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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Reduce Burdensome Regulation of Medicines and Medical Devices
Liberate to Stimulate Index Over the past century, American consumers have benefited from thousands of new pharmaceuticals and medical devices to help…
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Purify Federal Water Policies
Liberate to Stimulate Index Drinking Water. Drinking water policy should focus on how best to ensure that Americans have clean and safe…
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Ensure Consumers’ Access to Bottled Water
Liberate to Stimulate Index Bottled water offers many important benefits— including portability, emergency applications, and convenience. The bottled water industry had been…
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Enhance Auto Safety
Liberate to Stimulate Index Automotive safety is the primary mission of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In recent decades, however,…
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Improve Food Safety and Quality through Greater Information, Consumer Choice, and Legal Accountability
Liberate to Stimulate Index Few issues are as important to consumers as the safety and quality of their food—from microbial contaminants to…
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Protect Incentives for Pharmaceutical Innovation
Liberate to Stimulate Index In recent years, Congress has faced mounting public pressure to “do something” about the rapidly rising prices of…
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