 pages to end the week just shy of the…
Forbes
Hairball: The Cost Of Federal Regulation To The U.S. Economy
Before the National Association of Manufacturers even had a chance to release their important new report today on the aggregate annual cost of federal regulations,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a short week due to the Labor Day holiday, but agencies still managed to issue more than 60 new regulations and push the…
Blog
Strengthening Executive Branch Review of Federal Regulations
This week marks the due date of public comments on the 2014 edition of the Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of…
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