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
A 2024 CEI HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: A new inventory unmasking federal agency guidance documents
In my new Halloween-themed article at Forbes, I explore the eerie expanse of federal agency guidance documents. We have to try to have a…
Blog
The origins and lessons of the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the 1980s
Moral panics are just one of those things that free societies seem to go through on a regular basis. The “satanic panic” was the big…
Blog
The compliance crisis: Unveiling the regulatory loopholes agencies love
While federal regulatory reform is critical, it’s equally important that existing oversight laws be followed. Unfortunately, many of these laws are routinely disregarded, with little…
Search Posts
Blog
Senators Introduce Regulatory Commission Bill
CEI’s approach to regulatory reform has an overarching theme: It is not enough to get rid of this or that harmful regulation. For the benefits…
Forbes
Trump’s Executive Order 13,891 Creates Portals For Federal Agency Guidance Documents; And Here They Are
In a leap forward for governmental disclosure and accountability, federal agencies late last year were directed to scrub their guidance documents and post online those…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Scientists may have found potential chemical evidence of life on Venus—phosphine gas, which in Venusian conditions may well have been produced by anaerobic (non-oxygen-using)…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a four-day work week due to Labor Day. There were massive fires along the West coast, and Congress declined to pass a $500…
Blog
Executive Order 13,891 Sub-Regulatory Guidance Document Portal Tops 70,000 Entries
Congress makes laws. Agencies make rules, but they also issue guidance documents in heretofore unknown quantity. The year 2019 brought Executive Order 13891 (“Promoting the…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As Labor Day marked the unofficial end of summer, the unemployment rate went back down to 8.4 percent, and Attorney General Barr announced that the…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
COVID-19 deaths passed 200,000 in the United States, and are roughly 1 million worldwide. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing sparked a fresh Supreme…
Acton Institute
Thank God for single-use plastic bags
Thank God for single-use plastic bags Acton Institute cites Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on environmental regulation and consumer freedom. The policy hardly affects one of its…
AM 790 WNIS
AM 790 WNIS
AM 790 WNIS AM790 NewsTalk WNIS cites CEI on economy and regulation. Competitive Enterprise Institute is a free-market think tank that seeks to reform the administrative…
Foreign Affairs
MIL-OSI USA: Brindisi calls on FCC to reverse course and protect customers from costly Spectrum data caps
MIL-OSI USA: Brindisi calls on FCC to reverse course and protect customers from costly Spectrum data caps Congressman Anthony Brindisi (NY-22) from United States…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
COVID-19 deaths passed 200,000 in the United States, and are roughly 1 million worldwide. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing sparked a fresh Supreme…
The Hill
Ending Counterproductive, Counterintuitive Regulation
Early in the COVID-19 crisis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chided the Trump administration’s response and demanded “testing, testing, testing.” Yet, when…
USA Today
Trump, Biden Tout Contrasting Economic Plans. Which Will Restore Jobs Lost in the Pandemic Faster?
USA Today cites CEI on regulatory reform: The president says he’ll continue to aggressively cut regulations. He initially promised to scrap two rules…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The last week saw another political convention, another police shooting, and two hurricanes. There was at least one major positive story, though. Polio has finally…
Forbes
What Comes After Trillion? Coming To Terms With The Impenetrable Costs Of Government Intervention
“We print it digitally,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said of money. They sure do. Real fiscal debt…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The spring 2020 Unified Agenda was published on August 17. Due four months ago, it collects every rulemaking agency’s plans for upcoming regulations. The number…
National Review
App Shrugged: Will Uber Go Galt in California?
The rideshare company Uber is threatening to end its operations in California entirely if the Golden State forces the company to classify all its drivers as…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic dvice-presidential candidate, a massive storm swept through the Midwest, and Congress is out of session until September. The…
News Release
Regulatory Report Card Act Brings Accountability to Government, Wins Praise from CEI Expert
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) introduced a Regulatory Report Card Act directing the Comptroller General of the United States to issue regulatory scorecards to agencies. The…
Blog
America’s “Unconstitutional Slop” Predates Trump’s Executive Actions on Pandemic Economic Relief
The logic of the administrative state dictates the expansion of itself in response to any crisis. Executive actions play a game rigged against limited government.
Blog
New CEI Video: Eliminating Never Needed Regulations to Help with Recovery
In a new CEI video, Kent Lassman talks about three things agencies can do rein in regulations that are hindering the COVID-19 response and making…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
August’s 2020 disaster list so far includes a massive warehouse explosion in Beirut that killed more than 100 people and Hurricane Isaias. In positive news,…
Blog
Cautious Optimism on July Jobs Numbers: Prudence, Resilience Will Aid Recovery
In July, 1.8 million new jobs were created, and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent. That is a welcome follow-up to the second quarter’s…
Blog
When Spending Is Regulation: The Grand Unification Theory of Government Growth
Alongside helplessness in the face of a looming $27 trillion debt, debating administrative state policy hasn’t been much help in forestalling federal government growth.
Blog
An Executive Order 13,891 Guidance Document Portal Update: Another Lap to Go
President Donald Trump’s October 9, 2019 Executive Order 13,891 (E.O. 13,891) and a subsequent White House Office of Management directive to amplify and clarify it…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
What a week. COVID-19 deaths passed 150,000. Second-quarter GDP declined 9.5 percent from a year ago and 7 percent from the previous quarter. In more uplifting…
Blog
2020 Second Quarter GDP Decline Is Worst in U.S. History—But Not 32.9 Percent
The good news is that the second quarter’s GDP numbers aren’t nearly as scary as the more dramatic headlines are saying. The economy has not…
Forbes
Antitrust Showdown In Congress: Big Tech, Meet Big Government
There’s a contradiction in the Trump, and by extension Republican, deregulatory agenda that could inadvertently threaten the recovery of an already wavering economy. That aberration…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States surpassed 4 million last week. Congress returned to session after its July 4 break and is putting together…
News Release
Repeal #NeverNeeded Regulations Hindering Use of Tech at Home During Deadly Pandemic
The COVID-19 crisis has severely tested individuals and businesses, making access to technologies and services that enabled large swaths of the American economy to move…
Study
Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help People Stay Home and Safe During the COVID-19 Crisis
As individuals and businesses continue to address the COVID-19 health crisis, access to technologies and services that have enabled large swaths of the economy to…
Blog
Deregulate to Stimulate: #NeverNeeded Regulations Are Harming Health and Economy
The Code of Federal Regulations contains more than 1.1 million regulatory restrictions. State and local governments have additional rules. Some of those rules have a…
Blog
How to Spot a #NeverNeeded Regulation
Regulatory reform is one of the most important weapons there is for fighting COVID-19 and for aiding the economic recovery after the worst passes. Where…
Blog
Trump Administration Celebrates Red Tape Reduction, Promising More
The White House hosted a midsummer celebration on the South Lawn of the Trump administration’s reforms and reductions of unneeded “job killing regulations” and red…
Forbes
Donald Trump Showcases Four Years Of Red Tape Reduction At White House Event
The White House hosted a midsummer South Lawn celebration showcasing the Trump administration’s reforms and reductions of “job killing regulations” and…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
After another busy week for agencies, the 2020 Federal Register is on pace to be 79,121 pages. None of those pages include the Spring 2020…
Blog
How to Make #NeverNeeded-Style Reforms Stick
There are lots of good regulatory reform ideas out there. The ideas with the most staying power share a common theme. They don’t just treat…
Inside Sources
How to Reform Never-Needed Regulations – and How to Keep Them That Way
Policymakers have waived more than 600 regulations as part of the COVID-19 response. Federal agencies lifted rules against telemedicine and remote education.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
New COVID cases continued to rise, and the Supreme Court handed down a number of controversial decisions to end its term. Regulatory agencies issued new…
News Release
#NeverNeeded Report: Systemic Regulatory Reform Will Aid Economic Recovery from COVID-19
Policy makers at all levels of government have waived more than 600 regulations, including rules impeding access to medical care and making the economic shock…
Blog
New #NeverNeeded Paper: Regulatory Reform
Regulatory reform is one of the most important policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Removing obstacles to health care can save lives. Removing barriers against…
Study
How to Make Sure Reformed #NeverNeeded Regulations Stay That Way
Policy makers at all levels of government have waived more than 600 regulations in response to the COVD-19 crisis.[1] Those rules were…
Blog
The E.O. 13891 Guidance Document Portal: An Exercise in Utility
Federal agencies have been required by Executive Order 13891 to create “a single, searchable, indexed database that contains or links to all guidance documents in effect.” Agencies…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The USMCA trade agreement came into effect on July 1, and three states increased their minimum wages. The unemployment rate went down to 11.1 percent.
Blog
Trump’s Regulatory Reform Agenda by the Numbers, Summer 2020 Update
The administration released the Spring 2020 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Its purpose is to lay out regulatory priorities of the federal…
Forbes
How Donald Trump Has Cut Regulation – But Also Added It
Spending control and deficit restraint are indispensable to a nation’s stability and long term economic health. Before the economic lockdown, federal debt service was already…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Consumer spending rose 8.2 percent in May, a new record that gives hope for a quicker economic recovery. On the other hand, new coronavirus cases…
Forbes
Regulating Social Media Content Moderation Will Backfire And Make Big Tech More Powerful
As repeatedly noted by defenders of free speech, expressing popular opinions never needs protection. Rather, it is the commitment to protecting dissident expression that is…
Blog
Podcast: Reforming #NeverNeeded Regulations
The John Locke Foundation has released a Rebound Plan for North Carolina, where it is based—the basketball reference is a nice touch. It contains reform…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Trade protectionists have taken to calling free traders soft on China. According to John Bolton’s forthcoming book, it turns out to be the other way…
Blog
Has Trump Been a Net Deregulator?
Pierre Lemieux, in Regulation magazine, draws from the new 2020 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments to estimate the Trump administration's net impact on regulation. Trump’s…
Blog
Emergencies and the Project Manager’s Dilemma
Government agencies’ initial responses to the COVID-19 crisis were notable for one particular characteristic: incompetence. From basic errors in data collection, through failed lab safety…
Blog
A Look At Trump’s Deregulatory Record and How More of the Same Can Anchor the Next Coronavirus Recovery Package
I remembered wondering in 2017 whether the federal government would be larger or smaller after four years of Trump. The debt has now topped $25 trillion and the deficit alone…
The Washington Examiner
Trump’s Regulatory ‘Impulses’ Threaten Victories Over Swamp
The Washington Examiner cites Competitive Enterprise Institute Vice President Clyde Wayne Crews regarding regulation in the Trump administration. President Trump has continued his unprecedented rollback of…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The rate of new coronavirus cases increased last week, adding a note of caution to tentative efforts at reopening. Regulatory agencies issued new final regulations…
Blog
#NeverNeed Regulations and the Coronavirus
What is the appropriate public policy response to COVID-19 crisis? In a new short video, Kent Lassman makes the case for lifting government barriers that…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Friday’s 13.3 percent unemployment rate announcement was actually good news, and says much about the more than 600 regulations waived so far at various levels…
Blog
Trump Executive Order to Expedite Project Approvals
President Trump on June 4 issued an Executive Order intended to expedite the federal approval process for major infrastructure projects. “Economic Recovery from the COVID-19…
Blog
Pandemics, #NeverNeeded Regulations, and Ten Thousand Commandments
At Inside Sources, Wayne Crews and Ryan Young have an op-ed summarizing the main findings of Wayne’s new 2020 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments, plus…
Blog
Time to Permanently Sunset Waived #NeverNeeded Regulations
Many regulations have proven especially harmful during the COVID-19 crisis. But many of those waivers are temporary. Those temporary waivers should be made permanent. One…
The Washington Examiner
Kill the Never-Needed Regulations Slowing the Economic Recovery
Our attention is focused on a single, terrible story like we’ve rarely seen before, a story that commands such a level of attention because it…
The Washington Examiner
New Report Reveals the Crushing Costs that Federal Regulations Impose on Average Households
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on CEI’s 2020 10kc report: Free market conservatives and libertarians well understand the…
Reason
The Pandemic Is a Reminder That Many Regulations Are Both Costly and Unnecessary
Reason cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on CEI’s 2020 10kc report: Instead, to calculate the cost of these sorts of rules,…
The Washington Times
Trump Signs Broad Order to Speed Deregulation and Relax Red Tape for Economic Recovery
The Washington Times cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on deregulation by President Trump: Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the…
Fox Business
Trump signs E.O.: ‘Regulations will be cut’
Fox Business cites CEI’s 2019 publication of 10kc: As of April 28, the Trump administration had put 277 deregulation orders into place since…
Study
The Case against Social Media Content Regulation
As repeatedly noted by most defenders of free speech, expressing popular opinions never needs protection. Rather, it is the commitment to protecting dissident expression that…
Blog
Six Ways the Trump Administration Has Reduced Regulation
Apart from sector-specific executive orders and directives to federal agencies, there are six prominent ways the Trump administration has streamlined regulation that were covered in…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI released the 2020 edition of Wayne Crews’s annual Ten Thousand Commandments report, which gives a big-picture view of the federal regulatory state. Regulatory agencies…
Citation
Federal Regulations Cost an Estimated $1.9 Trillion per Year: Many Rules Hinder Virus Response, Economic Recovery
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today released the 2020 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (10KC 2020), CEI’s annual survey of…
The Wall Street Journal
The Incredible Shrinking Quorum
How can Congress do its work in a time of social distancing? The Senate has remained in session as usual, but the House took steps…
National Review
How Loosening Regulations Can Fight Coronavirus and Help the Economy
If a regulation isn’t needed during a crisis, it was probably never needed at all. To his credit, President Trump signed an executive order on May…
The Washington Times
Trump Behind on Promise to Cut Two Rules for Every New One, Study Shows
The Washington Times cites CEI’s 10kc report: The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual report on the cost of regulations found that Mr. Trump cut regulations…
The Federalist
New Report Exposes Onerous Overregulation From The Administrative State
The Federalist cites CEI’s 10kc report: A new report from the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offers new insight into just how much unelected…
Blog
Out Now: The 2020 Edition of Ten Thousand Commandments
The 2020 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments is out. Wayne Crews’s annual report gives a big picture view of the federal regulatory state. There has…
The Federalist
Here Is A Catalog Of Trump’s Threats To Regulate Social Media
The major print and cable television news media outlets are abuzz with stories of Twitter fact-checking President Donald Trump’s tweets. Alleged…
Products
Liberate to Stimulate
Download Chapter 10 as PDF Policy makers frequently propose spending stimulus as a way to grow economies. It rarely goes well. A regulatory liberalization…
Products
Government Accountability Office Database on Regulations
Download Chapter 9 as a PDF The various federal reports and databases on regulations serve different purposes: The Federal Register shows the ag- gregate…
Products
Analysis of the Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
View Full Document as PDF The Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda) is the document where agencies outline…
News Release
Report: Trump Deregulation Proceeds, But Threatened by Trump Regulation
The Competitive Enterprise Institute issued a report today on the burden imposed by federal government regulations: Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory…
Products
Regulatory Dark Matter: Over 22,000 Public Notices Annually
Download Chapter 7 as a PDF Without actually passing a law, government can signal expectations, specify parameters for and influence various industries—including health care,…
Products
Regulatory Dark Matter: Presidential Executive Orders and Memoranda
Download Chapter 6 as a PDF Executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other executive actions make up a large component of executive “lawmaking.” They merit…
Products
Tens of Thousands of Pages and Rules in the Federal Register
Download Chapter 5 as a PDF The Federal Register is the daily repository of all proposed and final federal rules and regulations.427 Although its…
Products
What Comes after “Trillion”? The Unknowable Costs of Regulation and Intervention
Download Chapter 4 as a PDF If real debt levels on the fiscal budget and entitlements can be vastly higher than the public is…
Products
Toward a Federal “Regulatory Budge”
Download Chapter 3 as a PDF When Congress spends, no one questions that disclosure is necessary for voters to hold representatives accountable. Federal expenditure…
Products
Swamp Things – Trump’s Discordant Regulatory Impulses Threaten to Derail His Successes and Expand the Administrative State
Download Chapter 2 as a PDF President Trump has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents.146 Trump…
Products
9,999 Commandments? Six Ways Rule Flows Have Been Reduced or Streamlined
Download Chapter 1 as a PDF This edition of Ten Thousand Commandments begins with a survey of approaches the Trump administration took in its…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2020 – Executive Summary
Download the Executive Summary as a PDF Spending control and deficit restraint are indispensable to a nation’s stability and long-term economic health. Yet alarm…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2020
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American consumers,…
Blog
Trump’s Executive Order on #NeverNeeded Regulations
In an op-ed in National Review, CEI Senior Fellow Ryan Young takes a look at President Trump’s new Executive Order directing agencies to get rid…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Trump issued an Executive Order encouraging agencies to keep #NeverNeeded regulations waived during the coronavirus permanently off the books. Meanwhile, regulatory agencies issued new…
Blog
Trump Signs Executive Order to Spur Economic Recovery through Deregulation
President Donald Trump on May 19 signed an executive order titled, Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery. The order gives cabinet secretaries and agency heads emergency powers to suspend or even eliminate regulations…
News Release
#NeverNeeded Regulation Report: Lift Regulations that Make Energy More Expensive
Lower-income households spend more of their budget on energy costs than more affluent ones, which is why regulations that increase the cost of energy have…
News Release
New Executive Order to Stimulate Recovery by Deregulating Builds on CEI’s #NeverNeeded Campaign
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) commended President Trump’s decision today to sign a new Executive Order directing cabinet members and agency heads to immediately identify…
Study
Lift #NeverNeeded Regulations that Make Energy More Expensive
Low-income households, which are more likely to suffer from unemployment and other stresses during the COVID-19 crisis, spend much more of their household budget on…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Retail sales declined 16.4 percent in April, setting a new record low for the second month in a row. Congress returned to Washington, putting the…
Citation
#NeverNeeded Regulation Report: White House Can Speed Up COVID-19 Recovery by Cutting Regulations without Congress
In a new paper released today, CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews outlines several deregulatory measures the White House could take without Congress that…
Study
Pen, Phone, and Eraser?
There have now been several layers of congressional rescue-and-stimulus response to the coronavirus crisis, and there will be more “phases” to come. Given partisan discord,…
News Release
Congress Should Work With Trump Administration to Reduce Regulatory Barriers to COVID-19 Recovery
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a proposed fourth COVID-19 recovery package that would spend roughly $3 trillion but contains no significant regulatory relief.
Study
Narrow the Focus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may well have taken their eye off the ball by…
The Wall Street Journal
Amazon’s Pandemic Success Story
There’s one bright spot in the dismal pandemic economy. Amazon is trying something that no company has attempted before: supplying the essential needs of 325 million Americans…
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