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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The week in regulations: Drone settlements and gambling losses
The 2026 Federal Register topped 20,000 pages. President Trump got into a feud with the Pope. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from mail standards to…
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Free the Economy podcast: How to Get What You Want with Josh Bandoch
In this week’s episode we cover AI development in China, how large investors recycle homes, and why permitting reform needs to…
Issues and Insights
After Iran, Trump Needs To Bomb The Administrative State Into Submission
Issues and Insights cites CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews on the release of his new report, the 2026 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. “The regulatory tax of…
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
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Petronoia
As the price of oil and gas rose to 1970s oil crisis levels over the past year, pundits flew out of the woodwork…
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENVIRONMENT The attorney general of California sues the world’s six largest automakers, alleging environmental…
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Aaron Sorkin VS. the Moralists
No one would ever accuse The West Wing of being anything but a defiantly liberal show. And in many ways, that was part…
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Credit card ricochet
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The Ratings Game
It's a familiar experience for many moviegoers: You walk out of a theater scratching your head, wondering why a movie was given a…
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