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.
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Regulatory Reform in the 118th Congress: Separation of Powers Restoration Act
The separation of powers is a key aspect of American government. To decentralize power and ensure checks and balances, the Founders divided the federal government…
City Journal
Roll It Back
Medicaid, the federal-state entitlement for the poor, now provides health insurance to more than one in four Americans. Enrollments surged after the Affordable Care Act…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
An Executive Order from the Biden administration made some of the biggest system-level regulatory changes in years. It raises the threshold for “economically significant”…
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Regulation Roundup
A local ordinance in Suffolk, Virginia prohibits driving motorized vehicles under their own power within city limits, plus more.
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Is Bush or Obama the Bigger Regulator?
What the President said on Tuesday is technically correct. But, as with almost all political statements, there is more to the story.
Blog
The Silver Platypus
Last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced it was considering scrapping the Silver Line stop at Dulles Airport. Though the Silver line was designed…
Op-Eds
Social Security: The Birth of Big Brother
Nearly eight decades after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935, the program remains the most popular ever instituted…
Op-Eds
Who’s the Bigger Regulator: Bush or Obama?
During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama got applause for acknowledging that some federal regulations are outdated, unnecessary or costly. He…
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Stimulus was Designed to Provide Pork and Payoffs, Not to Revive the Economy
Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron argued that the $800 billion stimulus package wasn't even designed to stimulate the economy, but rather to benefit…
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
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Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
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Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment