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
Forbes
Libertarian Victory: You Mean We Can Shut Down Government Without Even Passing A Law?
It is happening again. Congress will enact another bloated, pork-laden and largely unread omnibus spending bill to complete formal appropriations for the 2024 fiscal year…
Blog
CEI briefs the public on the need for administrative law court reform
The Competitive Enterprise Institute recently hosted our first Capitol Hill event of the year, urging Congress to propose administrative law court (ALC) reform. Our…
Forbes
The Quiet Threat To Science Posed By ‘Indigenous Knowledge’
“Indigenous knowledge” is in the spotlight thanks to President Biden, who issued an executive order within days of taking office, aimed at ushering…
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Business Journal
Feds Added 4,148 Rules in ’03
News Release
Bush Administration Makes Right Decision on Phone Competition
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, DC, June 9, 2004 – Today the U.S. Solicitor General's office announced it will not…
Op-Eds
If You Really Want to Reduce Gas Prices, Here’s How
Despite claims to the contrary, there is not much the federal government can do about high oil and gasoline prices in the short-term. Indeed, given…
Op-Eds
EU Is out of Step over Regulation of Modified Products
Sir, The premise of Steven Druker’s rant that the US criticises Europe’s application of the precautionary principle yet uses it itself (“America’s hypocrisy over modified…
Op-Eds
We eat only what we choose to
To answer John Gapper’s question (Who would be in Neville Isdell’s shoes?”) in his article “How to get fat on a healthy diet”…
Business Journal
Market Distortion (Letter to the Editor)
Michelle Singletary’s premise that subsidies are market-distorting is indeed correct (“The Color of Money,” MoneyWise, May 2). The Higher Education Act prescribing these guarantees is…
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