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
Agenda for Congress: Regulation
CEI’s new Agenda for Congress is out now. Each chapter contains pro-market policy recommendations in areas where CEI has expertise. Here are four principles…

Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Automatic brakes and horse protection amendments
Sixty-seven people died when a military helicopter and a passenger jet collided near Reagan Airport. President Trump issued an Executive Order to stop all federal…

Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Trump vs. the Regulatory State with Susan Dudley
In this week’s episode we cover how the feds are forcing your bank to spy on you, a new strategy for housing…
Search Posts
Blog
Introduction to ‘Reorganizing the Executive Branch’
We’re all sharpening our own vision of how the executive branch can be rationalized, right-sized, streamlined, and otherwise reformed.
Blog
Confessions of a Recovering Bureaucrat
Neither clarity nor efficiency in government has improved in the past eight decades.
Blog
How to Reform the Executive Branch
President Trump’s March 13th executive order “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch” set in motion a process that could yield dramatic changes to how…
The Hill
Credit Trump For Boosting Business And Fueling Our Economic Growth
Andy Puzder, writing in The Hill, cites Wayne Crews’ “10,000 Commandments.” Progressive Democrats are in a tough spot. It is increasingly difficult to ignore that…
InsideSources
Counterpoint: One Year Post-Election: Grate Again, Great Again
It’s now one year since the election of Donald J. Trump as our nation’s president. Is America “great again”? The election certainly did make America…
Forbes
The Significance of Sen. Al Franken’s Call to Impose Net Neutrality on Google, Facebook and Amazon
Antitrust and technology market regulatory interventions are staging a comeback, even in the era of President Donald Trump’s push for broad…
Blog
Experimental Tech Helps Get Puerto Rico’s Telecom Services Back on Line
The freedom to try something without getting explicit and advanced permission from regulators is what allows innovations to be tried, tested, and either integrated or…
Reason
Trump’s Deregulatory ‘Juggernaut’?
Reason cites Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback.” “While the Republican machine that emerged from the 2016 election may be sputtering on other fronts,” The Wall Street…
Forbes
The Internet of Things Wants to Know Where Its 5G Is
A major pledge of the Trump Administration was cutting red tape and boosting America’s infrastructure. Ten months in, there are lots of moving parts to…
The Daily Caller
Trump Continues Successful Deregulatory Blitz with Repeal of CFPB Rule
In an op-ed for The Daily Caller, Edward Woodson cites “10,000 Commandments.” The stock market is booming. Unemployment beneficiary numbers have fallen to a …
National Review
The Criminal-Justice Reform No One’s Talking About
Rafael A. Mangual, writing for National Review, cites Wayne Crews’ “Unconstitutionality Index” when talking about criminal justice reform. In early October, Senate Republicans introduced three bills…
Blog
Ghouls and Goblins and Guidances
You could consider CEI to be the Ghostbusters of Washington, fighting back ghouls and goblins on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Federal Times
Politics Divide Regulatory Reform Efforts
The Federal Times covers the House Oversight Committee’s “Regulatory Reform Task Forces Check-In.” A recent House Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing on agency…
Blog
Testimony on Trump’s Executive Orders and Regulatory Task Forces before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducted a hearing entitled “Regulatory Reform Task Forces Check-In,” to which I…
Comment
Testimony of Wayne Crews on “Regulatory Reform Task Force Check-In”
View Full Document as PDF When policymakers neglect federal regulation, they ignore arguably the greatest element of governmental influence in the United…
Forbes
What Has To Happen For Trump’s Federal Regulatory Budget To Work
Congress is moving forward on the 2018 federal Budget Resolution, and maybe the promised tax system overhaul. Of course, the $4 trillion a year the…
The Daily Signal
EPA Chief Set to Bar Government-Funded Experts From Agency’s Science Panels
The Daily Signal discusses the EPA’s changes to its scientific advisory boards with William Yeatman. Pruitt revealed that he will issue a directive aimed…
Forbes
Donald Trump’s Regulatory Reform Could Be Derailed by Administrative State Jargon
The federal administrative state hummed along for years, relatively unperturbed until Donald Trump implemented a freeze on new costs in January. In the background, though,…
Blog
CEI Calls on EPA to Reconsider More-Stringent Fuel Economy Standards
On Thursday, October 5, the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its Final Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of greenhouse…
The Washington Examiner
The Media are Missing Trump’s Much-Needed Regulatory Relief
The Washington Examiner covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” For decades, the federal government kept adding regulations without taking any old ones off…
Greenwire
Trump Is Biggest Rule Cutter Since Reagan – CEI Analysis
Greenwire covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” President Trump has shown a strong commitment to deregulation during his first eight months in office,…
The Packer
Trump living up to anti-regulation rhetoric
The Packer cites Senior fellow Clyde Wayne Crews on regulations. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has put some stats together that said the Trump Administration’s has cut…
The Washington Examiner
Trump Ahead of Reagan’s Record in Cutting Regulations
The Washington Examiner covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” President Trump is keeping his promise to cut regulations and is on a course…
The Washington Times
Banishing Red Tape: Trump the ‘Least Regulatory President’ Since Reagan, Study Finds
The Washington Times covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.“ “President Trump is the least regulatory president since Ronald Reagan. His administration has only proposed…
News Release
CEI Comments on White House Call to End Social Security Numbers
CEI Vice President Jim Harper commented on the White House’s call for the end of social security numbers in light of the recent Equifax…
The Daily Caller
With the Media Distracted, Trump Quietly Continues Slashing the Number of Regulations
The Daily Caller covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” President Donald Trump has cut the federal regulatory burden to levels that took the…
Investor's Business Daily
Lots Of Presidents Talked About Getting Rid Of Bad Regulations — Trump Is Actually Doing It
Investor’s Business Daily covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” Regulation: Getting rid of unneeded regulations may be the single-most effective spur to economic growth…
Politico
De-Reg Event Prep
Politico’s Morning Money covers Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews has updated numbers on the Trump administration’s de-regulation…
Reason
Trump at 9 Months: ‘The Least Regulatory President of All’
Reason covers Trump’s regulatory track record and cite’s Wayne Crews’ “Red Tape Rollback Report.” The most underreported story (except here at Reason!) about President…
The Washington Times
Trump ‘Least Regulatory’ President
The Washington Times discusses President Trump’s regulatory track record with Wayne Crews. “President Trump is the least regulatory president since Ronald Reagan. His administration has only proposed…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Supporting No Regulation Without Representation Act
View Full Document as PDF Dear Representatives: We, the undersigned organizations representing millions of Americans, write to express gratitude to Congressman Jim…
Blog
Cut Red Tape and Save Lives by Regulating Tobacco Alternatives Based on Risk
At the beginning of the year, President Trump issued an Executive Order aimed at cutting red tape. The order directs federal agencies to set…
Blog
Bank Regulatory Relief in Time for White House ‘Deregulation Day’
Happy Deregulation Day! Today, the Trump administration is celebrating the benefits of an America liberated from red tape. As I mentioned in a blog…
Washington Examiner
Can Freedom Survive in the Era of the Administrative State?
Washington Examiner covers the administrative state and cite’s CEI’s estimate of the cost of federal regulations. In The Administrative State, Dwight Waldo’s study of the…
Blog
Red Tape Rollback: Trump Least-Regulatory President Since Reagan
The Trump mode has been to regulate bureaucrats rather than the public. New, large-scale regulation has largely stopped in 2017, and where it hasn’t, new…
Blog
What White House ‘Deregulation Day’ Can Do for Finance and Banking
On Monday the Trump Administration is launching the first ever Deregulation Day, highlighting the benefits of an America liberated from bureaucracy.
Blog
Taxes, Welfare, and Economic Inequality
At a time when comprehensive tax reform is dominating news headlines, concerns about income inequality and the distributional effects of future tax changes are again…
Reuters
Beyond the Daily Drama and Twitter Battles, Trump Begins to Alter American Life
Reuters discusses President Trump’s regulatory rollback with Wayne Crews. Even without delivering on his biggest campaign promises, President Donald Trump has begun to…
Blog
No Reason for Denying Puerto Rico a Jones Act Waiver
The Trump administration should immediately grant a Jones Act waiver to Puerto Rico and Congress should fully repeal the maritime cabotage prohibition.
Blog
Shining a Light on Bureaucratic ‘Dark Matter’
Federal agencies produce guidance documents, proclamations, memoranda, bulletins, circulars, letters—all with the force of the law but with no oversight from Congress.
Reason
How Congress Can Use an Obscure Law From the 1880s to Limit Wasteful Government Contracts
Reason covers the release of Bureaucratic Dark Matter by Robert J. Hanrahan Jr. When the U.S. Army got caught spending $76 million on video games, recruitment…
News Release
Video: Regulatory Dark Matter: A hidden tax on consumers and businesses
Learn more about this hidden tax on consumers and businesses, with no Congressional oversight.
The Daily Caller
Report: Fed Bureaucracies Commit Thousands Of Felonies Every Day
The Daily Caller covers the release of Bureacratic Dark Energy by Robert J. Hanrahan, Jr. Bureaucracies have successfully evaded congressional budget oversight for…
News Release
Bureaucratic Dark Energy Grows Government Illegally
Bureaucratic Dark Energy is a paper released today from the Competitive Enterprise Institute revealing a growing concern over the federal government’s use of thousands…
Study
Bureaucratic Dark Energy
View Full Document as PDF There are thousands of felonies committed every day in Washington, D.C. Not in the places one might…
The Washington Times
Banishing Regulatory ‘Dark Matter’
Turns out there aren’t just too many regulations, but too many different kinds of them to track. Congress has stalled out on passing regulatory reform…
Study
What’s the Difference between “Major,” “Significant,” and all those other Federal Rule Categories?
View Full Document as PDF Bureaucracy, rather than interaction with elected representatives, dominates the relationship of the individual to the government. The…
Federal Times
Report Calls for Drastic Workforce Cuts at Regulatory Agencies
Federal Times covers CEI’s publication Shrinking Government Bureaucracy. The non-profit Competitive Enterprise Institute is all about shrinking government. In a newly released report…
Newsmax
98.5 Percent of Federal Crimes Never Approved by Congress
Newsmax cites 10,000 Commandments by Wayne Crews. There are congressionally approved laws against approximately 4,450 federal crimes. Overall, bureaucrats have approved regulations…
News Release
Equifax Data Breach Evidence that Congress Should Deregulate Credit Reporting
Competitive Enterprise Institute Vice President Jim Harper commented on the Equifax data breach. “When Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act forty-five years ago,…
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