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.
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Free the Economy podcast: The future of Fusionism with Stephanie Slade
In this week’s episode we cover federal vs. state rules for prediction markets, the difference between Detroit and Pittsburgh, and a…
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The week in regulations: Mariner training and Maryland trash
The federal government’s annual budget deficit hit $2 trillion. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged to livestream an execution. Thirty-year Treasury bond interest rates continued…
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Free the Economy podcast: Competition and innovation with Jack Nicastro
In this week’s episode we cover the case of Suncor v. Boulder County at the Supreme Court, the problems with the Los…
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News Release
Senate Votes Down Unfair CFPB Auto Lending Rule
CEI praised the Senate today for voting down the Obama-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that unfairly penalized auto lenders for any unintentional disparate impact…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2018
View the Full Report Here Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations,…
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AI in the UK: Lords’ Report Makes Startups Less Competitive
The British House of Lords recently published a report on artificial intelligence, which includes policy recommendations that would hamper the development of AI domestically and…
Products
Liberate to Stimulate
Download Chapter 10 as a PDF Policy makers frequently propose spending stimulus as a way to grow economies. It rarely goes well.
Products
Regulation and the FCC
Download Chapter 9 as a PDF The Federal Communications Commission is by no means the heavyweight among regulators as gauged by the…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The highlights from this week’s round of 36 proposed regulations and 72 final regulations range from licensing government inventions to the Department of Redundancy Department’s…
Staff & Scholars
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist and Director of Publications
- 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