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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Free the Economy podcast: The Overton Window with James Hohman
In this week’s episode we cover Treasury yields, oil prices, US-China-Taiwan security policy, and Trump’s $5,000 dividend checks. Our…
Blog
How The No Surprises Act worsened the problem of surprise bills
Next week, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) will convene a roundtable to discuss adjustments to the 2020 No Surprises Act, which has come under…
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The rules Congress never gets to see
The 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA) has been used to overturn only a few dozen federal regulatory directives since its enactment, most during the…
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
1. HEALTH The West Nile virus makes a comeback in the Midwest. CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News TRANSPORTATION A documentary about the development of the electric car hits movie theaters. CEI Expert…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. REGULATION President Bush urges adoption of the line item veto as a…
Study
Public Comment Regarding Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin
June 15, 2006 Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of Management and Budget 727 17th Street, N.W. New Executive Office Building, Room 10201 Washington,…
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Issues in the News 1. LEGAL…
Letters
Letter to the FCC regarding “must carry” laws for cable operators
Full Document Available in PDF The undersigned organizations would…
Op-Eds
Get Rid of the High Places
In one of the least surprising developments of 2006, a Louisiana politician has been snared in a corruption scandal. Democratic Congressman William Jefferson has…
Op-Eds
Data Mismanagement
Members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, now say that Sarbanes-Oxley can be unduly burdensome on business. The law that, in…
Op-Eds
The Responsible Corporation
Does anybody believe that companies should be socially irresponsible? I don’t think so. The problem is that few people seem to agree on…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Issues in the News 1. BUSINESS…
News Release
Statement on the Enron Verdict and Sarbanes-Oxley
Washington, D.C., May 26, 2006—Members of the Enron jury should be commended for their deliberative process. They carefully weighed the evidence involving complex accounting issues…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENERGY The House of Representatives passes legislation that would open a portion of the…
Op-Eds
Schumer’s Way
Senator Schumer is on a roll. After coasting to an easy and well funded re-election in 2004, the senior senator from New York is…
News Release
CEI and Sugar Reform Alliance Urge Congress to Begin Reforming U.S. Sugar Regime
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., May 16, 2006— Consumer, taxpayer, humanitarian and public policy groups sent a letter today,…
News Release
CEI To Launch National Global Warming Ad Campaign
Contact: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252 [email protected] Washington,…
Op-Eds
Volatile Gases
The European emissions trading scheme (ETS) was launched with great fanfare last year. The idea was to require certain energy-intensive industries to have a…
Op-Eds
Harper Falls into the UNESCO Trap
Budgets and softwood lumber deals aren't Prime Minister Stephen Harper's only significant initiatives. On Friday, he followed through on an unfortunate promise he…
Op-Eds
The war hero vs. the bureaucrats
Pity poor Eddie Rickenbacker. His life so closely resembled the clichéd “American Dream,” that you can't blame him for buying into American mythology.
Products
New Era, or ‘Ancien Régime,’ for European Biotech?
The long-awaited World Trade Organization (WTO) decision on biotech food is due to be released this spring, but a leaked copy of the…
Products
Time to End Big Sugar’s Sweet Deal
Sugar is already shaping up to be a contentious issue in upcoming debates on the 2007 omnibus farm bill. The call for dismantling…
Products
Accountability, Power, and Our CAP Project
Violations of the Constitution come in all shapes and sizes. Many of you may be familiar with the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which CEI…
Products
Animal Rights, Human Wrongs
Animal rights extremists—whom the FBI has labeled America’s biggest domestic terrorism threat—have encountered a number of serious reverses recently. These reverses are a great victory…
Products
CEI Planet: March – April 2006
Full Document Available in PDF New Era, or ‘Ancien Régime,’…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. LEGAL State attorneys general ask the Supreme Court to step into a dispute over the states’ 1998…
Op-Eds
Corporate McSocial Responsibility
Fast-food gadfly Eric Schlosser has a new book out. Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food is Fast…
Letters
70% of Americans Say They Don’t Want the Government to Prepare Taxes for Them
Full Document Available in PDF Reps. Melissa Hart and Anna Eshoo have introduced H.R. 5114, the Tax Return Choice Act of 2006,…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Issues in the News 1. BUSINESS…
Study
Greening a Homeland Bureaucracy: Chemical Plant Security Issue Hijacked by Green Activists
Full Document Available in PDF Nearly…
News Release
‘Deadly Overcaution’ Biggest Danger to Public Health, Despite New Study on FDA
Contact:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252 Washington, D.C.,…
Op-Eds
Ex-Im: Boeing’s Bank Once More
The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. exports primarily through loan guarantees, dedicated a majority of its guarantee dollars again…
Op-Eds
Sunset the FCC
Reforming telecommunications law is a favored subject in the halls of Congress this year. Hot issues include streamlining video franchising and addressing the "net…
Study
Antitrust Skeptic’s Bibliography
For more than two decades, the willingness of policy makers to rethink the presumption that economic regulation automatically benefits consumers has driven the deregulation of…
Study
Tom Smith and His Incredible Bread Machine
In the 108 years since the passage of the Sherman Act, there has probably never been a clearer and more concise statement of the…
Op-Eds
New fuel standards unnecessary
Once again, the government has issued what it claims is a “win-win” fuel economy mandate— yes, it will raise the prices of new SUVs and…
Study
The U.N.’s Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management Program
Full Document Available in PDF In February 2006, at…
News Release
Ruling on Tobacco Settlement Payments Expected
Contact: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Christine Hall, 202.331.2258 Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252…
Op-Eds
Congress’ Silk Purse
During the Capitol Hill budget debates, many spectators must have found the use of the term “earmarking” somewhat strange. What does it have…
Op-Eds
Reform the Reformers
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> On the Saturday Show (Jan. 21), NPR commentator John Ydstie, in a…
Op-Eds
New Drug Demagoguery
“New Drugs Hit the Market, but Promised Trials Go Undone” and “FDA: Drug Companies Drop Ball on Studies,” the headlines blared.
Products
How Sarbanes-Oxley Hinders Technology Transfer
I grew up here in Kansas City, on the Kansas side, Johnson County. Ewing Kaufman left the Kaufman Foundation as his legacy, along with many…
Op-Eds
Speaking in Tongues
In Monty Python’s classic "Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch, a Hungarian tourist walks into a British tobacconist’s shop, and, consulting a faulty phrasebook, tells…
News Release
Senate Should Vote for Affordable Energy
Contact: Richard Morrison, 202-331-2273 Washington, D.C., March 16, 2006—As the U.S. Senate considers an important budget resolution, the Competitive Enterprise Institute urges…
Op-Eds
Sarbanes-Oxley Accounting Board: An Agency Without Accountability
In 2001, the energy giant Enron unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy, laying off 4,000 of its employees and consuming the life savings of thousands more. In…
News Release
CEI Praises Nancy Pelosi, Others For Recognizing Sarbanes-Oxley’s Burden
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., March 8, 2005—The Competitive Enterprise Institute applauds the House Democrats’ Innovation Agenda…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. SAFETY Congress considers legislation to standardize food labeling and safety warnings. CEI Expert…
Op-Eds
U.S. tech: Get to China
We once scorned the idea the Internet could be censored. Many politicians have tried to stop porn, but always to no avail. Spam still…
Letters
ESA Coalition Letter to Senator James M. Inhofe
Full Document Available in PDF…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. SUPREME COURT The nation’s highest court hears a constitutional challenge to the Clean Water…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. INTERNET Congress investigates the business operations of Google and other U.S. Internet companies in China.
News Release
Will Congress Open the Market for Online Television?
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., February 15, 2006—The future of video content online could begin today in the Senate…
Staff & Scholars
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist and Director of Publications
- 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