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
Free the Economy podcast: Political drinking with Jarrett Dieterle
In this week’s episode we cover student loans, revenue from tariffs, democracy in Hong Kong, and the impact of podcasts…
Blog
From cuts to costs: Why federal paperwork keeps piling up
The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) release of the 2023 Information Collection Budget (ICB) paints a troubling picture of not just of growing federal…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Mergers and mail
The 2024 Federal Register topped 90,000 pages and is now the second-longest ever, dating back to 1936, with more than a month still to go.
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Comment
OMB’s Problematic Circular A-4 Rewrite
OUTLINE Discard the pro-regulatory bias of the federal government Restore regulatory streamlining prior to Circular A-4 rewrite Restore the $100 million threshold for regulation…
Comment
CEI Comments on Proposed Circular A-4, Regulatory Analysis
Dear Administrator Revesz: I appreciate this opportunity to provide comments on the proposed Circular A-4, “Regulatory Analysis.”1 The focus of my comments is on the…
News Release
House passes sensible regulatory reform bills to shrink power of the administrative state
Earlier today, the House passed 220 to 211 the Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA) sponsored by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI).
Blog
New Biden White House Agenda shows 3,666 rules in regulatory pipeline
The Spring 2023 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions has been released. A fall version of this twice-yearly document will also contain a…
News Release
U.S. House passes legislation to preserve consumer choice in kitchen appliances
The U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1615 today, a bill that would protect Americans ability to choose the type of stove they want in…
Blog
Congress should block Biden’s harmful environmental regulations with power of the purse
Congress shouldn’t sit back and watch as the Biden administration proposes and finalizes costly and harmful energy and environmental regulation. Instead, it needs to take…
Blog
Do more deregulation in debt limit deal
The internal GOP debate this week is over lower-case “d” default if a June 6 deadline for an increase in the debt limit is…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Transparency for government, privacy for people with Brian Hawkins
In this week’s episode we talk discuss Tim Carney’s view on why big government is good for big business, Stone Washington on the…
Blog
Let’s get this huge ‘hidden tax’ of regulation out into the open
Smack dab in the middle of contentious debt limit negotiations, the House Budget Committee held another in its series of hearings on American economic growth,…
Testimony
Testimony of Wayne Crews: Removing the Burdens of Government Overreach
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss issues surrounding Removing the Burdens of Government Overreach, and I thank Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member Boyle, and Members of…
Blog
A remembrance: C. Boyden Gray, 1943-2023
We mourn the passing of C. Boyden Gray. He was a man of his family, the law, and his country. Boyden served in the highest…
The Hill
Don’t give federal agencies carte blanche on regulations — make Congress vote
The Limit, Save, Grow Act, recently passed by the Republican House of Representatives, would raise the nation’s borrowing limit through March 31 of next year or…
Forbes
Congress Should Halt OMB’s Rewrite Of Circular A-4 Guidance On Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis
People love to gripe about red tape; but not only is there a method to the madness, there’s a certain madness to the method these…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: toy guns and trophy fisheries
The 2023 Federal Register topped 30,000 pages on May 8. New inflation numbers looked better on the surface, but actually got worse. A new…
News Release
Economist James Broughel joins Competitive Enterprise Institute as senior fellow
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to welcome economist James Broughel as a Senior Fellow with a focus on innovation and dynamism. Dr. Broughel…
Blog
Screw up the dishwashers, save the planet?
The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed more stringent energy and water efficiency standards for dishwashers Friday, despite the fact that the regulations currently on…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: cloudy guidance documents and potato ledprona
The number of new final regulations this year topped 1,000 last week. It was the rare 3,000-page for the Federal Register, which will likely surpass…
Blog
Regulatory reform in the 118th Congress: Regulatory Accountability Act
In 2003, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published Circular A-4. A-4 is little-known but crucial oversight measure for new regulations. It gives…
Blog
The week in ridiculous regulations: otter casualties and moving the goalpost
Fox News settled its defamation case over its false reporting on the 2020 election with voting machine maker Dominion. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…
Forbes
Congress Must Mobilize To Halt Biden’s Radical Administrative State Transformation
[T]he genius of the Progressives in the late 19th century was to preempt or push large sectors of the emerging future (the environment,…
Blog
Congress shouldn’t party like it’s 2019 on national debt
Now comes the GOP’s turn to do its own version of a “lockdown.” Republicans should heed the advice of a member of the other party, Rahm…
News Release
House Republicans Helpfully Tie Government Reforms to Debit Limit Deal
House Republican leadership yesterday released the text of their debt limit deal which trades a suspension or increase in the debt limit for a number…
National Review
No, Lockdown States Did Not Do Better
Many politicians, public-health figures, and media pundits continue to insist that the Covid lockdowns were a success and represent a blueprint for future pandemic responses. Illinois…
Blog
Biden Executive Order Harms Transparency
The Biden administration recently issued an Executive Order making major changes to the regulatory system, although almost nobody noticed thanks to culture war drama…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Headline CPI inflation went down slightly, but a deeper look shows that things got slightly worse. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from low-fat…
Blog
Regulatory Reform in the 118th Congress: Separation of Powers Restoration Act
The separation of powers is a key aspect of American government. To decentralize power and ensure checks and balances, the Founders divided the federal government…
City Journal
Roll It Back
Medicaid, the federal-state entitlement for the poor, now provides health insurance to more than one in four Americans. Enrollments surged after the Affordable Care Act…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
An Executive Order from the Biden administration made some of the biggest system-level regulatory changes in years. It raises the threshold for “economically significant”…
News Release
Biden’s ‘Modernizing Regulatory Review’ Executive Order Will Undermine Review
President Biden yesterday issued an “Executive Order on Modernizing Regulatory Review,” by which “modernizing” apparently means undermining transparency and disclosure and pushing a radical…
Forbes
Regulatory Reform’s Role In Addressing The Debt Limit
Spring is here, the first quarter is over, and the federal debt limit is back in play. Again. The cap was last …
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Finland, which borders Russia, is joining NATO. Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Forbes
The “Guidance Out Of Darkness Act” Is The Low-Hanging Fruit Of Regulatory Reform
We often marvel that we don’t actually know how many federal agencies exist. And the number of “commissions” and programs (many expired…
News Release
Senator Ron Johnson and 15 GOP Colleagues Introduce Guidance Out of Darkness Act in 118th Congress
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act this week, a bill aimed at bringing transparency to agency guidance documents…
Forbes
Laws Against Laws: A 118th Congress Regulatory Reform Agenda For Rightsizing Washington
It’s all right to be little-bitty. — Alan Jackson, “Little Bitty,” Everything I Love, 1996 It ought to be harder to enact bad laws and regulations…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Biden released a $6.8 trillion proposed budget. The labor force grew by 311,000 people in February. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
Regulatory Reform in the 118th Congress: The ALERT Act
Transparency is a vital part of good government. It is also lacking in the regulatory process. H.R. 262, The All Economic Regulations are Transparent…
News Release
Biden Budget Amounts to Top-Down Central Planning, Lacks Needed Reforms
President Biden today unveiled his latest budget submitted to Congress. CEI experts take a dim view of the agenda of excess spending and regulation…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI published a new paper on right-to-repair legislation and held a hill briefing about regulatory reform and other topics. Meanwhile, agencies issued new…
Forbes
Biden’s 2024 Federal Budget Proposal Extends Helicopter Government
It appears that instead of a federal fiscal budget that sticks to the basics, we are growing accustomed to an ambitious central government that doubles…
Blog
Regulatory Reform Bills in the 118th Congress: The Article I Regulatory Budget Act
The federal government is supposed to put out an annual budget to track its spending. Why doesn’t it do the same thing for regulation? The…
Forbes
Regulation Without Representation: A Quick Revisit Of The “Unconstitutionality Index”
Administrative agencies rather than the elected Congress do the bulk of U.S. lawmaking despite the strictures of Article I of the Constitution —…
Blog
Regulatory Reform Bills in the 118th Congress: The GOOD Act
Regulatory dark matter is a serious problem. Agencies are supposed to run new regulations through a formal process which includes publishing a draft version of…
Blog
Regulatory Reform Bills in the 118th Congress: The REINS Act
Every new session of Congress is a new chance to enact substantive regulatory reform. This post inaugurates an occasional series highlighting reform bills that have…
Washington Examiner
Democrats and Republicans: Unite around abundance
Inflation may finally be starting to wane, but there is no clear end in sight to the economic turmoil that Americans have experienced for nearly…
Americans for Tax Reform
Q&A on Credit Card Regulation
Americans for Tax Reform has been consistently opposed to government regulation of debit and credit card transactions. Last year, ATR opposed the Credit Card Competition…
News Release
CEI Launches “Eye on FTC” Campaign to Raise Awareness of Agency Overreach and Lack of Transparency
WASHINGTON—The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) launched a new “Eye on FTC” educational campaign today to raise awareness about overreach and a lack of…
Blog
Congress Should Require the Administration to Adopt a Regulatory Budget in Exchange for Raising the Debt Ceiling
Every once in a while, the escalating drama of Washington policy debate has a genuine problem behind it. The suddenly heated focus on the need to…
Larry Kudlow Show
RADIO: CEI’s Wayne Crews Joins The Larry Kudlow Show
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies Wayne Crews joined The Larry Kudlow Show to discuss the hidden tax of federal regulations.
News Release
CEI Regulation Expert Wayne Crews Becomes “Fred L. Smith, Jr. Fellow in Regulatory Studies”
Longtime regulation policy expert Clyde Wayne Crews is now the inaugural “Fred L. Smith, Jr. Fellow in Regulatory Studies” at the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
National Review
Puerto Rico Libre
The first airplane my father ever boarded was the one that took him from Puerto Rico to New York to attend the United States Military Academy…
News Release
White House Finally Releases “Unified Agenda” on Upcoming Regulations, Signaling a Rise in Big, Costly New Regulations
Today, at last, the White House released the fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, where federal regulators report on what they have planned for…
Forbes
118th Congress Should Confront Biden Administration On Overdue Regulatory Cost Benefit Reports
Not later than February 5, 2001, and on the first Monday in February of each year thereafter, the President, acting through the Director of the…
The Hill
Congress can promote growth by lowering regulatory barriers for consumers and businesses
Three quarters of Americans surveyed by Gallup say they disapprove of the way Congress handles the job of governing. We also know that…
News Release
CEI Releases Pro-Growth Regulatory Reform Agenda for the 118th Congress
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offered a set of important policy reforms for the 118th Congress to consider when it convenes in…
Products
Free to Prosper: Inflation
In 2022, inflation reached its highest levels in 40 years and became a hot-button economic issue. Confusion surrounding the causes of inflation has resulted in confusing…
American Viewpoints
AUDIO: Senior Fellow Ryan Young Joins American Viewpoints
Senior Fellow Ryan Young reacts to President Biden’s announcement that his administration is going to address “junk fees” as part of his effort to lower…
The Washington Times
Supreme Court Weighs Foreign Account Fines
The Washington Times cites General Counsel Dan Greenberg on IRS plans to add personnel and resources: Dan Greenberg, general counsel at Competitive…
National Review
The Threat from Biden’s ‘Whole of Government’ Regulatory Approach
When the U.S. federal administrative state began its march from novelty to leviathan over a century ago, few likely imagined the tangle of rules it would…
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2022 Released
The 2022 edition of Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments report is out now. Now in its 28th year, it has its usual panoply of…
Products
Chapter 7: A Note on Notice and Rule Reviews at OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Tracking the effects of rules and regulations, executive orders, memoranda, and regulatory guidance is vital. These alternative regulatory actions have become powerful means of working…
Products
Chapter 6: Another Dimension of Regulatory Dark Matter: Over 21,000 Agency Public Notices Annually
Along with presidential proclamations are those of departments and agencies. Without actually passing a law, government can signal expectations, specify parameters for, and influence…
Products
Chapter 1: Biden’s Regulatory “Modernization” Expanding Government Affirms the Unworkability of Administrative State Rule
Where recent editions of Ten Thousand Commandments began by surveying of approaches the Trump administration took to streamline red tape as well as of Trump’s…
Products
Chapter 2: Beyond a Federal “Regulatory Budget”
Federal programs get funded either by taxes or by borrowing against a promise to repay with interest from future tax collections. When Congress spends, no…
Products
Chapter 5: The Presidential Dimension of Regulatory Dark Matter: Executive Orders and Memoranda
Executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other executive actions make up a large component of executive “lawmaking.” They merit attention from lawmakers, since they can have,…
Products
Chapter 3: What Comes after “Trillion”? The Unknowable Costs of Regulation and Intervention
The cumulative high end for costs in the three recent fiscal years is around $4.6 billion, compared to around $105 billion for the prior 10…
Products
Chapter 4: Tens of Thousands of Pages and 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…
Products
Chapter 8: Analysis of “The Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations”
“The Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” (the Agenda) is the document in which agencies have outlined their priorities since…
Products
Chapter 10: Liberate to Stimulate
Policy makers frequently propose spending stimulus to grow or strengthen economies. That has certainly been the case during the past two years in response to…
Products
Executive Summary – Ten Thousand Commandments 2022
Download the Executive Summary as a PDF The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) February 2022 Budget and Economic Outlook, covering 2022 to 2032, shows discretionary,…
Products
Executive Summary – Ten Thousand Commandments 2022
The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) February 2022 Budget and Economic Outlook, covering 2022 to 2032, shows discretionary, entitlement, and interest spending of $6.822 trillion in…
Products
Chapter 9: Government Accountability Office Database on Regulations
The various federal reports and databases on regulations serve different purposes: The Federal Register shows the aggregate number of proposed and final rules—both those that…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2022
View Full Report Here Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and…
News Release
Report: Biden Upends Role of Federal Regulators to Seek Climate, Social Justice Policies
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report documents how regulations imposed by the federal government on the private sector have radically shifted since President Biden…
Federal News Network
A snapshot of federal rule-making and its wide scope
Federal News Network cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on federal rule making: Rulemaking is one of the most widespread activities in the federal government.
Blog
Questions the 118th Congress Should Ask OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee recently held a hearing on the nomination of Richard L. Revesz to be Administrator of the…
Blog
A One-Pager on an “Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act”
In recent months CEI has presented the case for a “Abuse of Crisis Prevention Act” to counter and prevent the political predation that continues to…
Blog
Tackling Unmeasured Government Growth Must be Prioritized in the 118th Congress
Fred L. Smith Jr., the founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, refers to the regulatory state as the least disciplined part of the federal enterprise.
Blog
The Jones Act vs. Puerto Rico, Again
Puerto Rico is almost entirely without power after Hurricane Fiona. Right now, there is a ship just offshore, ready to help. It has…
Comment
Comments to the Federal Trade Commission Regarding the Motor Vehicle Dealers Trade Regulation Rule
Comment Submitted: September 12, 2022 Docket No. FTC-2022-0046-0001 On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit the following comments in response to…
National Review
The Skyrocketing Cost of Staying Cool This Summer — and Future Ones
Add air conditioning to the long list of items experiencing inflation under the Biden administration. Whether it is fixing your home’s existing system or buying a…
Blog
CDC Restructuring Shows that Institutions Matter
One of my policy mantras is that institutions matter. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) restructuring announcement is big…
Inside Sources
Counterpoint: Manchin Disappoints With Inflation Reduction Act
Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has acted as a check on his party’s worst excesses. Manchin has stopped billions, possibly trillions, of…
Forbes
Biden Administration Releases Updated Regulatory Agenda
Apart from a one-time Obama-era glitch, federal agencies have highlighted selected regulatory priorities in Spring and Fall editions of the …
News Release
CEI Report Proposes Legislation to Stop Future Congresses from Exploiting National Crises to Grow Government
WASHINGTON—The United States has been rocked by three major economic crises so far in the 21st century—the 9/11 terror attacks, the 2008 financial crash, and…
Study
The Case for Letting Crises Go to Waste
Executive Summary An Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act to reaffirm boundaries of politicians and the legislation they can pass has become necessary to the survival of limited…
Blog
A Brief Outline of a Regulatory Report Card Congress Should Enact
Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. — Quote frequently attributed to Galileo, that, alas, probably was not…
The Washington Examiner
Warning: Biden’s Costly Overregulation Turns ‘Extreme’
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President for Policy and Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on President Biden’s Trucking Action Plan and Vice President Kamala Harris’ federal…
National Review
If You Really Want Broad-Based Prosperity, Dismantle the Regulatory State
National Review cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on dismantling the regulatory state: So argues Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise…
Law & Liberty
Dismantling the Regulatory State
Samuel Gregg’s lead article adroitly sketches the opportunities and obstacles to America building a broad-based economy, but I want to focus on one particular…
Forbes
Biden’s $5.79 Trillion 2023 Budget Proposal Would Also Expand Regulation
A billion here and a billion there, as the old saying went, would eventually add up to real money. Not so much…
The Washington Examiner
Biden Regulating ‘Wokeness’ and Socialism into Federal Policy: Expert
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews’ report on Biden’s government equity agenda: “Biden’s ‘whole of government’ equity agenda…
The Washington Examiner
Stymied in Senate, Biden Sets Off ‘Big Bang’ of Regulations
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on President Biden’s increased regulatory program proposals: In opening the regulations spigot,…
Inside Sources
Lawmakers Can Help Boost Virginia’s Economic Dynamism with a Regulatory Sandbox Program
As Virginia’s economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, state lawmakers are looking for ways to attract businesses and promote technological innovation. However, many entrepreneurs and…
Forbes
State & Federal Officials Move to Regulate & Even Ban PFAS Chemicals, But Many Wonder if that Makes Sense
Forbes cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the cost of federal regulations: Federal regulations cost employers, workers, and…
The Doug Collins Podcast
AUDIO: How the Government Regulates Every Room in your House: From Shower Heads to Dishwashers
Senior Fellow Ben Lieberman joins The Doug Collins Podcast to discuss regulations in households: Click here to read more.
The Washington Examiner
Regulatory Costs Soar as Biden Adds Rules Faster Than Predecessors
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on Biden Administration regulations: In a broader sense, Wayne Crews, vice president…
Reason
Lawsuit from Former Students Alleges Financial Aid Price Fixing at Elite Universities
Reason cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on how federal regulations affect student loans: Iain Murray, the vice president for strategy…
News Release
Inflation Hits 40 Year High, but Policymakers Can Fix It
Inflation is up, again, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports today. The Federal Reserve has a clear job to do, but Congress and President…
The Economist
Enthusiasm for Regulation, Often in Areas Like the Climate, Shows No Sign of Flagging
The Economist cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on regulatory guidance: Many new instructions come not as formal rules but in…
The Washington Examiner
Zogby: US Overwhelmingly Wants Less Federal Meddling
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on President Biden and regulations: The results were stunning, especially coming at…
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