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
This week in ridiculous regulations: Lime emissions and stabilizing the Western Balkans
The 2024 Federal Register set a new all-time record page count on December 3. It surpassed 2016’s record of 95,894 pages with nearly a month to spare. Syria’s dictatorship…
Blog
Biden breaks Federal Register record
Joe Biden’s administration has set a new Federal Register record with 96,088 pages as of December 3, 2024, surpassing the Obama administration’s 95,894 pages in…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Milk marketing and sport fishing
It was a shortened week on account of Thanksgiving. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from fed cattle to general service lamps. On to the data: • Agencies issued 57 final regulations last week,…
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Op-Eds
Eco-Fascism Going Global
Full text available as pdf<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> We can say this for environmental…
Op-Eds
Antitrust: Sherman’s March Across the Globe
President Bush’s bipartisan Antitrust Modernization Commission held its first meeting in July. But after 114 years, America’s antitrust regulatory regime is overdue for burial, not…
Op-Eds
Lessons from the Gas Price Spike
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Labor Day weekend marked the end of summer and its high seasonal demand…
Products
CEI Planet: September 2004
Full document available as a pdf. Tort Law “to Make Law,” by Ivan Osorio and Elizabeth Jones …
Products
Nanotech’s Choice: Pork or Innovation?
Products
Conflicting with Reality: Or, Scientists are Human, Too
Full Document Available in PDF Former New England Journal of…
Products
Tort Law “to Make Law”
Full Document Available in PDF A recent little-noticed New York Times story says…
Op-Eds
Conflicting with Reality
Former New England Journal of Medicine editor Jerome Kassirer, in an August 1 Washington Post op-ed, argues that conflicts of interest in medical…
Op-Eds
Fear Factor
Environmental activists seeking to halt the worldwide spread of the advanced technologies they fear see <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />China…
Op-Eds
Obesity: a Sign We’re Doing Things Right
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson recently designated obesity a disease, with all the negative implications that entails. Our society, crippled, it seems,…
Op-Eds
Bookshelf: Fighting Disease Is Only Half the Battle
As a fresh-faced medical intern, a colleague of mine once greeted a new patient with a breezy, “So what’s your problem?” “Oh, just a touch…
Op-Eds
California Wine vs. Two-Legged Pests
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />California is under attack by parasites, of both the six-legged and two-legged variety. The former are…
Op-Eds
Tort Law ‘to Make Law’
A recent little-noticed New York Times story says a great deal about <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America's current legal climate:…
Op-Eds
RFID Tags and Privacy
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology promises many consumer benefits. With RFID, goods on trucks, in trains, and in warehouses can be inventoried without unloading…
Op-Eds
Wave of Regulations Will Follow Tsunami of Federal Spending
On top of the $2 trillion in tax revenues the government now collects, agencies issue more than 4,000 yearly regulations. Costing some $800 billion annually, regulations…
Study
Send Me No Files: Senate INDUCEs a Threat to the Future of Information Technology
Please copy and share this article, download some music files, and photocopy your favorite chapters from Bill Clinton’s new book. It’s fun: Just do it!…
Op-Eds
Reformers are too Willing to Turn a Blind Eye to Liberal Fixes for our Economic Problems
Sirs, Your edition of July 6 features two distinct columns that demonstrate a persistent neglect of economic liberalisation as a way of resolving societal…
Study
Spitzer Strains out Grasso While Swallowing Camels
Full Document Available in PDF Recently, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer…
Products
A More Creative and Productive World
Full Document Available in PDF I’m grateful to all of you for…
Products
Ronald Reagan, Freedom’s Champion
Full Document Available in PDF Former President Ronald Reagan’s passing has prompted innumerable words about…
Products
June Edition of CEI’s Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF “A More Creative and Productive…
Op-Eds
Split Decision at the SEC
Nobel Prize economist Ronald Coase long ago warned of a political risk—that of wishing to be an “economic statesman,” which he defined as a person…
News Release
SEC Set To Over-Regulate Mutual Fund Industry With Vote on June 23
***MEDIA ADVISORY***<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> SEC Set To Over-Regulate Mutual Fund…
News Release
Ad Schemes Bring Retailers Bad Publicity
News Release
Keeping Busy: Federal Regulators Issued Over 4,000 Rules in 2003
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, DC, June 16, 2004—While Washington rule makers made 19 fewer regulations in 2003 than they…
Business Journal
Feds Added 4,148 Rules in ’03
News Release
Bush Administration Makes Right Decision on Phone Competition
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, DC, June 9, 2004 – Today the U.S. Solicitor General's office announced it will not…
Op-Eds
If You Really Want to Reduce Gas Prices, Here’s How
Despite claims to the contrary, there is not much the federal government can do about high oil and gasoline prices in the short-term. Indeed, given…
Op-Eds
EU Is out of Step over Regulation of Modified Products
Sir, The premise of Steven Druker’s rant that the US criticises Europe’s application of the precautionary principle yet uses it itself (“America’s hypocrisy over modified…
Op-Eds
We eat only what we choose to
To answer John Gapper’s question (Who would be in Neville Isdell’s shoes?”) in his article “How to get fat on a healthy diet”…
Business Journal
Market Distortion (Letter to the Editor)
Michelle Singletary’s premise that subsidies are market-distorting is indeed correct (“The Color of Money,” MoneyWise, May 2). The Higher Education Act prescribing these guarantees is…
Op-Eds
Does the European Union Believe in Ghosts?: An Unwarranted Fear of Tax Competition
A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of tax competition. The cause for this fear is the upcoming entry of 10 new members into the…
Op-Eds
“I Love Humanity; It’s People I Can’t Stand”
This is part 2 of a two-part series. To read part 1, please click here.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />…
Op-Eds
The Broadcast Indecency Playground
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me—we’ve all heard that phrase before. It’s often said by children who are…
News Release
Broadcast Update on Issues in the News
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Op-Eds
Refining the Battle Against High Gas Prices
Everyone knows that <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America imports more than half of the oil it uses, but few are…
Op-Eds
The Rocky Road to Biotech’s Success
The first Earth Day celebration, conceived by then-US Senator Gaylord Nelson, was held in 1970 as a “symbol of environmental responsibility and stewardship.” In the spirit…
Op-Eds
Down in the Dumps
When most people hear the words “illegal dumping,” they probably think of someone using somebody else's trash dumpster without permission. However, in the…
Op-Eds
Time to Get Tough on Telecom Regulatory Reform
The FCC is not subject to any sort of mandatory “three strikes” law as are some criminals. But maybe there is justification for an equivalent…
Op-Eds
Many Talents Needed for FDA Post
The departure of FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan leaves a high-level opening in the Bush administration for the right candidate. It's a hard job, but…
News Release
DAILY DIARY – DEBUNK THE JUNK, APRIL 5, 2004
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Receipts available as a pdf. “A gentleman never…
News Release
DAILY DIARY: DEBUNK THE JUNK – APRIL 3, 2004
My academic journey has not been easy. Fortunately, I have always been very inquisitive and love reading so that combination has led me…
News Release
DAILY DIARY – Debunk the Junk Report – APRIL 2, 2004
Receipts available as a pdf. “Even when all the experts agree, they may well be mistaken.” – Bertrand…
CEI Planet
April/May Issue of CEI’s Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF “The Day After Never,”…
Letters
Stop FCC Unbundling Laws
Full Letter Available in PDF Mr. President, in your recent speech in Albuquerque, you championed “the…
Op-Eds
From the Pumps to the Polls
Does the high price of gasoline hurt Bush or Kerry? It hurts both of them.<?xml:namespace prefix = u1 /> <?xml:namespace prefix = o…
News Release
Economists Urge President to Support Investment in Telecommunications
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Op-Eds
Federal Regulations Pump up Gasoline Prices
The stage is set for sky-high gasoline prices this summer. We probably won't threaten the inflation-adjusted record of $2.90 per gallon set in 1981,…
Op-Eds
An Open Letter to Randy A. Daniels, Secretary of State
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />March 22, 2004<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> …
Op-Eds
The New Reason For Pain at the Pump
Everyone knows that the recent rise in the price of oil has had an effect at the pump, but something less well known…
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