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
This week in ridiculous regulations: airline fees and greenhouse gas reporting
The Federal Register grew at nearly triple its usual pace last week. It is on pace for its first-ever 100,000-page year. GDP growth slowed to…
The Center Square
Study: Mixed record on permitting reform offers some hope
CEI’s James Broughel provided comments to The Center Square about a study he authored: “Pennsylvania’s a state where energy is very important to its…
Forbes
Libertarian Victory: You Mean We Can Shut Down Government Without Even Passing A Law?
It is happening again. Congress will enact another bloated, pork-laden and largely unread omnibus spending bill to complete formal appropriations for the 2024 fiscal year…
Search Posts
Blog
Investment Falls Off A Cliff, Threatening Economy
Investment has fallen "off a cliff" reports The Wall Street Journal, as companies worry about the "fiscal cliff" at the start of next year,…
Blog
Overhyped Energy Drink Reaction
As has been reported extensively, the Food and Drug Administration has received several recent reports of alleged side-effects sustained by consumers who have ingested energy…
Blog
Liberal Judges: Equality Is Unconstitutional
On Thursday, a federal appeals court, dividing along ideological lines in an 8-to-7 ruling, struck down a provision of the Michigan state constitution prohibiting racial…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
48 new regulations, from medical paperwork to longshoremen’s headwear.
Blog
The Basel Cliff — Basel III’s Poisonous Recipe For The Economy
As if the "fiscal cliff," with its prospects of looming tax hikes, were not enough, big and small banks—and in turn consumers and businesses who…
Blog
Quote Of The Day: Knowing One’s Limits
Alfred Kahn's lesson for regulators: "Do you want to be precisely wrong or approximately right?"…
Blog
Businesses Against Deregulation
The trucking industry went to extraordinary lengths to fight deregulation in the 1970s.
Blog
Jeffrey Sachs: Macro-Keynsianism Is “Outdated And Outmoded”… So, We Need Micro-Keynsianism!
Jeffrey Sachs, the harbinger of bad policy, has written his first post-election column in the Financial Times, “Obama has four years to transform America’s…
Blog
Immigration Reform Resurrected!
Nothing makes politicians see the light like losing. Even while immigration restrictionists reassure themselves that the GOP’s immigration message is fine despite losing as…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
61 new regulations, from organic food residue to amateur rocketry liberalization.
Blog
D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh Still Doesn’t Understand Driverless Cars
Last Sunday, The Washington Post published my op-ed criticizing the approach taken by Councilmember Mary Cheh's introduced legislation to legalize driverless cars in Washington,…
Blog
The Election Is Over: What Now For Regulation?
A midnight rush is on the way, though it will likely be smaller than if Romney had won the election.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
60 new regulations, from dishwashers to falconry.
Blog
Alabama Unions Vs. Privacy: Organized Labor’s War On The Secret Ballot
By Matt Patterson and Crissy Brown Tomorrow, Alabamans will have the opportunity to enshrine the secret ballot into their state constitution. A proposal before voters called Amendment…
Blog
“Status-Quo-ism” Of Italian Politicians Is Economically Perilous
Italian media report all sides of Italy’s political spectrum are calling for early elections. Unfortunately, that means a return of the unreformed Italian political class…
Citation
You Can Sense The Desperation in the Air
The Competitive Enterprise Institute reports that the Obama administration issues a new regulation every two hours, and the Heritage Foundation has reported that during the…
Blog
Never Look A Gift (Clause) Horse In The Mouth
In America, it is impossible to snuff out money from politics. As long as government has the power to dish out favors to politically connected…
Blog
Sandy Beaches, Meet Hurricane Sandy
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many reminisce of 2005's Hurricane Katrina. With at least a dozen East Coast states in a declared state of…
Blog
CEI Podcast For November 1, 2012: Is Google’s Search Dominance Permanent?
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia argues that Google's current dominance as an Internet search engine service is a fragile thing. Creative destruction is…
Forbes
President Obama’s Hidden Tax
Regulations are often called a hidden tax; but in President Obama’s case, it’s literally true. Despite the written commitment to transparency and…
Blog
Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Costs In California, Washington, D.C., And Elsewhere
California officials concede that their state’s Obamacare exchange will hike premiums for policyholders by up to 25 percent. In the District of Columbia, small…
Blog
Fred Weekly: Rent-Seeking Vs. Advancing Capitalism
In this latest episode of “Fred Weekly,” CEI President and Founder Fred L. Smith, Jr., discusses advancing free markets in an increasingly politicized world. Watch…
Free Beacon
U.S. Faces Regulatory Cliff: Looming rules could drive up costs, report says
William Yeatman, an environmental regulation expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Inhofe’s steep price tag is no exaggeration. “This has been a…
Blog
Italy’s Greatest Economic Threat: Italian Politicians
Italian ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told news sources last week that his party -- Popolo della Libertà -- would soon decide whether or not to…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
77 new regulations, from animal drugs to phone bills.
Blog
Regulatory Delays May Be Responsible For Slightly Better GDP Growth
This morning, data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed third-quarter growth of gross domestic product (GDP) at 2 percent. This beat expectations slightly as, according to…
Blog
Pepco Caves On Contract Dispute To Avoid Union Strike
Talk about having your negotiating adversary over the barrel. Pepco and the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers’ Maryland-based Local 1900 had been in contract gridlock…
Blog
Regulation In Theory Vs. Practice
Externalities, asymmetric information, and monopolies are useful concepts for understanding how regulators should behave. But the important thing is how they do behave.
Blog
Police (Union) Brutality: Montgomery County Police “Effects” Bargaining Bludgeons Public Safety
This November, voters in Montgomery County, Maryland, will decide whether the police chief or union boss should determine public safety policy. The voter initiative, which will appear…
Blog
PolitiFact Smears Supreme Court, Provides False Political Talking Point For Democratic Party
Earlier, the left-leaning "fact-checker" PolitiFact made the false claim the Supreme Court had declared employees are barred from suing over pay discrimination even…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
71 new regulations, from gas mileage to certifying seafarers.
Reason
Yes, Romney and Obama, Government Regulation Encourages Outsourcing
Last month, CEI's Wayne Crews told the House Judiciary Committee: “For the broader ‘significant’ category of rules (economically significant rules plus rules considered officially significant…
US News
Red Tape Is Strangling the Recovery
Last year alone, federal agencies issued 3,807 final rules according to data compiled by Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Blog
Of Mice, Mushrooms, And Formaldehyde
According to New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, the chemical industry is engaged in a grand conspiracy to hide the fact your kitchen cabinets…
Blog
Dodd-Frank’s Democratic Dissenters — From Brian Schweitzer To Debbie Wasserman Schultz
"For some reason, some Republicans in Congress are still waging an all-out battle to delay, defund and dismantle these commonsense new rules." That was, in…
US News
Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?
[E]stimates of how economically burdensome the regulatory state is range from the Obama administration lowball estimate of a mere $67 billion [PDF] annually to the…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
38 new regulations, from amateur rocket operations to the definition of “night.”…
Blog
The Missing Transparency: Where’s The Unified Agenda?
When it comes to government transparency, it is essential to throw at least some sunlight on the problem. Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne Crews…
Blog
Jobless Youth: Southern Europe’s Ticking Time Bomb
Forget austerity and bailouts. Southern Europe has an even bigger problem: a glut of unemployed young people. If this trend continues, workforces will regress in…
Blog
At Brookings, Susan Crawford Fostering Internet Competition
Yesterday, the Brookings Institute held a panel that purported to discuss “Fostering Internet Competition”. But who is to do the fostering? Federal regulators, of course.
Daily Caller
Missing: Regulatory transparency
Every spring and fall, as certain as the turning of the seasons, the General Services Administration’s Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) issues a new edition…
Blog
Liberal Lawmakers To Rethink California “Green Chemistry”
California's Green Chemistry regulations have proven so unruly even the state's liberal lawmakers have begun to question the cost. The state legislature passed the…
Blog
RIP Prince Roy of Sealand, Seasteading Pioneer
For as long as there have been states, there have been people seeking to escape state authority. Throughout most of history, such escape has meant…
Blog
Where Is Obama’s Unified Agenda Of Federal Regulations?
Two primary federal documents by which we judge the regulatory record of the administration are missing in action this year. We at least can say,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
88 new regulations, from background checks for volunteers to silky sharks .
News Release
Jobs Report Doesn’t Tell Full Story
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 5, 2012 – Unemployment fell below 8 percent for the first time in four years last month, according to the September…
Blog
Regulations For Thee, But Not For Me
To liberals, regulations are great -- until they ensnare a liberal politician. Then, suddenly there needs to be an exception to the regulation. An example of…
Blog
Suffocating Athena: Public Sector Unions Kill Greek Salvation — Again
On October 1, the Greek government unveiled an austerity package that aims to reduce public spending by $15 billion (11.5 billion euros) for 2013-2014,…
Blog
Medical Junk Science: Canned Veggies May Make Kids Fat
Can feeding your child canned soup and vegetables make her fat? According to study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: Columbus Day Edition
Alcohol has a long and complex history in the USA. In fact, it’s probable that the Scandinavian Vikings that tried to conquer North America…
Blog
Celebrate National Cybersecurity Month!
The summer may be over, but don’t put the barbecue away yet -- the president just declared this October “National Cybersecurity Month.” It’s the…
Blog
Obama Imposes Billions In Costs On Taxpayers In Order To Prevent Legally Required Disclosures
Yesterday, ABC News reported that "Defense contractor Lockheed Martin heeded a request from the White House . . . one with political overtones – and announced…
Fox Business
Winning the Presidential Debate with Regulation
Presidential debates are where the candidates try to show the average likely voter they know what he or she wants better than the other guy.
Blog
Regulating Outside The Rules
The federal regulatory process is a complicated thing. As with any complex body of law, there are loopholes that agencies can exploit.
Blog
Lose The Helmet Already
So now we’re down to safe v. healthy. The “safe” approach to riding a bike is to wear a helmet, according to the Nanny Statists…
Washington Times
Regulations and Rules Equal Broken Government
When President Obama and Mitt Romney are jousting about taxes during their Wednesday night debate, one or both candidates might correctly point out that the…
Washington Times
Regulations and rules equal broken government
From Wayne Crews and Ryan Young's op-ed in The Washington Times: The first is “sue and settle.” Agencies like the EPA work closely…
Blog
Omens Of Another Recession? Durable Goods Orders Drop Sharply
In a bad omen for the economy, "durable-goods orders" sank "13.2% in August," far more than economists "had expected." “Bookings also fell for machinery,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
71 new regulations, from prune insurance to Colombian tariffs.
Blog
Fifty Years Later: Rachel Carson Is Still Wrong
Back in 1996, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Jonathan Tolman authored an article entitled "Rachel Was Wrong,” in which he explained why biologist Rachel…
Blog
Free Checking Nearly Extinct Thanks To Dodd-Frank; Will Credit Card Rewards Follow?
One year ago on October 1, Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment price controls went into effect, causing consumers to lose free checking and be soaked with other…
Blog
Unions Outgunning Opposition In Michigan
Organized labor is driving hard to enshrine collective bargaining right in Michigan State constitution. If Proposal 2 passes this November, they will have done…
Blog
Massive Payoff To City For Dropping Challenge To Tool Used To Impose Racial Quotas In Lending
The Obama administration declined to pursue a fraud claim worth up to $180 million against a city to get it to drop its pending…
Blog
Study Finds Diisononyl Phthalate Safe For Toys
While news sources, greens, and U.S. lawmakers hype the risks about children’s exposure to the chemicals found in a host of plastic…
Blog
In Rejecting EPIC’s Petition On TSA’s Strip-Search Machines, Court Effectively Orders Rulemaking Timetable
This afternoon, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC) petition for writ of mandamus, which called on the court…
Blog
Driverless Cars Legalized In California
Just after 1pm PDT, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 1298, which explicitly legalizes the use and testing of driverless cars in the…
Blog
Work ‘til You Drop: Is This The Next European “Welfare?”
As Europe’s population ages, its widespread entitlement commitments will generate huge burdens on governments’ budgets. The economic consequences are easy to foresee: just think of…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
82 new regulations, from Indian casinos to bailouts for fruit tree owners.
Blog
State Capitalism Or Corporatism? Italy’s Carmaker Conundrum
Italy’s iconic car manufacturer, Fiat, announced Saturday its plans to keep its production base in Italy after months of threatening to leave for more…
Blog
Junk Science Is Worse For Your Health Than Egg Yolks
We all know that eggs contain a lot of fat and cholesterol. While that does not make them “bad,” most of us realize that if…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Seatbelts for dogs, surveillance cameras for surveillance cameras, plus more.
Blog
Beware Of Unaudited Benefit Analyses
Regulatory agencies have an eternal incentive to expand their missions and grow their budgets. One consequence of this is that their cost-benefit analyses cannot be…
Washington Examiner
$1.8 trillion shock: Obama regs cost 20-times estimate
From Paul Bedard's column in The Washington Examiner: Current federal regulations plus those coming under Obamacare will cost American taxpayers and businesses $1.8…
News Release
Three States Join Constitutional Challenge to Dodd-Frank
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2012 – The states of Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Michigan today joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Wall…
Blog
Can We Please Have A Grownup Discussion About Distracted Driving?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a new study on distracted driving [PDF]. According to the agency, 9 percent of total…
Blog
Economic Freedom Of The World
Non-economists tend to be much more skeptical about economic freedom than economists are. This in itself is a powerful case for free markets. But empirical…
Investor's Business Daily
Federal Agencies Should Stop Using Cost-Benefit Analyses
Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases data on how much tax revenue it takes in. It never argues that the nation's tax burden is…
News Release
Regulation Nation?
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 19, 2012 – Thursday morning, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing: “Regulation Nation: The Obama Administration’s Regulatory Expansion vs.
Blog
As Union Popularity Fades, A Fight For Power Threatens Michigan
The major focus on issues involving public sector unions right now is the current teachers’ strike in Chicago. Now that the strike is in…
Blog
Striking: Right Or Privilege?
As the Chicago teachers’ strike is entering its second week, Mayor Emanuel has pledged to seek an injunction with the court to force instructors back…
Blog
The Sad, Early History Of Railroad Regulation: From Subsidies To Nationalization
CEI has long made it its mission to highlight to downsides and dangers of economic regulation. One classic example is the experience with America's railroads…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
76 new regulations, from DEA property seizures to place-of-origin requirements for wine.
Blog
Wisconsin Judge To Voters: “Drop Dead”
Who needs elections when you have judges? In Wisconsin, the voters have decided to reform their state's collective bargaining laws. They did so by, 1)…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: Back To School Edition
Alabama: Up until last year brewpubs were illegal in Alabama due to a law that prevented beer being sold on the same site where…
Blog
Chicago Teachers Union: Overpaid Babysitters?
The grand themes of the current Chicago teacher's strike opera are broadly similar to other union-agitated public work stoppages. The union makes demands (more money, etc.) the city/company balks ("We can't…
Blog
Unions Seek To Make Michigan A Mediterranean State
On September 5, the Michigan Supreme Court gave a green light to the so-called “Protect our Jobs Amendment” (POJA) for the November 6 ballot. The proposed…
Investor's Business Daily
More than 1600 pages of regulations added to Federal Register last week, cost now $1.8 trillion per year
From Michael Bastasch’s article in The Daily Caller: Last week, 1,641 pages of regulations were added to the 2012 Federal Register, meaning it…
Blog
Federal Government: Fire Good Employees, Hire Bad Ones
The Obama administration is pressuring employers outside the financial sector to hire felons, even as its regulations force employers in the financial sector to fire "thousands…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
51 new rules and 1,641 Federal Register pages, from storing explosives to keeping fisheries accountable.
Blog
Collective Bargaining: Mythical Right Turned Constitutional In Michigan?
Everyone knows that our Founding Fathers’ primary motive during the revolution was to preserve collective bargaining for the carriage industries. That as Washington crossed the…
Blog
Want 1990s Job Growth? Go Back To Clinton-Era Deregulation
As much as the term “Forward” was used at the Democratic National Convention this week, the speeches of Bill Clinton and, to an extent, President…
Blog
Fact Checking Lilly Ledbetter’s False Speech At The Democratic National Convention
Former pay-discrimination plaintiff Lilly Ledbetter, in speaking at the Democratic National Convention on September 4, repeated the false claim that she learned about the…
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 228: Peyton Manning’s Jersey
School officials forbid 8-year old Colorado boy from wearing his Peyton Manning jersey to school because of possible gang ties.
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 27, 2012: The Future Of Generic Biotech Crops
Senior Fellow Greg Conko discusses his new paper, "Is There a Future for Generic Biotech Crops? Regulatory Reform Is Needed for a Viable Post-Patent Industry."…
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 6, 2012: Modernizing Air Traffic Control
America's air traffic control system can be charitably described as an antique. Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner describes some of the problems the…
Forbes
The Path To Job Creation Runs Through Regulatory Reform
From Ed Pozzuoli's column in Forbes: According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews, regulation’s “hidden cost” has ballooned to $1.8 trillion on…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
74 new rules and 2,086 Federal Register pages, from migratory birds to cranberries.
Blog
Science And Technology Policy And The Democratic Convention
Now it's the Democrats' turn to gather for their convention in Charlotte and one element of the platform in common with basic Republican philosophy is…
Forbes
Congress looks at sales taxes for online purchases
From Burton Speakman’s article in Vindy: Jessica Melugin, an adjunct analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argued it would be burdensome to ask online…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Doormats banned in Leeds, exploding sausages in Canada, plus more.
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