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
News Release
CEI study: Congress should establish limits on regulatory power to ensure agencies are not answering major policy questions
Many of the biggest policy decisions affecting the lives of Americans are made by federal agencies, not Congress. According to a new report from…
Study
Congress, Not Agencies, Should Answer Major Policy Questions
Many of the biggest policy decisions affecting the lives of Americans are made by federal agencies, not Congress. During the Biden administration, this has included…
Blog
Congress should heed GAO’s new regulatory reform recommendations
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a December 2023 report titled “Options for Enhancing Congressional Oversight of Rulemaking and Establishing an Office of Legal…
Search Posts
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Federal Register topped the 35,000-page mark last week. New regulations cover everything from tariffs on foreign cheese to dental implants to fireworks shows.
Personal Finance Hub
Report finds regulation compliance costs businesses $1.86 trillion
Over the past several years, think-tanks and market-related organizations have released reports that have given the United States low grades when it comes to red…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: The High Cost of Overcriminalization
This is Part 8 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014…
The Washington Times
DRIESSEN: What’s really behind anti-Keystone fanaticism?
Hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has promised to give $100 million to anti-Keystone Democrats, and Hollywood elites are lending their support and filmmaking skills to…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Seventy-nine new regulations, from olive assessments to phone calls from prison.
News Release
CEI Sues NSA to Obtain “Destroyed” EPA Phone Records
Contact: Annie Dwyer; 202-331-2765 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2014 Competitive Enterprise Institute Sues NSA to Obtain “Destroyed” EPA Phone Records WASHINGTON…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
New regulations published last week cover everything from what to call UV lamps used for tanning to the federal government’s National Sheep Industry Improvement Center.
Blog
Regulatory Improvement Commission
That idea is now captured in a bi-partisan bill in Congress. Wayne Crews and I wrote about it this week in The Washington Times:…
Blog
Ridesharing Wars: Uber, Regulators, and the “California Compromise”
Yesterday, as many in the D.C. metro area are aware, Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles sent cease-and-desist letters to Uber (PDF) and Lyft…
Blog
Friday June 6th: Have a Doughnut for Freedom
Do you know what today is? If you said D-Day, you’d be right. But this year, June 6 also marks another, less well known occasion.
Washington Times
A Model for Rolling Back Outdated Regulations
Very few people would argue for maintaining horse-and-buggy rules in the era of driverless cars, such as Google’s recently introduced prototype. Most rules still manage…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 3, 2014: EPA Proposes Major Carbon Emission Regulation
Senior Fellow William Yeatman breaks down a proposed EPA regulation intended to significantly reduce carbon emissions in the U.S.
Blog
The Doctor Will Release You Now: How Official Time Contributed to the VA Scandal
Socialized medicine and union corruption are a potent combination and, in the case of the VA, a deadly one. The VA scandal has brought the…
Blog
33 House Republicans Join ALPA to Restrict Competition and Soak Consumers
I previously wrote about the campaign from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) against Norwegian Air International's (NAI) attempt to offer low-cost flights from the U.S.
Blog
Seattle Minimum Wage Hike Already Hurting Businesses
What did they think would happen? Seattle is likely to lift its minimum wage to $15 an hour. The move, supported by leftists and labor…
Blog
The Funnel of Gov — OMB’s 2014 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations
Over the weekend the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the 2014 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and…
Blog
House Intel Committee Chair Ignores Report Calling NSA Surveillance Illegal
At a recent event titled “A Statesman Forum on Cybersecurity Policy and Diplomacy” at George Washington University, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
62 new regulations, from electric motors to handling kiwifruit.
Blog
Are My Ten Thousand Command “Mints” to Be Regulated?
The Food and Drug Administration FDA wants to regulate serving size of breath mints. That's right. This rule was issued March 2014:…
Blog
CEI Labor and Employment Scorecard: Insourcing Amendment to Intelligence Authorization Act
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) will score a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in its consideration of the Intelligence Authorization Act…
Blog
Obama’s New Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations Shows Big Rules Are Growing
In the just-released Spring 2014 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations, published twice a year by the Office of Management and Budget,…
Washington Examiner
OMB: 13-year High For New And Costly Federal Regulations
The group that tracks regulations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Secrets that Obama has issued far more big dollar regs in his first six years…
Fox News
EPA: The Obama Administration’s New Legislative Branch
Will the Environmental Protection Agency resurrect the defunct Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, a 1,428-page behemoth that threatened to slam the brakes on the U.S. economy before…
Blog
How Policy Makers Should Approach Google’s Driverless Shuttles
Yesterday, Chris Urmson, director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, wrote a post for the company blog describing Google’s newest prototype: fully automated vehicles that…
Fox News
Which Study Has The Right Conclusion On Obama Climate Rule?
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has long studied the effects of government rules, estimates that “government compliance and intervention” cost the economy $1.8 trillion…
Washington Post
The Obama Economy Offers Bad News For Millennials
Ronald Reagan lightened the weight of government as measured by taxation and regulation. Obama has done the opposite. According to the annual "snapshot of…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: U.S. Regulation Compared to the World’s Largest Economies
This is Part 7 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment Drives Up Costs on Memorial Day and Every Day
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Big Retail lobby created a dubious driving distraction. The Merchants Payments Coalition, whose members include retail giants like Walmart and…
Blog
Senate Leaders Kill Patent Reform, Once again Thwarting Democracy to Protect Special Interests
Hundreds of moderate and conservative bills have passed the House of Representatives, often overwhelmingly, only to die in the Senate without even being voted…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
66 new regulations, from Panama to refrigerants.
Augusta Chronicle
Is The Private Sector Supposed to Serve Only Government? Of Course Not
For example, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in his latest compendium on federal regulations (Ten Thousand Commandments), alone estimates that their compliance…
Blog
No, Gov. Perry, a Ban on Internet Gambling Won’t Protect the Internet or Individual Freedom
In an attempt to save face, Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to justify his support for a federal online gambling ban by claiming that it’s the…
Blog
Export-Import Bank Subsidizes the Western World
On its “About Us” page, the Export-Import Bank gives us its purported mission: “Ex-Im Bank does not compete with private sector lenders but provides…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: The Federal Government “Eats” 31 Percent Of The U.S. Economy
This is Part 6 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Congress Must End Department of Transportation’s Abuse of “Unfair and Deceptive Practices” Authority
The Department of Transportation is opening a rulemaking proceeding to, among other things, require airlines and ticket agents to include ancillary fees (for, e.g.,…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 20, 2014: Phones on a Plane
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner supports the FCC's attempt to lift a ban on in-flight cell phone use.
Blog
Consumers Will Win in Combined AT&T-DirecTV
AT&T agreed Sunday to purchase DirecTV for $67 billion in cash, stock, and acquired debt. If federal regulators approve the deal, the combined firm…
Blog
The Premises of Net Neutrality
In the electric power industry, if you run an extension cord across the street to serve another, you go to jail. The local utility has…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new regulations, from cotton grading to walk-in coolers.
Blog
Failed Obamacare Exchanges and No-Work Contracts Drive up Obamacare Costs
Politico tallies the rising costs for "four failed Obamacare exchanges," reporting: Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four …
Blog
No, the FCC Did Not Allow “Fast Lanes” on the Internet, Yet
This week, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) held an Open Meeting to propose new rules regarding regulation of Internet service providers (ISPs), such as Verizon and…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Regulations Cost More than Federal Income Taxes
This is Part 5 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Insurance Premiums Rising More Due to Obamacare
There are "rate hikes for all" coming due to Obamacare, predicts The Daily Caller, citing state insurance filings: Virginians will see upped health insurance premiums…
Blog
Johnson-Crapo Is Fannie and Freddie on Steroids
Today, after delays and much opposition from many quarters on different grounds, the Johnson-Crapo housing finance overhaul is set to be voted on by the…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Regulations Catching Up to Government Spending?
This is Part 4 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Reckoning the Dollar Cost of Federal Regulation
This is Part 3 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Massachusetts Seeks Millions More from Taxpayers as Its Obamacare Exchange Fails
Massachusetts' Obamacare exchange has failed, even though Massachusetts adopted an individual health-insurance mandate in 2006, and thus had a built-in advantage over other states in handling Obamacare's requirements.
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Tardy Bureaucrats Gone Wild
This is Part 2 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Despite nearly 60 new regulations and more than 1,300 Federal Register pages, regulations remain on a below-average pace this year. On to the data: Last…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Guess Which Is the Largest Government on Earth?
This is Part 1 of a new series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 8, 2014: The Future of Self-Driving Cars
Marc Scribner talks about his new paper, "Self-Driving Regulation."…
Blog
Air Line Pilots Association Launches Super-Xenophobic Ad against Low-Cost Foreign Airline
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently considering whether or not it will honor its EU-U.S. open skies treaty in the case of Norwegian Air…
Blog
California’s Latest Anti-GMO Push
Two years ago, voters in California narrowly defeated Proposition 37 , a ballot initiative that would have required labeling of most --…
Blog
Washington, D.C., Imposes One Percent Obamacare Health Insurance Tax
The costs of Obamacare keep rising. The Council of the District of Columbia has imposed a one percent tax on all health insurance policies…
Blog
Labor/Employment Scorecard Now Includes Votes on David Weil to Head DoL’s Wage and Hour Division
In our scorecard of the United States Senate’s labor and employment votes, CEI's WorkplaceChoice.org has included voting on the movement of David Weil’s confirmation…
Heartlander
The View from the Bottom
Could the economic decline have something to do with the insane increase of federal government regulation? As John Merline asked in Investor’s Business Daily, “After…
The Canal
The US Regulatory Black Hole, Quantified
This week the Competitive Enterprise Institute released its annual report on the failures of the regulatory state. Written by Clyde Wayne Crews, the report is…
Human Events
Regulation Lets Government Grow In The Shadows
“There oughta be a law.” We hear that refrain way too often in this country, from conservatives and liberals alike. The problem is that most…
NCPA
The Regulatory State
It cost Americans a whopping $1.863 trillion to comply with federal regulations in 2013, more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Canada, according to…
Human Events
Regulations Take $1.8 Trillion Bite Out Of Economy
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) this week released its annual Ten Thousand Commandments report on the size and scope of federal regulations. According to the…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new regulations, from gooseberry imports to preventing collisions at sea.
Human Events
Fox News: Obama’s record-setting expansion of federal regulations
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com…
Trib Live
The Thursday wrap
The Competitive Enterprise Institute calculates that the cost of U.S. federal regulations now is larger than the economies of all but nine countries in the…
Washington Times
Bureaucracy doesn’t just hurt — it kills
With all this outreach to give things away, how big is this federal bureaucracy and its red tape? Clyde Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
Johnson-Crapo Delayed; CEI-Coordinated Coalition Letter Cited as a Factor
Today, in a surprise move, the Senate Banking Committee postponed the vote it had been set to mark up for Johnson-Crapo. Reports vary as…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 29, 2014: Ten Thousand Commandments
Wayne Crews talks about the new 2014 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments…
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2014
The 2014 edition of Wayne Crews’ annual Ten Thousand Commandments report comes out today…
Daily Caller
The Federal Government Now Consumes 31 Percent Of The US Economy
The federal government now consumes 31 percent of the U.S. economy due to trillions in spending and thousands of pages of costly regulations, according to…
Washington Examiner
Average U.S. household spends more on federal regulations than for health care, food or transportation
Here's a sobering fact likely known to few Americans outside of the nation's capital: The federal government is the only government on earth that collects…
News Release
Federal Regulations Take $1.8 Trillion Bite Out of US Economy
WASHINGTON, April 29 – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released its annual Ten Thousand Commandments report on the size and scope of…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2014
Ten Thousand Commandments compiles scattered government and private data on the numbers and costs of regulations and about the agencies that issue them, in an…
Blog
Google’s Self-Driving Cars Approach 700,000 Miles of Crash-Free Driving
In a report released last week for CEI, I noted that developers need to be able to demonstrate automated vehicle safety benefits in order…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from spearmint oil to hot air balloons.
Blog
FCC’s Internet Fast Lanes Should Outrun Net Neutrality Bias
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will issue proposed rules May 15, rules expected expected to allow premium pricing for Internet fast lanes alongside the lane…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 23, 2014: Reforming Fannie and Freddie
Senior Fellow John Berlau argues that a bill from Senators Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo intended to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would only…
Blog
Driverless Cars, Innovation, and Regulation: Let’s Not Mess it Up
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in Google’s self-driving car. (Photo by Marc Scribner) For the past several years, I’ve been…
Blog
Taxable Bitcoins 2: We’re Not Gonna Pay it!
Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty recently addressed the IRS’s recent announcement that bitcoin transactions are taxable. As I addressed in my last piece, while the…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from stair-climbing wheelchairs to crustacean irradiation.
Blog
CEI, Former State Department Officials Defend Freedom of Contract in Supreme Court Case against Argentina
[caption id="attachment_74355" align="alignright" width="300"] Argentina President Cristina Kirchner[/caption] Can a country seeking to welsh on its debts invoke sovereign immunity to evade not just court…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 17, 2014: Brexit Strategy
Iain Murray, CEI's Vice President for Strategy, along with Freedom Association Director Rory Broomfield, won second place Institute for Economic Affairs' Brexit Competition. The goal…
Blog
First Ever Constitutional Ruling against Dodd-Frank Voids Destructive “Conflict Minerals” Section
Today’s ruling of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Dodd-Frank’s "conflict minerals" disclosure mandate violates the First Amendment is the first time ever a court has…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
59 new regulations, from rearview cameras to pocket gophers.
Blog
EEOC Loses Hypocritical Lawsuit against Employer over Background Checks
"In this case the EEOC sued the defendants for using the same type of background check that the EEOC itself uses." So began a…
Blog
Pompeo-Butterfield Food Labeling Bill: Valuable But Needs Work
Earlier today, Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) introduced a bill in the House that would establish federal standards for the labeling of…
Blog
Administration’s Lack of Transparency Extends to States; The Independence Institute Reports New Findings
Although President Obama occasionally clings to the claim that his administration is the “most transparent” in history, with more and more revelations, this gets farther…
Blog
Threatening Free Speech, New Jersey Court Allows Parents to Be Sued for Children’s Facebook Posts
Earlier, we wrote about a Wisconsin town whose ordinance holds parents liable for bullying by their children, including certain speech. We and law professor…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 9, 2014: A Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk
Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini talks about her new Consumer's Guide to Chemical Risk.
Washington Examiner
More Profits, Fewer Jobs, But Many Fewer Workers, Too
William Galston makes a valid point with his comment that low interest rates may be counterproductive in the country’s search for more employment (“Soaring Profits…
Blog
Professional Licensing: A Risk to the Free Markets and Freedom of Speech
From physicians to dentists to lawyers, the licensing requirements of many professions are well known—but for bloggers? A recent case in North Carolina demonstrates the…
Blog
Food Policy Fight: Junk Study on Vegetarian Diet
Log on to Twitter and you might read: "A vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health, a higher need for health care, and poorer quality…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
79 new regulations, from whistleblowers to watermelon promotion.
Blog
Is High-Frequency Trading a Form of Front-Running?
On 60 Minutes, Michael Lewis accused high-frequency traders of front-running. Apparently it’s become necessary to remind critics of high-frequency trading of the definition of “front-running.” Front-running – n. “The…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 3, 2014: Clean Air Act Costs and Benefits
Senior Fellow William Yeatman is skeptical of an EPA report claiming the Clean Air Act will have nearly $2 trillion in annual benefits by 2020.
Fox News
Critics say ‘transparent’ administration anything but open about federal regulations
Federal agencies are required to report all the regulatory actions they have under consideration in what's known as the Unified Agenda twice a year. In…
Blog
Is the Stock Market Really Rigged?
Everyone seems to be jumping into the debate about high-frequency trading, now that Michael Lewis is peddling his new book, Flash Boys. Lewis contends…
Blog
Why Is Obama’s Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulation Delayed?
In April 2013, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Draft 2013 Report to Congress on the…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
64 new regulations, from refrigerators to Korean chicken.
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Bionic Eyes
You won’t see the glory of human achievement if you abide by the World Wide Fund for Nature's recommendation that you spend an hour…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 27, 2014: Bait and Reciprocal Switch
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner talks about his new paper, “Bait and Reciprocal Switch: Forced Access Regulation Threatens the Rail Renaissance.”…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: 3D Printing Cups, Cars, Houses, and Faces
3D printing is a relatively recent technological development that has already begun to revolutionize model-building, structural and other medical procedures, and construction of items from…
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