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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Blog
The logbook of federal red tape last year came to…
The Federal Register for 2024 closed out Joe Biden’s final year in office with a record 106,109 pages. This count swamps the previous record of…

Blog
The week in regulations: Farmer training and approving fireworks
Tuesday’s Federal Register contained 105 proposed regulations and 86 final regulations. Much of it was regulatory cleanup for railroads, pipelines, and mining. The reconciliation bill…

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The year the red tape died? Trump’s 2025 rule count hits historic lows
At the halfway point of 2025, the federal regulatory machinery is running at an unprecedented crawl. That’s good news. As tracked annually in my…
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Op-Eds
One Bundle, Many Antitrust Laws: The Dilemma for Digital Products
Alongstanding question in the software debate is whether operating systems and components such as browsers and media players are really separate products bundled as one or…
Products
Mandated Recycling of Electronics: Creating a Mountain out of a Landfill
This article is based on the report, Mandating Recycling of Electronics: A Lose-Lose-Lose Proposition , published by CEI, February 2005. Haste maketh waste in the…
Products
One, Two, Many Broken Windows
Full Document Available in PDF Albert Einstein is often attributed with defining…
Products
Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend
Full Document Available in PDF Many have heard…
CEI Planet
April Issue of CEI’s Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Environmentalism, RIP? Not So Fast, by Angela…
Op-Eds
What Storm-Tossed FDA Needs
President Bush's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Lester Mr. Crawford, faces daunting challenges. As acting commissioner for most of…
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