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
The Center Square
Study: Mixed record on permitting reform offers some hope
CEI’s James Broughel provided comments to The Center Square about a study he authored: “Pennsylvania’s a state where energy is very important to its…
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…
Search Posts
News Release
Wall Street Journal Advises President Bush to Follow CEI’s Lead on Regulatory Reform
Review & Outlook Father Knows Best As commander in chief, George W. Bush now outranks his dad. But there are still things he…
Op-Eds
Old Law vs. The New Economy: How New Deal-era Regulations Stifle Flexible Work Arrangements
Delong Article Published In Reason Magazine<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> In August 1997, a certain Mr. T. Trahan of CSC…
Comment
Michael Greve Testifies on Internet Sales Tax Issue
View Full Document as PDF Michael S. Greve cites CEI research in his testimony on Internet sales taxation before the U.S. Senate…
Op-Eds
Second Wind for the Global Economy: Kemp Nationally Syndicated Column
Copyright 2001 Copley News Service Kemp Column Distributed by Copley News Service July 9, 2001 Even as the…
News Release
Cost of Government Day
The Deadly Cost of Fuel Economy Regulations Statement of Sam Kazman, General Counsel Competitive Enterprise…
News Release
White House Listening on Regulatory Reform
Washington, DC, June 29, 2001 — With the fight over taxes over for now, the Bush Administration may soon be taking a hard…
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