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
Do more deregulation in debt limit deal
The internal GOP debate this week is over lower-case “d” default if a June 6 deadline for an increase in the debt limit is…

Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Transparency for government, privacy for people with Brian Hawkins
In this week’s episode we talk discuss Tim Carney’s view on why big government is good for big business, Stone Washington on the…

Blog
Let’s get this huge ‘hidden tax’ of regulation out into the open
Smack dab in the middle of contentious debt limit negotiations, the House Budget Committee held another in its series of hearings on American economic growth,…
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Publication
OSHA: The 1970s Meet the 21st Century
The reaction certainly wasn’t what anybody expected, least of all at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It was a simple letter in…
Study
Regulating Greenhouse Gases: Will EPA Take a Dive?
The International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) wants the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon dioxide. This fall, ICTA, an anti-technology group…
Op-Eds
A Cowboy Economy?
On recent trips to Europe, I’ve become increasingly aware of a reality disconnect between the way America is and the way we’re viewed…
Study
Federal Reinsurance for Homeowner’s Insurance: Another Capitol Hill Disaster.
Storm clouds over Capitol Hill. House Banking Committee members are teetering on the brink of triggering a mega-disaster this week that is pointed…
Op-Eds
An Antitrust Division Run Amok (Letter to the Editor)
I would have happily signed a letter urging a cap on the Depart ment of Justice’s Antitrust Division budget if I’d been asked [`Hardball and Windows,” op-ed, Oct.
News Release
Shadow Insurance Committee to Meet October 25 to Review Catastrophe Insurance Financing & Redlining Issues
Washington, D.C., October 22, 1999 – The Shadow Insurance Regulation Committee will hold its second meeting of the year at 12 noon on October…
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