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
Is Congress even trying? 3,248 new rules vs. 175 laws
In 2024, federal agencies issued 3,248 rules and regulations, while Congress enacted only 175 laws. I refer to the simple ratio—19 rules for…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Draining the swamp with Jim Bovard
In this week’s episode we cover fake endangered species, Pennsylvania’s climate policy showdown, a robust defense of property rights in New…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Seat belts and eagle possession
This week’s roundup will be a little different than usual. Since the new year began mid-week, and I already published a breakdown of 2024’s year-end numbers, as…
Search Posts
Blog
Pull Out of Basel III: The Moral Hazard of Government Ratings
Recently and for different reasons, two high-profile players from different parts of the financial sector -- JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and respected banking analyst…
Blog
Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Premiums by 55 to 85 Percent in Ohio, Study Says
The Charleston Daily Mail’s Don Surber points to a recent study “that shows that 790,000 Ohioans will lose their private health insurance and premiums…
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Regulation Roundup
In Seattle, Washington, the maximum length allowed for concealed weapons is 6 feet, plus more.
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Flushing Oral Oncology Drugs Down the Toilet?
An interesting article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (via yesterday's Jerusalem Post) argues that the U.S. Food and…
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Dodd-Frank Financial Law Uses Regulations to Outsource American Jobs
American jobs will soon be outsourced due to the Dodd-Frank financial "reform" law passed in 2010 with strong support from the Obama administration. That law…
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Government Fines Businessman for Creating Jobs
A CEO recently told Congress about how he was fined for hiring too many people: “I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to…
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Regulation of the Day 197: Planking
Threats to freedoms even as trivial as planking should not be taken lying down.
Townhall
Michigan on Brink of Massive Education Reform
On Friday September 9, Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) announced he would introduce legislation giving teachers in his state right to work…
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The Mythical Benefits of Plastic Bag Bans Debunked
Some municipalities have now imposed taxes or restrictions on plastic shopping bags, even though banning or taxing plastic bags has little effect on litter, and…
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Phony Breast Cancer Group’s Phony Findings on BPA
Activists at the Breast Cancer Fund are scheduled to release a new scaremongering “study” on the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) tomorrow,…
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How to Make Legal Advice and Legal Services More Affordable Without Taxpayer Subsidies
At Truth on the Market, I discuss how to make legal advice and legal services more affordable at this link. I also discuss…
Blog
Federal Register Near Record Pace
This year's Federal Register is on pace to be 80,190 pages long. That's an average of 220 pages of fresh proposed rules, final rules, notices,…
Townhall
Google And The Antitrust Case Against Antitrust
Now that the economy has recovered to robust health and unemployment is back below 5%, the U.S. Senate has ample time and resources to spend…
Ceske Noviny
Czech President Warns in USA Against Effort to Restrict Freedom
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Obama’s Proposed New Tax Will Multiply Red Tape and Enrich Tax Lawyers and Accountants More than the Treasury
I have argued that "significant tax increases" may be necessary as part of a deficit reduction deal, given the enormity of the deficit and…
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Warren Buffett, Give Your Secretary a Raise!
So it has been decreed -- by Warren Buffett, by President Barack Obama, and by media members going gaga over to so-called Buffett Rule --…
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Regulation Roundup
Flirting is illegal in Haddon, New Jersey, plus more.
Blog
House Hearing on Effects of EU Privacy Directive
Yesterday the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing addressing the economic consequences of the European Union’s internet privacy regulations. The…
Ceske Noviny
Liberate the Jobs!
The most fascinating aspect of House Speaker John Boehner’s very effective address to the Economic Club was not the specific solutions he presented but the…
Fox News
Regulation Nation: As Firms Grow, Regs Follow
Fox News highlights Wayne Crews's annual report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. In his yearly report, Ten Thousand Commandments: An…
Blog
Obama and Sarbanes-Oxley Review — The One Sentence Worth 4,000 Words for Jobs
In President Obama’s 33-minute-long speech to Congress on job creation last week, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words.
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Infrastructure Si, Infrastructure Bank No
In his Forbes column, James Glassman provides a counterpoint to the Obama proposal to create a national infrastructure bank. Rather than direct funds through…
Blog
Congressional Vote to Halt NLRB Job-Killing Regulations
President Obama and the Senate Democrats' agenda will be put to the test. GOP senators have called for the vote on the Protecting Jobs…
Fox News
Law Schools Roundup
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
GOP Attack on Regulations Starting This Week
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Complaints about government overreach are not new,…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Will Obama and Congress Slay the Sarbox Job-Killing Monster?
In President Obama’s 33-minute-long speech to Congress on job creation, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words. In the…
House Oversight Committee
Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform
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H.R. 1909 Brings Competitive Regulation to Small Loan Market
The Summer of 2011 will likely be remembered as a season that overregulation came to a boiling point -- at all levels of the U.S. government.
Blog
Belt Tightening At FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Last week the House Appropriations Committee released its draft bill for funding of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. Of particular note is the appropriation…
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State Losing Control of Pennsylvania Liquor
Privatizing Pennsylvania's liquor stores has been a subject of debate for decades. Proposals in the past have been met with fear about the effects privatization…
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Regulatory Roundup
Here’s another batch of regulatory bloopers: In Little Rock, Arkansas, it is illegal to honk your horn at a restaurant after 9:00 pm. It has…
House Oversight Committee
Nice Talk. When’s the Jobs Speech?
Hauling the United States Senate and a reluctant House together to listen to you on NFL kickoff night–when it’s not even State of the…
House Oversight Committee
Immigration is Not Charity
The biggest misconception about immigration is that it is a zero-sum game–that there is a finite number of jobs which immigrants “take” from the…
House Oversight Committee
A Plan Better than Obama’s to Create Jobs
News Release
CEI Presents Alternative to American Jobs Act
Washington, D.C., September 9, 2011—Last night, President Obama presented Congress with a $447 billion “American Jobs Act.” The high price tag covers yet another…
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Obama’s Costly, Unaffordable, Harmful New Stimulus: The “American Jobs Act”
President Obama wants Congress to pass a $447 billion proposal called the "American Jobs Act," a costly set of recycled stimulus plans that contains no new ideas…
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My Fantasy Obama Jobs Speech
The following is my fantasy speech on jobs from Barack Obama. He looks at CEI's websites, realizes his big-government approach has been all wrong, but…
Blog
The “Overhead Smash” Of ITAR
Over at Beltway Confidential today, Tim Carney asks if one of the unintended (or perhaps not-so-unintended) consequences of Dodd-Frank will be to…
House Oversight Committee
Jobs Speech Won’t Do the Job
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his own jobs agenda this week in anticipation of President Obama’s Thursday address to Congress. The most important idea is…
News Release
CEI’s Ten-Point Plan to Create Jobs
1. Repeal financial “reform” laws, such as Dodd-Frank and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, that are causing economic uncertainty and dissuading businesses from expanding, investing, and hiring…
Blog
TSA Agent: Be Quiet About Alleged Sexual Assault, or Pay $500,000
Give some people a badge, and the power goes to their head. A TSA agent has threatened to sue a female traveler who complained…
Blog
Obama Infrastructure Stimulus: Union Payoff Filled with Rail Boondoggles and Pork
Obama's proposed infrastructure stimulus is a payoff to Big Labor, as economist Ronald Utt explains. It "represents tens of billions of dollars in high,…
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Stimulating Language
I’ve argued for a long time that stimulus bills are poorly named; it implies that they stimulate the economy. “Spending bill” is a non-loaded term…
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Dear Labor, Don’t Fear the Robot
In California, a war is quietly being fought: workers versus technology. And the war has materialized in the form of a bill that seeks…
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Obama’s Ironic, Belated, and Unaffordable Infrastructure “Stimulus”
In a Labor Day speech to an AFL-CIO rally in Detroit, President Obama said that "roads and bridges nationwide need rebuilding and more than…
Canada Free Press
Obama’s Jobs Speech is D.O.A.
Canada Free Press discusses Wayne Crews's study on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Obamacare has stalled hiring as businesses large and…
Atlantic Highlands Herald
The Jobs-Thing
The Atlantic Highlands Herald discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. This topic crosses the eyes of the man on…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Burping in church is illegal in Nevada unless it's accidental, plus more.
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: September 2, 2011
I'm back from the West Coast with another (hoppier) edition of the Alcohol Regulation Roundup, a collection of stories about our nations constantly changing, sometimes…
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A “Condom Mandate” is No Benefit for Adult Film Actors
I heard the news while driving home from work: a California porn star tested positive for HIV, resulting in a voluntary…
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