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: Taxing the rich with Jared Walczak
In this week’s episode we cover America’s low-income churn, reforms to civil asset forfeiture, changes to vehicle emissions testing, a shout…
Blog
The week in regulations: Bone void filler and halibut action
May’s job numbers were strong for the third month in a row, though job growth since Liberation Day remains under 100,000, for a labor force…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: State budgets and bailouts with Thomas Savidge
In this week’s episode we cover promising new classroom technology, increasing productivity (and avoiding layoffs) with AI, and the repeal of the…
Search Posts
Op-Eds
The Costs Of Federal Agency Expertise
Whether the matter at hand is health, safety, economic or technology policy regulation, federal intervention is legitimized on the basis of presumed impartial expertise of…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Lawyers are having a field day in Washington, and not just in cases involving associates of a certain member of the executive branch. Over at…
Forbes
What Is The Effect Of Federal Regulation On Jobs?
A time of record employment is a perfect opportunity to reflect upon the conditions that enable it (suspicion of official employment statistics notwithstanding). How do you keep letting…
Blog
Federal Regulatory Cost Disclosure Reports Latest Ever
Why does it need to be such a headache to get timely reports on the costs and benefits of federal regulation? Government spends and it regulates.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a slow news week on the policy front, though quite busy on the drama/soap opera front. The House was in recess, and while…
Blog
Hernando de Soto: How To Make the Third World Richer than the First
Our good friend Nick Gillespie interviews Peruvian economist and property rights activist Hernando de Soto about the future of prosperity in the developing world, and…
Investor's Business Daily
Deregulation Nation: President Trump Cuts Regulations at Record Rate
Investor’s Business Daily cited Senior Fellow Clyde Wayne Crews on Ten Thousand Commandments. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute noted earlier this year…
The Washington Post
Has the Trump Administration Repealed 22 Regulations for Each New One?
The Washington Post Fact Checker cited Vice President for Policy and Senior Fellow Clyde Wayne Crews on regulatory reform. Clyde Wayne Crews of the…
Forbes
Are Entrepreneurs Creating the Growing Economy, or is the Growing Economy Enabling Entrepreneurs?
It is taken as given that taxation and regulation affect business startups and job creation. However, the many metrics seeking to explain governmental policies' effects…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new final regulations for the year passed the 2,000 mark, with new rules ranging from cell walls to harpoon fishing.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big regulatory news is a proposed loosening of fuel economy standards for cars. This will likely improve safety; lighter cars don’t hold up…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The economy grew by 4.1 percent last quarter, which is wonderful news. The president also announced $12 billion of subsides for farmers hurt…
Op-Eds
Are Entrepreneurs Creating The Growing Economy, Or Is The Growing Economy Enabling Entrepreneurs?
It is taken as given that taxation and regulation affect business startups and job creation. However the many metrics seeking to explain governmental policies' effects on entrepreneurship probably…
Forbes
Trump’s 2018 Regulatory Reform Agenda by the Numbers
The Trump administration has released the new Spring 2018 edition of the twice-yearly Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.
Forbes
Should Congress be Repealing Agency Rules that are Already Invalid?
The Senate has voted to repeal a 2013 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulatory guidance document that took the form of a “bulletin” on “Indirect…
Forbes
An Inventory of Federal Agency Guidance Documents
Is that an exciting click-bait title or what? It gets even better though. Federal regulations’ hundreds of billions in costs and burdens are a familiar…
Blog
Driving Innovation: Timbro Index Charts Scope of Global Sharing Economy
The Swedish think tank Timbro has published the first global index of the sharing economy. The Timbro Sharing Economy Index (TSEI) is the…
Blog
White House Budget Director Mulvaney Speaks at CEI Annual Dinner
Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, delivered the keynote address at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Annual Dinner and…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The European Union fined Google a record $5 billion for antitrust violations, and the president raised foreign policy kerfuffles with Britain and Russia on…
Blog
Kent Lassman at the Independence Institute: Deregulation in the Trump Administration
The Competitive Enterprise Institute staff often travel to bring the good news of regulatory reform to friends, allies, and interested audiences all across the country, and…
News Release
House Bipartisan JOBS Act 3.0 Act Will Cut Red Tape for Investors, Small Companies
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will likely pass by a substantial margin a legislative package — backed by both House Financial Services Committee Chairman…
Comment
CEI Comments on the Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) welcomes the opportunity to offer comments regarding the regulation of flavors in tobacco products.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was an uneventful week at regulatory agencies, with a lower-than-usual 51 new final regulations, ranging from skin disability ratings to garage door openers. For more data,…
Blog
Britain’s Brexit Challenge Gets Harder—and It’s Britain’s Fault
Leaving a regional trade bloc is much more difficult than entering it, as the United Kingdom is finding out. The European Union has integrated itself…
Forbes
Born Or Made? Personal Characteristics that Influence Entrepreneurship
Regulation is one of the more important influences on entrepreneurship around the world, and modern scholars have explored what the see as key conceptual and…
Bloomberg
VIDEO: Ryan Radia Discusses the Supreme Court and the Regulatory State on Bloomberg
Ryan Radia, Research Fellow and Regulatory Counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, joined Bloomberg Markets to discuss the Supreme Court's impact on the regulatory state.
Compliance Week
Counterpoint: Chevron Case Creates Imbalance
The famous passage from James Madison in the Federalist Papers, Essay 51—“If men were angels, no government would be necessary”—reveals where the problems lie with…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
America celebrated its 242nd birthday on Wednesday, and new tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods came into effect on Friday. Meanwhile, during a…
Forbes
Americans Celebrate July 4th — But Can They Celebrate Independence?
News reports on Fourth of July polling pointedly distinguish between “proud to be an American” and “proud of America now,” in a way less apparent…
Forbes
What do Scholars Say About the Empirical Relationships Between Regulation and Entrepreneurship?
In the Fraser Institute’s new volume Demographics and Entrepreneurship: Mitigating the Effects of an Aging Population, chapter authors observe that the more red tape and…
Forbes
What Do Scholars Say About The Conceptual Relationship Between Regulation And Entrepreneurship?
We know that “Institutions Matter” when it comes to governance and prosperity. They have to, because the phrase returns over 200,000 Google search results.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a newsy week, with Justice Kennedy’s retirement announcement, along with some big Supreme Court decisions, including the Janus decision regarding public sector unions;…
Blog
Remarks by CEI President Kent Lassman at 2018 Annual Dinner
Remarks by CEI President Kent Lassman at our Annual Dinner and Reception on June 28, 2018, in Washington, D.C. Welcome to the CEI annual dinner. Thank you all for…
The Wall Street Journal
The Dishwasher Rebellion
The Wall Street Journal cited CEI’s on the dishwasher rebellion. The digital revolution relentlessly enables consumer products to become better, faster and cheaper.
Forbes
Pinpointing The Role Of Economic Liberty In Inspiring Global Entrepreneurship
It is hard to start a business that works. Most people do not attempt it. The reasons are complex, but the World Bank’s Doing Business…
Forbes
Trump’s Executive Branch Restructuring: What If The Federal Government Is Beyond Streamlining?
Can the federal government shrink? Or is the situation like the waistlines that paradoxically parallel the growth of the diet and fitness industry?…
The Washington Examiner
Judge Protects Us from ‘Protection’ Bureau
As the Senate prepares for what should be a contentious confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Summer officially began last week, and federal regulators celebrated with new regulations ranging from almond kernel computing to rough diamonds.
News Release
CEI on The White House Plan to Reform and Reorganize Regulatory Agencies
Today, the White House released its much-anticipated plan for reorganizing federal government agencies. Competitive Enterprise Institute policy experts praised some of the reforms but pointed…
Forbes
What Key Factors Influence Entrepreneurship and Business Growth? Ideas for Researchers
If getting things done requires too many steps, there will be fewer entrepreneurs. That seems to be something of a consensus in the economics and social…
Comment
CEI Comments on the CFPB’s Request for Information Regarding Adopted Regulations and New Rulemaking Authorities
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we are pleased to provide the following comments on the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (Bureau or…
Blog
Last Chance for the 115th: Options for Regulatory Reform
With a possible party change in play this November in one or both chambers of Congress, the time might be now or never to pass…
News Release
CEI Urges Senate To Press CFPB Nominee on Stopping Regulatory Abuse
Over the past weekend, President Trump nominated Kathy Kraninger, an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, to head the Bureau of Consumer…
Blog
Minimum Wage Proposal Divides D.C. Workers, Voters
Washington, D.C. has a $12.50 per hour minimum wage. But for tip-earning workers, such as servers and bartenders, the minimum is $3.33 per hour—tips are…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Angry allies, North Korea, and Chinese tariffs dominated the news last week. Under the radar, regulatory agencies closed in on their 1,500th new regulation of…
Townhall
Reduce, Freeze or Eliminate CAFE Fuel Standards
Townhall cited Sam Kazman on the contribution to casualty rates stemming from automobile related accidents that CAFÉ rules propagate. Even with side air…
Blog
Good News for Young Lemonade Stand Entrepreneurs
Every summer there are news stories about local authorities shutting down children’s lemonade stands over lack of licenses, permits, a lack of restaurant-grade kitchen or…
Forbes
What the AT&T-Time Warner Merger Decision Means for U.S. Regulation
President Donald Trump's moves to streamline federal regulation and unleash infrastructure have in some ways been unprecedented. But some developments could undermine or swamp the…
Blog
Putting the Net Neutrality Scare Stories to Rest
Today is the first day of the Internet operating under the Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO), which was adopted last December but is…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The week’s big headlines were about the G7 meeting and our allies’ efforts to avoid a trade war, and the meeting with north Korea…
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