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
Study
Permitting Reform for a Freer and More Prosperous Nation
Contents Special Advisors The Importance of Permitting Reform Part 1: 11 Principles for Permitting Reform Part 2: Statute-by-Statute Analysis for Permitting…
Blog
The week in regulations: Carbon nanotubes and colored sausage casings
President Trump enacted new tariffs against more than 60 countries. Some of the Canada tariffs invoke a never-used statute from the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff…
Blog
Evaluating DOGE nearly halfway through Trump’s second term
One week after his victory in the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump announced that he would create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)…
Search Posts
Blog
Who’s Afraid of Snuggles the Bear?
As the East Coast braces to be pummeled by Hurricane Irene, a new study in the Journal Air Quality and Atmosphere…
Blog
NLRB to Businesses: Tell Employees they Can Unionize
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a new rule “requiring most private-sector employers to notify employees of their rights under the National Labor…
Op-Eds
Bureaucrats Have Gone Rogue
G.O.P. presidential candidates should emphasize that reining in the E.P.A. is a constitutional imperative. Yes, Americans are worried about jobs and the economy, but arguing…
Op-Eds
Rekindling the Dream
Martin Luther King Jr. is now memorialized with an imposing statue on the D.C. National Mall. While the honor is long overdue, his legacy should…
Blog
Eminent Domain, Rick Perry, and the Trans-Texas Corridor
Attorney Alan Ackerman has a post up highlighting and commenting on an article that argues that critics of Texas Governor Rick Perry from the right…
News Release
Obama’s Deregulation Initiative Falls Short of Substantive Reform
Washington, D.C., August 24, 2011—President Obama announced that independent agencies will wipe as many as 500 rules from the books in the coming months.
Blog
FCC Repeals 83 Regulations
The repeals will become official upon publication in the Federal Register.
Blog
More Bailouts, Urge Left-Leaning Journalists
Left-leaning journalists are urging more mortgage bailouts to try to increase consumer spending, since they erroneously think that inadequate consumer spending is the principal cause…
Yahoo News
The Alarming Cost Of Climate Change Hysteria
Yahoo News discusses an estimate of the costs of federal regulations from Wayne Crews's study. The Small Business Administration estimates that compliance with…
Blog
Deregulate the Practice of Law to Promote Justice and Create Jobs
It's time to deregulate the practice of law, write Clifford Winston and Robert W. Crandall of the Brookings Institution in The Wall Street…
Blog
A Letter to the Editor about Natural Rights and the Cuban Economy
In an editorial last week Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote about a supposed “economic revolution” happening in Cuba. It seems the Cuban government has just liberated…
Business Insider
$38 Billion-Worth Of Red Tape Choking Businesses
Business Insider mentions Wayne Crews's study on the size of the federal regulatory burden. U.S. businesses continue to deal with the unintended consequences…
Blog
Lemonade Freedom Day Is Tomorrow
Tomorrow, parents and children across the country will set up lemonade stands in their neighborhoods. And they’re going to do it without getting licensed, inspected,…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
In Delaware, it is a felony to wear a disguise while committing a felony, plus more.
Business Insider
Forget Corporate Jets. Government Limousines Show They’re Stealing You Blind
President Obama has made a big deal out of corporate jets. Apparently they are a symbol not of success but of greed. Yet even…
Wall Street Pit
Is Business Choking on Red Tape?
The Wall Street Pit discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regualtory burden. U.S. businesses continue to deal with the…
Blog
“Rules are Rules,” When it Comes to Yard Sales
The City of Salem, Oregon, is cracking down on yard sales — even if they are a citizen’s last option to pay for expensive…
The Future of Freedom Foundation
O’er the Land of the 39 Percent Free
Blog
Regulation of the Day 195: Fitted Sheets
California’s state legislature is poised to pass SB 432. It would, of all things, make it a crime for hotels to use non-fitted sheets.
The Future of Freedom Foundation
Let’s Put a Stop to the War on Salt
First Lady Michelle Obama has been lobbying strongly this year for food manufacturers to reduce the sodium content of their products. Her efforts scored a…
OA Online
Mileage Standards Will Decrease Safety
Blog
Obama Ignores even Internal Dissent on Environmentalist Agenda
President Obama will stop at nothing to pursue his war on coal. He won’t even listen to those within his own administration. His…
Blog
EPA-Backed Study: Products Containing BPA Harmless
The US Environmental Protection Agency officially backed a study last week underscores what scientists around the world have been saying for years: BPA is not…
Blog
Alcohol Regulatory Round-up: August 11th 2011
Federal: A proposed bill, Brewer's Employment and Excise Relief Act, would reduce the federal excise taxes for craft brewers in order to help them…
OA Online
Finally Free from Government Servitude
All that business last month about July 4 being In- dependence Day was a temporary indulgence by those Founding Father guys. Hope you enjoyed the…
OA Online
Europe’s Shorts-Sightedness
This week, troubles in Europe may have played as much of a role in the U.S. stock market carnage and volatility as the downgrade of…
Reason
What Would You Do to Improve Job Growth?
Study
Stealing You Blind
Remember when we used to call government employees “public servants”? They’re servants no more—now they’re bureaucratic masters of the universe, claiming inflated salaries and early…
Blog
The War on Lemonade
Besides today's CEI Podcast, Iain Murray and I have a column over at Townhall.com about Lemonade Freedom Day:…
Blog
CEI Podcast for August 11, 2011: Lemonade Freedom Day
Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray talks about the rash of children's lemonade stands being shut down by police, and his plans to celebrate Lemonade…
Blog
Massachusetts Reverses “Buy Local” Mandate for Brewers
Public Outcry Forces Rule Reversal for Massachusetts Craft Brewers Despite the recession, one segment of the US market, at least, has been steadily growing. This…
Blog
Just in time for the Debt Super Committee–the new Hello Kitty Federal Budget Calculator
The Hello Kitty Federal Budget Calculator is here to ease tension created by hostile political climate in the wake of the debt-ceiling-increase debates. Yesterday,…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 194: Facebook Friends
Missouri has a new law that bans teachers from becoming Facebook friends with any current or former student. The goal is to prevent inappropriate…
Blog
Weird Healthcare Regulation of the Day: No Coverage for Men With Breast Cancer
"Disease does not discriminate, but apparently Medicaid coverage does. A 26-year-old South Carolina tile-layer has found himself with breast cancer and out of luck for…
NCPA
Using Price Theory to Reform Overregulated America
Blog
Obamacare Costs Additional $50 Billion a Year More Than Predicted, Based on Yet Another False Assumption in Calculating its Costs
“Federal payments required by President Barack Obama’s health care law are being understated by as much as $50 billion per year because official budget forecasts…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 193: Cleaning Up After Riots
This is a different broken window fallacy than the kind one usually sees.
Blog
The “Obama Law” Devastates Impoverished People in the World’s Second Poorest Country, The Congo
People are going hungry, pulling their children out of school due to poverty, and joining criminal gangs to make ends meet in the poorest region…
Blog
The Big Repeal
Congress and the White House have typically been reluctant to repeal any laws or regulations, regardless of which party is in power. The solution? Change…
NCPA
Down on the Downgrade?
The downgrade itself was fair. However, S&P’s timing and “partisan gridlock” rationale were questionable, as is its implicit advocacy of higher taxes. Nothing really…
American Spectator
The Big Repeal
In 1787, there were four federal crimes. Now there are over 4,000. The Code of Federal Regulations runs over 157,000 pages. America is overlawyered and…
Investor's Business Daily
To Rule Means To Reign
Blog
Regulation of the Day 192: Fire Extinguishers
Britain has a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. It isn’t quite living up to its name, though. The group is pressing to ban…
Study
Jump, Jive an’ Reform Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF Cost-benefit analysis has long been a centerpiece of regulatory reform proposals, with…
Investor's Business Daily
The Growth Agenda and Its Enemies
Even President Obama now seems to realize that rescuing America from its financial crisis requires getting Americans back to work. What he doesn’t seem to…
Citation
Iain Murray on WMAL Morning Majority
The US government could cut up to a dozen agencies without hurting the country, says Iain Murray, vice president for strategy of the Center for…
Investor's Business Daily
The Regulatory Recession
The debt ceiling negotiations and debates over government spending have transfixed the nation for the last few weeks. President Obama’s call for a “clean” debt…
Comment
Comments to DOT in the matter of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), 67 Fed. Reg. 69366
Full Document Available in PDF…
Blog
Hoover Didn’t Cut Spending, and Spending Cuts Didn’t Trigger the 1937 Roosevelt Recession
The false left-wing meme of the day is that the modest spending cuts in Sunday's debt limit deal are bad, because spending cuts caused the…
Barrasso
Red Tape Review August 5, 2011
Staff & Scholars
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist and Director of Publications
- 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