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
Don’t let the next crisis grow the government—again
“Now, I’m going to sign this, and it’s a great honor — $6.2 trillion. I’ve never signed anything with a “T”…

Blog
The week in regulations: Wildfire appraisals and portable spas
President Trump and El Salvador president Nayib Bukele confirmed that they would continue to imprison people without due process. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from…

Blog
The executive order that could kill trillion-dollar bailouts
The federal government doesn’t just spend—it also regulates through spending. That’s one reason crises so often inflate Washington’s role in American life. But as I…
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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,…
Blog
Why Should Millennials Want to Shrink Government Bureaucracy?
Free markets and limited government are for every generation.
Forbes
The Case for Trump’s Tax Plan Is Strengthened By IRS’s $300 Billion Compliance And Deadweight Burden
Donald Trump made his most urgent appeal for middle class tax cuts in North Dakota, the home state of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat who…
Study
Shrinking Government Bureaucracy
View Full Document as PDF Shrinking Government Bureaucracy is a series of policy proposals by Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) experts to rein in…
Blog
Economic Growth Rose to 3 Percent in Second Quarter of 2017
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3 percent in the second quarter. That was significantly higher than the 2.7 percent expected.
Washington Examiner
No, Houston’s Regulation Policy Didn’t Make Hurricane Harvey Flooding Worse
When a major American city is under eight feet of water, it’s a distasteful time to play politics. That hasn’t stopped multiple media commentators looking…
Forbes
Trump’s Tax Reform Plan Targets Middle-Class Tax Complexity
President Trump visited Missouri to talk about tax reform, stressing simplicity and middle-class tax relief and “plans to bring back Main Street by reducing…
Washington Times
Real Progress in Regulatory Reform
Washington Times cites 10,000 Commandments. It’s true. A full seven months after President Trump’s inauguration and the convening of a new Congress, there…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: Iain Murray Discusses “Shrinking Government Bureaucracy” on Washington Journal
Iain Murray, Vice President for Strategy of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, discusses CEI’s “Shrinking Government Bureaucracy: Reorganizing the Executive Branch to Boost Economic Growth and…
Investor's Business Daily
With Angry Politics Dominating, Trump’s Smart Infrastructure Reforms Go Almost Unnoticed
Investor’s Business Daily cites 10,000 Commandments while Talking about President Trump’s infrastructure plan. Reform: Lost amid all the political name-calling last week, President…
Compliance Week
Killing the SEC and Other Plans to Redraft Regulatory Agencies
Compliance Week covers CEI’s reccomendations for reorganization to the SEC and other agencies from Shrinking Government Bureaucracy. Occasionally daydream about razing Washington’s regulatory agencies…
Blog
President’s D.C. Summer Update
Political posturing and high-level personnel changes in Washington have dominated the news and are shaping what policy changes are possible.
The Hill
How Trump is Doing at Cutting Regs
The Hill discusses President Trump’s progress on cutting regulations with Wayne Crews. President Trump is making headway on at least one campaign promise:…
The Hill
How Jeff Sessions is Stopping the EPA’s Slush Fund
The Hill discusses ending the EPA’s slush fund with William Yeatman. Principles are to be found in many places, a blessing in the…
Blog
Rethinking the Commerce Department
If government is ever to stop growing, the supporters of limited government will need to provide a successful example of how it can be rolled…
Washington Times
Federal Government Needs Major Overhaul to Cut Red Tape, Reduce Costs: Report
The Washington Times covers CEI’s latest publication Shrinking Government Bureaucracy. Shrinking the federal bureaucracy would spur economic growth and reduce costs to taxpayers,…
Washington Free Beacon
Report: Reducing Regulatory Agencies’ Authority Could Boost Economy, Increase Job Creation
The Washington Free Beacon covers CEI’s latest publication Shrinking Government Bureaucracy. Reducing some of government’s regulatory agencies’ authority could boost economic growth and…
Washington Examiner
Shock: Bill for Regulations Higher than Taxes to Uncle Sam, $3.7T Total
The Washington Examiner discusses the Treasury’s record-breaking tax revenue with Wayne Crews. American taxpayers and corporations not only paid a combined record $1.85…
Blog
Shrinking Government Bureaucracy in Turbulent Times
We need to ponder what the executive branch we deserve looks like and how it aligns with our Constitution and statutory limitations.
Forbes
How Many Rules And Regulations Do Federal Agencies Issue?
With Congress on summer vacation, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the number of laws it passes vs. the number of rules and regulations…
Blog
Record Federal Income Tax Receipts Still No Match for Cost of Regulation
Corporate income taxes collected by the U.S. government, estimated as noted at $278 billion for 2017, are dwarfed by regulatory costs.
Study
Rethinking the Department of Commerce
View Full Document as PDF The Department of Commerce’s mission statement is a charter for government interference in markets. It employs 47,000…
Blog
Happy India Independence Day
Today is the 70th anniversary of India’s independence from the United Kingdom, and the nation of 1.3 billion people has seen dramatic economic and social…
Forbes
Warning: Federal Government Deems Fidget Spinners An “Emerging Hazard”
Don’t eat your fidget spinner. I guess that’s what the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is trying to tell us now.
News Release
Improving Job Numbers Emerge but Damaging Regulations Remain a Problem
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate declined to 4.3 percent, the lowest since March 2001, according to the U.S.
Morning Consult
Trump Administration Hits Snags in Effort to Halt Environmental Rules
Morning Consult discusses deregulatory happenings at the EPA with Myron Ebell. While the Trump administration has been aiming to make good on promises…
Blog
Can You Make a Living without a Government License?
There is an expanding strange-bedfellows coalition that would like to see fewer professions for which people need a government-issued license.
RealClear Policy
Regulatory Reform: A Beacon of Light for Bipartisanship
Common ground is nearly impossible to find in Washington these days. But with the Senate’s recent confirmation of Neomi Rao as the White House’s…
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