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
Free the Economy podcast: Clear-but-false ideas with Kevin Williamson
In this week’s episode we cover the Trump tariffs being struck down, Biden’s competition order being vacated, and new research on…

Blog
There’s something wrong with the Federal Register
The Trump-era Federal Register website has been glitching recently. Nearly two weeks ago, I noted on X/Twitter (tagging both @USNatArchives and @FedRegister) that the…

Blog
The week in regulations: Deepwater ports and ASCII relays
A court ruled President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs unconstitutional. The case now moves to the Supreme Court. Countries around the world stopped shipping parcels to…
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Study
Federal Pesticide Law Needs an Overhaul: Anti-Competitive Effects Hit Consumers, A Case Study
Full Document Available in PDF Most Americans believe that the federal regulatory process is simply designed to protect them from fraud and…
News Release
International Airline Deregulation
Click here to visit the Kojo Nnamdi Show’s Web site.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> …
Op-Eds
Vox Populi and Public Policy
“How can you tell whether a whale is a mammal or a fish?” a teacher asks her third-grade class. “Take a vote?” pipes…
News Release
Court Verdict Threatens Future of Internet
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” /> Washington, D.C., October 8, 2003—A federal court decision this week has thrown the commercial future…
Op-Eds
Are Small Particles Such a Big Problem?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, small particles in the air pose the greatest threat that it or any other regulatory agency is…
Op-Eds
Running Away From Safety
Remember Jim Fixx? Not many people do, and that's a shame. Fixx was a jogging guru who ran 60 miles a week. He…
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