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
Ten Thousand Commandments 2025 is out now
The 2025 edition of CEI’s flagship report, Ten Thousand Commandments, is out today. For more than 30 years, my colleague Wayne Crews has been…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Reforming Washington’s 10,000 Commandments with Wayne Crews
In this week’s episode we cover the political roots of totalitarianism, why we should put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out to…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2025
Introduction Record federal debt is contributing to record-setting regulatory burdens. While new spending programs show up in budget figures, new regulations requiring the private sector…
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Blog
Guidance Documents of the Week: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Friends
Guidance documents are statements of policy issued by your favorite alphabet soup of agencies, which more often than not translate into law, despite rarely going…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Congress has adjourned for its August recess, so the republic is safe for another month. Rulemaking agencies are still on the job, however, and published…
National Review
The Trump Economy
The National Review cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the 10kc report. As Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Reason
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Can’t Stay Awake During Meetings. Does That Mean It’s Time to Put His Whole Crony Capitalist Department to Rest?
Reason cites CEI’s report on the Economic Development Administration. “In the four decades since its creation, EDA has funded professional football practice facilities,…
Blog
Guidance Documents of the Week: Consumer Product Safety Commission Revisited
Guidance documents are statements of policy issued by your favorite alphabet soup of agencies, which more often than not translate into law, despite rarely going…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Washington, D.C.’s flash flood was followed up by a heat wave; this week could bring even worse during Congress’ final week in session before the…
Blog
What Should the Government Do?
What Should the Government Do? In that question lies most disagreements about politics. What can governments do, and just because they can, should they? …
Newsmax
Volcker Rule Burdens Banks, Markets
Newsmax cites a recent coalition letter signed by CEI opposing the Volcker Rule. That legislative ban would seem to apply here, because as…
Politico, Morning Energy
Perry Calls Efficiency Moves ‘Common Sense’
POLITICO‘s Morning Energy cites CEI’s recent petition for increased efficiency in dishwashers. PERRY: EASING EFFICIENCY IS ‘COMMON SENSE’: DOE will publish in the Federal…
FreedomWorks
The Passenger Facility Charge Is a Market-Minded Way to Address Airport Infrastructure
FreedomWorks cites a coalition letter CEI joined advocating for eliminating the cap on PFC. This is why a group of organizations associated with…
Issues & Insights
How Bureaucrats Ruin Everything From Dishwashers To Gas Cans To Cars
Issues & Insights cites CEI’s recent petition for increased efficiency in dishwasher cycles. The DOE was responding to a petition from the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
Blog
Guidance Documents of the Week: Consumer Product Safety Commission
Guidance documents are statements of policy issued by your favorite alphabet soup of agencies, which more often than not translate into law, despite rarely going…
Marketplace
Labor Department Deregulation Expected to Pick Up Steam After Acosta
Marketplace cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on deregulation efforts from the Department of Labor. “He certainly took what I would say is an…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Washington, D.C. was hit by a flash flood, but agencies were still able to publish new regulations ranging from electric program procedures to Fort Ord…
Industrial Heating
Regulations – Reform and Removal
Industrial Heating cites CEI’s 10kc report. A Competitive Enterprise Institute survey found that the U.S. has $1.9 trillion in hidden taxes via federal…
Blog
Guidance Documents of the Week: Social Security Administration and Treasury
Guidance documents are statements of policy issued by your favorite alphabet soup agencies, which more often than not translate into law, despite rarely going through…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a four-day week for the federal government as the nation celebrated Independence Day. Meanwhile, agencies published new regulations ranging from the Paper and…
News Release
CEI Applauds DOE for Granting Its Petition to Speed Up Dishwashers
Responding to a petition from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a new rulemaking related to the problem of…
Blog
Guidance Documents of the Week
Each guidance document might be small, but when there are 13,000 of them per decade, mostly without outside review or accountability, they add up. This…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2019 Federal Register broke 30,000 pages last week, the Democratic presidential candidates had their first debates, and the U.S. and Chinese governments prepared for…
The Singapore Business Times
Regulating Facebook Protects Facebook
The Singapore Business Times cites a CEI report on the economy under the Obama Administration. More recently, a report by the Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
‘Gundy’ Decision Could Signal Fundamental Reform of Administrative State
It is hard to describe how important the Supreme Court decision last week in Gundy v. United States is. In one sense, nothing changed—no case…
Blog
Costs of Deadweight Effects of Federal Spending and of ‘Budget’ or ‘Transfer’ Rules
Theoretically, policymakers distinguish between economic and social regulation when examining and reporting on costs, effects, and employment.
Blog
Guidance Documents of the Week
Guidance documents are statements of policy issued by your favorite alphabet soup of agencies, which more often than not translate into law, despite rarely going…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Wednesday, the day before the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s 35th anniversary gala dinner, saw no new final regulations published in the Federal Register. This may be…
Blog
Australia Needs an Administrative Procedure Act
In the United States, there is an intellectual movement going on the likes of which have not been seen in nearly a century. The administrative…
Blog
For Better Policy, Congress Should Stop Punting to Executive Agencies
Yesterday the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Article I Initiative hosted a fascinating panel discussion here in Washington, D.C. about the dynamic relationship between…
Reason
Stop Treating the Government With Respect
Reason cites Senior Fellow John Berlau on regulatory agencies. Those strictures no longer look so strict. New York state’s blue-tribe government last year…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Last week, a Canadian team won the NBA championship for the first time, while an American team won the Stanley Cup. This week brings us…
Capitalism Magazine
Professor Stigiltz’s “Progressive Capitalism” is Neo-Socialism
Capitalism Magazine cites CEI’s 10kC report. As for government regulation of the private sector, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates in its latest “Ten…
The Daily Caller
LEWIS: American Prosperity is Rolling Forward – Despite Impeachment-Obsessed Democrats
The Daily Caller cites CEI’s 10kC report. By the end of 2016, there were over 95,000 pages in the Federal Register — the most…
Washington Free Beacon
Obama EPA Head: Tired of Hearing Trump EPA Helps Manufacturers
The Washington Free Beacon cites CEI’s report on the Trump administation’s deregulatory record. At the beginning of 2019, a report from the D.C.-based think tank…
Forbes
Is America Losing Its Small Businesses?
Forbes cites CEI on federal agency regulations. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the agencies of the federal government in 2015, the year…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
While the administration is so far keeping to its one-in, two-out policy for proposed rules, new trade and antitrust policies are likely to increase net…
Reason
Will Trump’s Authoritarian Impulses Derail His Deregulatory Successes?
Reason cites Vice President of Policy and Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments” report. But there are warning signs that…
The Washington Times
Trump ‘Administrative State’ Rollback Fails To Lower $2 Trillion Annual Cost Of Regulation
The Washington Times cites Vice President of Policy and Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on the cost of federal regulations. Federal regulations were costing…
Fox Business
Trump Early Efforts on Deregulation Could Pave Way For Increased Executive Activity: Study
Fox Business cites Vice President of Policy and Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on the Trump Administration’s record on deregulation. While he…
The Washington Examiner
‘Swamp’ Thwarts Trump With $1.9T ‘Hidden Tax’ In Regulations
The Washington Examiner cites Vice President of Policy and Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments” report. The Competitive Enterprise Institute said…
Blog
Regulations Trump Administration Has Eliminated So Far in 2019
The Trump administration promised to roll back red tape. So how goes 2019? The 2019 Spring Unified Agenda of Deregulatory and Regulatory Actions released by the…
The Washington Times
Burdensome Federal Regulations Are ‘Hidden Tax’ Which Cost $1.9 Trillion: Study
The Washington Times cites Vice President for Policy and Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments” report. The national debt is not the…
The Times Herald
Jerry Shenk: Regulatory Taxation Burdens us All
The Times Herald cites CEI’s 10kc report. In their review of the cost of government regulations for 2018, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimated…
Blog
Will Antitrust End Trump’s Deregulatory Push?
Revelations that antitrust enforcers have conspired to divide jurisdiction and initiate antitrust investigations into Google and Apple (the U.S. Department of Justice) and Amazon and…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Trump threatened a new tariff on all Mexican goods, potentially scuttling the NAFTA/USMCA agreement. My colleague Wayne Crews went through the new Spring 2019…
Forbes
Trump’s Regulatory Reform Agenda by the Numbers (Summer 2019 Update)
The Trump administration released the Spring 2019 edition of the twice-yearly Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new final regulations this year topped 1,000 last Tuesday, and President Trump and Congress entered Memorial Day weekend at odds on issues…
Blog
Regulatory Costs of Anti-Property Approaches to Environmental Concerns
Environmental regulations transfer substantial wealth and can be subject to the same political failure and regulatory pork-barreling that characterize economic regulation—perhaps more so, given the…
Blog
Costs of Loss of Anonymity in Administrative Surveillance State
The ability of citizens to communicate privately and to retain anonymity if desired are foundational rights slipping away in the regulatory panopticon of the administrative…
Blog
Regulatory Costs of Blurring Corporate and Government Roles
In keeping with the tradition of ignoring political failure in service of the administrative state, the economic and social effects of GSEs, or government-sponsored enterprises,…
Blog
Costs of Antitrust Regulation and Institutionalization of Raising Competitors’ Costs
Antitrust policy is corporate welfare, a prominent illustration of how regulation, not just spending, enables and encourages transfers of wealth by force.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Game of Thrones finale aired last night, though the show’s less-plausible Washington spinoff appears set to continue indefinitely, and with a rather larger budget.
Forbes
What If the Administrative State Cannot Be Reformed?
For the past couple of years I’ve been emphasizing the usefulness of an executive order from President Donald Trump on regulatory "guidance documents" to bridge the gap…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes called for breaking up the company; CEI’s Iain Murray and Kent Lassman explain why that’s a bad idea. CEI also released…
Blog
VIDEO: Report Card on Regulatory Reform
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to spend some time at the historic Mayflower hotel here in Washington, D.C. attending the Federalist Society’s 7th…
Blog
Re-Prioritizing Regulatory Reform
The 2019 edition of Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State is out now.
National Review
President Trump Should Rediscover Regulatory Reform
President Trump, who made regulatory reform a priority early in his term, claims to have reduced federal regulatory burdens by $23 billion in fiscal year…
News Release
Federal Government Illegally Fails to Account for at Least $1.9 Trillion in Estimated Regulatory Costs
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today released the 2019 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (10KC 2019), CEI’s annual survey of…
Products
Liberate to Stimulate
Download Chapter 11 as a PDF Policy makers frequently propose spending stimulus as a way to grow economies. It rarely goes well. A regulatory…
Products
Regulation and the Federal Communications Commission
Download Chapter 10 as a PDF The Federal Communications Commission is by no means the heavyweight among regulators as gauged by the number of…
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 aggregate number…
Products
Analysis of the Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Download Chapter 8 as a PDF The “Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” (Agenda) is where agencies outline their…
Products
Regulatory Dark Matter: Over 22,000 Public Notices Annually
Download Chapter 7 as a PDF Without actually passing a law, government can specify parameters for various industries, including health care, retirement, education, energy…
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.”…
Products
Thousands of Pages 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.
Products
The Unknowable Costs of Regulation and Intervention
Download Chapter 4 as a PDF The sole official reckoning citizens get on the scale and scope of regulatory costs is an annual but…
Products
Toward a Federal “Regulatory Budget”
Download Chapter 3 as a PDF When Congress spends, disclosure is necessary for voters to hold representatives accountable. Federal programs are funded either by…
Products
On the Other Hand…Trump’s Own Regulatory Impulses Threaten to Derail Successes
Download Chapter 2 as a PDF President Trump has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Not one, but two potential Federal Reserve Board nominees withdrew from consideration last week, and economic growth and unemployment remained in excellent health. Meanwhile, with…
Blog
Congressional Democratic Leaders Meet with President on Infrastructure Bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other congressional Democrats met with President Trump on April 30 to discuss an infrastructure package.
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…
Products
Ten Thousand Commandments 2019 – Executive Summary
Download the Executive Summary as a PDF Spending control and deficit restraint are indispensable to any nation’s long-term economic health. Alarm among conservatives over…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2019
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
Republican Study Committee Releases 2020 Budget Proposal
Congress is supposed to pass an annual spending budget, though it rarely gets around to it. Instead, the government is usually funded through a mashup…
Blog
Costs of Unequal Treatment of Citizens by Abandoning Negative Rights for a Positive Rights Framework
To many classical liberals (or libertarians), it is primarily the individual’s right of self-defense that is delegated to a government. We cannot unilaterally commence the…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
While Washington’s “This Town” types geared up for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the rest of the country flocked to movie theaters for a much…
The Hill
Federal Reserve defies White House and Congress on Banking Regulation
President Trump and the Federal Reserve continue to clash over interest rates, but another simmering dispute concerns the regulatory burden the Federal Reserve and other…
Blog
White House Moves to Strengthen Information Quality Act
The White House Office of Management and Budget on April 24th sent a memo to heads of departments and agencies updating guidelines for implementing the Information Quality…
Blog
New Civil Liberties Alliance Sounds Alarm on Unconstitutional Government
The New Civil Liberties Alliance hosted a very interesting event this week, as part of its “Lunch and Law” speaker series, featuring remarks by Hudson…
Forbes
Here are the Next Executive Orders President Trump Should Issue on Regulatory Reform
What's next for oversight and streamlining of federal regulations? On April 11, 2019, the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought issued…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire and sustained heavy damage. The rebuilding will likely take years, though people began politicizing it almost instantly.
Blog
Blocking the T-Mobile-Sprint Merger: Competition, Rent-Seeking, and Uncertainty
Nationwide 5G networks are coming. They will expand possibilities for everything from smartphone applications to GPS to streaming video, and will enable new technologies that…
Blog
Shed Light on Cryptocurrency ‘Dark Matter’ Regulation at SEC
A few days ago, the Trump administration issued a memorandum strongly discouraging what the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews has called “regulatory dark matter.” The…
DOJ
Deputy Associate Attorney General Stephen Cox Gives Remarks to the Cleveland, Tennessee, Rotary Club
Deputy Associate Attorney General Stephen Cox cited CEI’s publication, 10kc, by Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews. It is hard to fathom how…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In a remarkable human achievement, scientists took the first-ever image of a black hole. The effort took eight telescopes on five continents, five petabytes of…
News Release
OMB Guidance on Major Rules & Regulatory Dark Matter is a Real Step Toward Stopping Regulatory Abuses
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) yesterday released new guidance re-asserting the requirement that agencies submit major notice-and-comment rules and certain major sub-regulatory guidance…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The news cycle was more sizzle than steak last week. President Trump threatened to shut down the southern border and backed off almost immediately, so…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Pundits spent the week engaging in mortal combat over the Mueller Report, which none of them have read, and spring officially sprung with baseball’s opening…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As tempers flared over how many “chuggas” to say before “choo-choo,” the 2019 Federal Register topped the 10,000-page mark last week and the number of…
Blog
Regulation and Neglected Costs of Authoritarianism and Over-Criminalization
Corrupt government and authoritarianism have been the historical rule rather than the exception. The U.S. Constitution’s elevation of individual rights and restraints on governmental power…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Trump has declared passing the new NAFTA/USMCA as his top legislative priority, but congressional ratification will not be automatic. Mexico and Canada are also…
Blog
Regulatory Costs of Delegating Lawmaking Power to Executive and Unelected Administrators
The administrative state, blessed by Congress, has dispensed with the Founders’ system of legislation fashioned solely by an elected body. Regulatory reforms call for holding…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Last week was low-drama by recent standards, but still had some important developments. The U.S. trade deficit set a record for the second year in…
Forbes
Warning Signs: How Trump’s Ascendant Regulatory Impulses Could Swamp His Deregulatory Program
President Donald Trump has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents. But on the flipside of Trump’s controversial regulatory savings, Trump sports regulatory…
Blog
The Regulatory Costs of Abandoned Federalism
The deterioration of the principle of separation of powers is a signature feature of the powerful federal Administrative State. This corrosion is accompanied by a…
The Hill
Congressional Review Act Rises Again!
The Hill cited Vice President for Policy and a Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on regulatory dark matter. This problem increases considerably when you…
The Cato Institute
Bloomberg Unwittingly Vindicates Stigler
The Cato Institute cited Vice President for Policy and a Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on the Trump administration and regulatory reform. Thankfully, we…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Michael Cohen hearing shenanigans gobbled up the headlines, but actual substantive news happened regarding talks with China and North Korea—in particular, a planned tariff…
The Daily Signal
VIDEO: Hope for an Overregulated Nation
Senior Fellow Wayne Crews joined “The Bill Walton Show” on the Daily Signal to explain how to return the U.S. to the path of greater…
Blog
Costs of Regulatory Takings and Property Value Destruction
Takings issues noted here are just the beginning of government neglect of the institution of private property, notable especially in emergent sectors. But the disdain…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The federal government was on a four-day work week in honor of George Washington’s birthday, but agencies still found time to issue regulations ranging from…
Blog
VIDEO: You’ve Come a Long Way, Regulatory Reform
Our friends at the American Enterprise Institute are doing a great job leveraging their many decades of experience in Washington, D.C. They've been raiding their…
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