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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Shutdown lesson: Depend less on DC
The record-length shutdown showed how dependent many Americans are on Washington. This is one of the biggest flaws in the ongoing nationalization of politics. In…
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The week in regulations, the final shutdown edition: Manifest mailing and broken trash incinerators
The federal shutdown is over. Since the Federal Register has a few days’ lag time for publishing agency documents, it will likely take until this…
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An executive order to make freedom mandatory
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) new “Streamlining the Review of Regulatory Actions” memorandum signals a potentially transformative shift in Washington’s…
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Op-Eds
Time to Put Auntie Beeb Out to Grass
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News Release
CEI’s President Makes the Case to Tame Regulatory Beast
Contact for interviews: Richard Morrison, 202-331-2273 Washington, D.C., July 22, 2003—Today the House Committee on Government Reform will hear testimony from Competitive Enterprise Institute President…
Op-Eds
‘Spammers’ Ignoring Anti-Spam Legislation
Dear Editor: If you look closely at the spam filling your inbox, you might notice one or two…
Study
Cowboys Versus Cattle Thieves
Full Document Available in PDF Fred L. Smith, “Cowboys Versus Cattle Thieves,” in…
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Merrill Lynch Rulings Show Serious Flaws in Wall Street Research Settlement
Contact for Interviews:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C.,…
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Broadcast of “Corporate Aftershock” Book Forum
Watch a webcast of the forum on the new book, Corporate Aftershock: The Public Policy Lessons from the Collapse of Enron and Other Major…
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