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

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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…

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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…

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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…
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CEI Study: Cost Of Keeping One Unauthorized Immigrant From Getting A Job — $13,000
If Americans truly want to ensure no unauthorized immigrants work in the United States, they better get ready to pay top dollar. E-Verify, the electronic…
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Why FAA’s Child Seat Campaign Is Deadly
Federal law allows airline passengers with children under the age of two to travel with their children on their laps. This option, which has existed…
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Earth Day: The Greener Side Of Growth
Over at Topix.com, my colleague Geoffrey McLatchey and I argue that the biggest factor for improving environmental quality is wealth creation.
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EEOC: A Scofflaw That Poisons The Climate For Hiring
One way the current political climate discourages hiring is by turning problem employees into potential lawsuits for the employers who take the risk…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
86 new regulations, from sorghum ethanol to training miners.
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CEI Podcast For April 18, 2013: CISPA Is The Wrong Approach To Cybersecurity
Today, the House passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013 (CISPA). Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia opposes the bill.
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The Train Wreck That Is Obamacare
At least one union that supported passage of Obamacare, is now calling for its repeal. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the United…
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Fred L. Smith, Jr., In This Month’s Cato Unbound
This month’s Cato Unbound series focuses on the constraints of money in politics, how businesses respond to opportunities for rent-seeking, and prospects for the…
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Lessons On Regulatory Reform: The BRAC Acts
Overview of Regulatory Reform in the U.S. from The Base Realignment and Closure Act The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act of 1988 was created…
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Food Safety Modernization Act Far More Costly Than Supporters Claimed
“Proposed FDA safety rules frustrate tree fruit farmers,” reported The Washington Post. As the FDA puts “in place a massive overhaul of the nation’s…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
67 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to wireless signal boosters.
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Railroading The Railroads
In recent years, members of Congress have worked with various interest groups for the purpose of imposing new economic regulations on the…
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Dodd-Frank’s Burden On Credit Unions Highlighted At Hearing
At a recent speech before a convention of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), new Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made the pitch that the Dodd-Frank…
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CEI Podcast For April 11, 2013: Reining in Unfunded Mandates
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews warns that the higher the deficit goes, the more tempted the federal government is to resort to unfunded mandates,…
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Time To Rein In Unfunded Mandates
In today's Investor's Business Daily, Wayne Crews and I point out that the higher deficits go, the more tempting it becomes for Congress to resort…
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Who Profits From Alcohol Taxes?
While there appears to be no acceptable level of alcohol consumption to participants at the Alcohol Policy 16 Conference, which met last…
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Obamacare Strangles Job Creation, Stifles Medical Innovation
Earlier, I wrote about the dismal March jobs report and how high unemployment has been masked by rising numbers of discouraged workers and people…
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Americans Reject Actual E-Verify System
Imagine there was a free program that could guarantee for employers a legal workforce and eliminate illegal immigration. Would you favor such a system? Yes…
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Protectionist Law Proposed In New York Would Hit Wine Consumers Hardest
While most states are desperately trying to figure out ways to encourage business development and reduce the cost of consumer goods, New York is considering…
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JOBS Act — What’s Been Implemented — Is Working; Now Implement The Rest!
CEI Research Associate Evan Woodham contributed to this post. Another round of disappointing jobs numbers released last Friday shows more than ever that massive…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
56 new rules, from school lunches to studying landfills.
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Dismal Jobs Figures Don’t Increase Official Unemployment Rate, As Job-Seekers Give Up, Or Go On Disability
The stock market has fallen this morning in response to the dismal March jobs report released this morning, which showed that a meager…
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Regulation Roundup
Man avoids jail time for falsely yelling out "Bingo!" during a game, plus more.
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CEI Podcast For April 4, 2013: Reining In The CFAA
Under the CFAA, it is currently a federal crime to enter an incorrect age on your Facebook profile or an incorrect weight on a dating…
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Lessons From Dutch Regulatory Reform: How The U.S. Could Save $450 billion Per Year
In 2003, the Dutch improved their regulatory situation through the “Dutch Administrative Burden Reduction Programme.” This program sought to reduce the cost of regulatory burdens…
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The Myth Of Welfare Reform
Welfare reform is largely a myth. Many people who used to be on welfare have since gone onto Social Security Disability. That benefits states…
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Regulatory Lessons From The United Kingdom (Continued)
Overview of the Red Tape Challenge In early 2011, the UK started the Red Tape Challenge to gather ideas as to how it could improve…
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Cyprus Is A Lesson For U.S. Policy Makers: Too Big To Fail Is Not Inevitable
American financial regulators could take a lesson from their European counterparts. The recent EU bail-in/bailout of Cyprus, despite its dangers, shows that reducing moral hazard…
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Incentives Matter, Even For Transportation
CEI’s Marc Scribner previously commented on how advocates for greater investment in transportation infrastructure frequently disregard the infrastructure measure that really matters -- the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
100 new regulations, from collisions at sea to electronic forms.
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CEI Podcast For March 28, 2013: The TSA’s Illegal Body Scanners
Despite a court order, the TSA is still dragging its feet on complying with the law. Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner has…
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White House Immigration Bill Will Be A Disaster Without Accessible Work Visas
President Obama’s recently leaked immigration bill left off the most important component of an immigration bill: the immigration part. Given the fact that the Chamber…
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The Red Tape Challenge
Over at the Daily Caller, Christian Rice and I take a look at a successful regulatory reform model in the UK: the Red Tape Challenge:…
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When The Nanny State Kills
The government told people to switch from saturated animal fats to unsaturated vegetable fats. But that advice may have killed a lot of people.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
59 new regulations, from patent fees to pork export reports.
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Vitter Amendment To Ban Drug Patent Settlements Would Raise Pharmaceutical Prices
With time running out for the Senate to act on a continuing budget resolution, members are trying to find some magic pot of money that…
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Labor’s Loss: Secret Ballot Protection Advances In Virginia
This week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell struck a little heralded — but much needed — blow for privacy rights in the Old Dominion by signing two…
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Response To Drescher On Cancer And Chemicals
Last week, Fran Drescher responded to my Huffington Post article on cancer trends, and today I posted a reply on the…
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Administration Notifies Congress That Trade Talks With EU Will Begin
Earlier today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative sent a notice to Congress that the Obama administration would begin negotiating a trade partnership…
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Bipartisan Dodd-Frank Derivatives Deregulation Advances In House — And Main Street Cheers
This afternoon, members of the House Agriculture Committee with strikingly different views on many issues came together to provide much need regulatory relief from the…
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Obamacare Harms Colleges And Their Employees
The University of Virginia is expecting a roughly $7-million bill for Obamacare's new employer penalties, said Susan Carkeek, the University's vice president and…
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What Cyprus (Initially) Got Right — Remembering The 2008 WaMu Capital “Run”
There's no shortage of criticism of the Cyprus "bail-in" -- the one-time tax the government had proposed levying on insured and uninsured depositors to rescue…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
60 new regulations, from financial management courses to de-icing planes.
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Dallas Fed’s Fisher And CPAC’s Fishy Too-Big-To-Fail Event
If the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) organizers wanted a speaker or panel on the causes of the financial crisis and what to do about…
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Lobbying Can Be A Great Investment
Not only did health insurers convince the government to require everyone in the country to buy their products, now their premiums will go up sharply,…
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A Balanced Budget Isn’t The Primary Goal
Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne Crews and I take a look at Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget, the Path to Prosperity. While it would…
Forbes
Bee-ing Smart: Regulators Must Distinguish Activists’ Bad Dreams From Actual Evidence
Important technologies commonly face opposition from various quarters – often from vested interests, societal Chicken Littles or overly precautionary regulators. Examples include vaccination, fluoridation of…
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Will Regulators Fail To Learn From The Past Mistakes Of U.S. Railroad Regulation?
The history of U.S. railroads provides an interesting case study on federal regulation. They were the first sector of the economy to come under heavy…
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Should Agencies Be Self-Funded?
If an agency is doing a poor job pursuing its mission, it needs to be held accountable; there is a reason Congress holds the power…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
69 new regulations, from grading almonds to lost luggage.
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Sequester Show May Not Have Jumped The Shark, But Its Format Has Changed
Are you watching the Sequester Show? In today's Wall Street Jorunal, my friend Kim Strassel says the sequester drama has "jumped the shark," a phrase used when…
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Lessons On Regulatory Reform: The United Kingdom
In 2001, the United Kingdom passed the “Regulatory Reform Act” which allowed a government minister (similar to the head of a government agency in…
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Washington Examiner: “Congress: Obamacare To Boost Premiums To $7,186 — A Year”
Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports on massive premium increases due to Obamacare: Health insurance companies, facing new and costly rules and…
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Obama’s Immigration Bill Forces Employers To Pay Illegal Immigrants
Nothing in this headline is a typo or an exaggeration. President Obama’s recently-leaked Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2013 would require employers to employ…
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Costco CEO Favors Minimum Wage Hike
An overlooked argument in the minimum wage debate is that a high minimum wage gives big businesses an artificial competitive advantage over their smaller competitors.
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Making The FCC More Transparent
If there's one thing the regulatory state could use more of, it's transparency. In today's ?Washington Times?, I shine a little light on the FCC:…
Washington Times
Who Regulates the Regulators?
In Beltway terms, the Federal Communications Commission’s $350 million budget request for 2013 is practically a rounding error. Yet it costs the American people a…
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Lessons On Regulatory Reform: Texas
Overview of Regulatory Reform in Texas In 1977, the Texas legislature passed the Texas Sunset Act which would forever improve state government.
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Austerity Is Worth The Cost
In a January National Review article, I explained how Baltic countries such as Estonia that had undertaken short-lived but severe cuts to government spending…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
74 new regulations, from the Citrus Administrative Committee to pecan insurance.
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Alcohol Regulation Roundup: March 1, 2013
National: The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit to block Anheuser-Busch Inbev from taking full control over Negro Modelo. A few weeks later…
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E-Verify: Opening The Door For More Regulations
President Obama and the Gang of Eight senators want E-Verify -- the electronic employment verification system -- included in any comprehensive immigration reform proposal this…
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Progressives Should Be Wary Of A Minimum Wage Increase
Over at the American Spectator, I argue that progressives should look elsewhere for ways to help the poor:…
The American Spectator
At Minimum, a Big Loser
President Obama brought the minimum wage debate back into the news in a big way in his State of the Union address, when he proposed…
News Release
REINS Act Introduced in Senate
Washington, D.C., February 28, 2013 — This week, Sen. Rand Paul introduced the Senate version of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of…
Townhall
Government Spending Hurts People
Every day Americans from all walks of life deal with petty tyrannies and worse from federal bureaucrats. And the economic costs of complying with all…
Townhall
Report finds that EPA & FCC regulations are costing Americans big time
Between the EPA and the FCC, government regulations are costing Americans close to the tune of $495 billion, according to a new report from the…
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Why The Sequester Budget Cuts Are Good
As we noted earlier, the automatic budget cuts contained in the sequester will help the economy in the long run, even if they are…
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Europe’s Latest Wake-Up Call: Italian Elections
Europe, which has been enjoying a recent respite from financial chaos, is about to get a rude awakening: Italian elections. Voters will go to the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
53 new regulations, from the mental states of federal employees to giving rides to sick or injured people.
Townhall
Obama Issued $216 Billion in New Regulations in 2012
One solution to this problem comes from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a “free-market” conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. CEI has…
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Regulatory Report Card: Federal Communications Commission
Regulatory agencies need to be much more transparent. One way to do that is through an annual report card with important information about each agency…
Study
Regulatory Report Card: FCC
Full Document Available in PDF It may come as a surprise that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the third most expensive…
News Release
FCC Is Third Most Expensive Agency of Federal Government
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 21, 2013 – Somewhat surprisingly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the third most expensive agency when it comes to the costs…
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Setting The Stage For Regulatory Reform — Part I
Just about everything in your life is regulated by the government; from the alarm clock that wakes you up in the morning to the size…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
90 new regulations, from hot air balloons to Sea World’s fireworks shows.
Forbes
Obama’s SOTU: A Campaign Speech That Erodes The Power Of The Citizenry
Every year legislators and bureaucrats disgorge new laws and regulations which discourage job creation. Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has pointed to…
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CEI Podcast For February 14, 2013: Dodd-Frank’s Constitutionality
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman discusses a lawsuit in which CEI and two co-plaintiffs argue that portions of Dodd-Frank are unconstitutional.
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An Unconstitutional Gift To Labor Unions
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the New Jersey Senate has only passed one bill associated with rebuilding storm-damaged public infrastructure. Sadly, if passed, the…
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Obama Renews Call For Paycheck Fairness Act
In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama renewed his call for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it…
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Payback? Government Targets S&P And Egan-Jones, Not Moody’s Or Fitch
Why not Moody's? Why not Fitch? Of all the questions raised about the U.S. government's strange case against Standard & Poor's—a lawsuit that actually asserts that…
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Immigration Reform’s Economic Benefits
Comprehensive immigration reform is coming. For those that don’t speak D.C. doublespeak, that means more costly, useless, and privacy-invading border drones, more guards…
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State Of The Union? Try “Over-Regulated”
In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama cannot be expected to pledge to roll back government in any manner whatsoever, a…
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Sequester Budget Cuts Would Increase Long-Term Economic Growth
The automatic budget cuts contained in the sequester will increase economic growth in the long-term, if Congress will just let them happen—rather than listening to…
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State Of The Union Live Blog 2013
Welcome to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s live blog of President Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address. Tune in here on Tuesday night at…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
61 new regulations, from your doctor’s stock portfolio to growing wine in Indiana.
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No More Regulation Without Representation
Over at the American Spectator, Wayne Crews and I show just how bad the problem of regulation without representation is by using Wayne's handy Anti-Democracy…
The American Spectator
The Anti-Democracy Index
The United States Constitution gives “all legislative powers herein granted” to Congress. Neither the judicial nor the executive branch has the power to make laws,…
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National ID Proponents’ Bad Arguments
America’s new national identification system is coming. President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators want to enact a national identification card that would…
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Obamacare: More Cost, Less Coverage
Seven million fewer people than predicted will have health care coverage a decade after Obamacare’s passage, admits the Congressional Budget Office. One reason “is that…
Washington Examiner
Letter to the Editor: Sequestration Cuts Will Increase Long-Term Growth
Re: "Drop in GDP a preview for area," Jan. 31 This article falsely claims that the U.S. economy shrank in the last quarter of 2012…
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The Cost Of Enforcing Government Regulation
Regulatory cost estimates of around $1.8 trillion encompass compliance costs paid by the public plus economic drag. But but those estimates do not include the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
70 new regulations, from airplane bathrooms to advertising seized property.
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The New National Identification System Is Coming
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card -- or an enhanced Social Security…
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CEI Podcast For January 31, 2013: The Recess Appointments That Weren’t
Federal judges recently struck down four recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, claiming the Senate was in pro forma session when President Obama…
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The Coming Regulatory Recession?
Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce reported the stunning news the U.S. economy actually contracted by 0.1 percent…
Washington Examiner
Inside the Beltway: Alarmed by the Feds
It could be raining regulations soon, should the wishes of Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island come true.
Washington Examiner
Inside the Beltway: Alarmed by the Feds
It could be raining regulations soon, should the wishes of Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island come true.
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“Right-To-Work” Train Rolls On: Next Stop, Pennsylvania?
The earthquake that was Michigan's right-to-work law has produced a number of interesting aftershocks, not least of which is the right-to-work rumbling in Pennsylvania where…
Washington Examiner
Out of Control: 47 New Regulations for Every New Law
According to a new Competitive Enterprise Institute study provided to Secrets, agency bureaucrats have finalized 47 times more new rules…
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