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
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Seat belts and eagle possession
This week’s roundup will be a little different than usual. Since the new year began mid-week, and I already published a breakdown of 2024’s year-end numbers, as…
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Biden’s regulatory landscape: A year-end analysis
As we ring in 2025, the Federal Register reveals a noteworthy chapter in regulatory history under the Joe Biden administration. We take our traditional year-end look at it here. The 2024 Federal Register closed…
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2024 Regulation roundup
All the major regulatory numbers for 2024’s new regulations are now in the books. Here are the highlights, followed by a little analysis and a preview of…
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Loosened Laws in New Jersey Result in Brewery Boom
Only a year after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law that would allow breweries in the garden state to sell beer…
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CEI Podcast for October 17, 2013: Supreme Court to Review EPA Carbon Emission Regulation Lawsuit
CEI is a co-petitioner in the case.
Blog
More than a Third of House Dems Oppose Obama’s American-US Airways Merger Lawsuit; What Real Pro-Competition Policy Looks Like
Bipartisan opposition to the Obama administration’s reckless assault on the pending merger of American Airlines and US Airways is growing. While the end of the…
Blog
The Shutdown Is Over: What Now for Regulation?
The next day or two will also be slow ones for the Federal Register. But then there will be a flood of new rules as…
Citation
Regulatory overreach is the new normal
The Federal Register lists proposed and final rules, notices, corrections and presidential documents. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the 1939 Federal Register was 2,620…
Citation
Regulating The Citizenry: What Really Happened During The Partial Government Shutdown
During the partial government shutdown, other agencies were also busy regulating the American people. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute reports, the federal government set…
Blog
How Is the Shutdown Affecting Regulation?
Short answer: not much. Over at the Daily Caller, I go over some data from this shutdown, as well as the two Gingrich-Clinton showdowns.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 6 new regulations, from Basel III to bridge repair.
Daily Caller
How the shutdown is impacting regulation
For the seventeenth time since current budgeting rules were adopted in 1976, the federal government is shut down. Seventeen years of relative peace have devolved…
Daily Caller
Regulatory scrutiny must be part of a deal
We all know how this is going to end. A deal will be made. Both sides will claim victory. Their bases will claim they sold…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
113 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to viticultural areas.
Blog
Twitter IPO a Vindication of Bipartisan JOBS Act
Almost two years ago, I wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled, "Making It Legal to Tweet for Investors." In the op-ed, I described bipartisan bills…
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Regulators and Justice
The federal government cajoled JP Morgan into acquiring Bear Stearns. Now they are punishing JP Morgan for crimes allegedly committed by Bear Stearns prior to…
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Regulatory Transparency Is Decidedly Lacking
The Office of Management and Budget reviewed a grand total of 47 regulations last year, or a little more than 1 percent of the total.
Washington Times
The real cost of federal regulations
When the news broke that the National Security Agency has been monitoring Americans’ communications, the Obama administration was reluctant to discuss if it…
Blog
Obamacare Quadruples Rates for Some, Subsidizes Some Wealthy Who Retired Early
Due to Obamacare, North Carolina "will see individual-market" health insurance rates "triple for women, and quadruple for men." In Tennessee, Obamacare will…
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Green Policies Translate Into Less Food, Higher Prices
Thanks to misguided bureaucracy and fear mongering from environmental activists, myriad valuable products are disappearing from the marketplace. Walmart, Proctor & Gamble, and…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from bird hunting to fluted kidneyshells.
Washington Times
Sunday pops
But Competitive Enterprise Institute numbers crunchers easily identified billions upon billions of dollars of the fattest of fat. But, then again, it’s pretty difficult to…
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Environmental Regulations Threaten Refining Sector Jobs
I had the privilege of meeting with Charlie Drevna, President of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers this week. He had some extremely interesting things to…
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Don’t Nudge On Me
In a recent New York Times column, David Brooks describes American culture as “mentally lazy.” Overcoming that, he argues, requires a dose of what he calls…
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Labor Department Imposes Disability Hiring Quotas, Even in Divisions that Don’t Get Federal Contracts
The Obama Labor Department has just finalized rules that will effectively require businesses that get federal contracts to adopt a 7 percent hiring quota for the…
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The Regulatory Improvement Commission
Senators Angus King (I-Me.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are introducing a bill that would create just such a commission. Over at The American Spectator, Wayne…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
76 new regulations, from pet stores to food containers.
The American Spectator
The Regulatory Improvement Commission
There are regulations for everything from restaurant menus to walk-in freezers’ energy efficiency. Almost no one denies that the nation’s economy is saddled with some…
Blog
CEI Podcast for September 20, 2013: The EPA’s Latest Attempt to Ban Coal
A proposed rule issued today by the EPA would effectively ban new coal-fired power plants from being built. According to William Yeatman, Assistant Director of…
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Executive Branch Review of Federal Regulations — Still Highly Incomplete
In the 2014 fiscal budget proposal, the White House praised regulation of auto safety, energy efficiency and credit cards, and claimed, "…
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Ignoring the Government’s Role in the Financial Crisis, Five Years Later
When it comes to reporting on the 2008 financial crisis, many journalists are experts at ignoring the elephant in the room: the government's role in…
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More Harm from “Disparate Impact” Regulations
Earlier, we wrote about the Obama administration’s attempt to inject a race-conscious “disparate impact” provision into colorblind anti-discrimination laws like the Fair Housing Act,…
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Mississippi Should Tell CFPB to “Stop Spying on Me”
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is coming to Mississippi Wednesday and Thursday with a public forum on "access to information." A vital question for Mississippians to…
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Congress to Mark Up Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Bill
The Regulatory Flexibility Act directs federal agencies to assess the effects of their rules on small businesses. How’s that going? A new book…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
61 new regulations, from banned avocados to sweet corn insurance.
Forbes
Obama Addresses Economy And ‘The Financial Crisis Five Years Later’
Today and this week, President Obama will address The Financial Crisis: Five Years Later in an effort shift attention back to domestic economic…
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CEI Opposes Risky, Race-Conscious Federal Lending Requirements in Supreme Court Case
“Disparate impact” is a term in anti-discrimination law for when a neutral policy happens to affect minorities more than whites. One example is a standardized…
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Green Market Pressure Takes Toll on Consumer Choice
When environmentalists don’t have the political power to regulate away consumer choice, they sometimes can get industry to do the job for them. Most recently,…
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Update on American Airlines-US Airways Merger: Judge Approves American’s Bankruptcy Plan
Today, Judge Sean Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved American Airlines’s reorganization plan to exit bankruptcy protection,…
Forbes
Slow-Growth Policies Fuel Income Gap
The Competitive Enterprise Institute pegs the annual cost of environmental and other federal regulation at $1.8 trillion. A study cited by the U.S. Chamber of…
Blog
Paul and Udall Push Bipartisan Credit Union Business Lending Regulatory Reform
Today, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) is launching its "Don't Tax Tuesday" in which credit unions and their supporters tweet members of Congress…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 15): Can We Please End This. Please.
Today, Monday, September 9, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
58 new regulations, from foreign tax credits to growing dates in Riverside County, California.
Blog
Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 14): What Should Congress Do?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 13): What FCC Should Do Now
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 12): Why Net Neutrality Threatens Homeland Security and Cybersecurity
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Scholars React to President’s Call to Shrink Law School from Three Years to Two
We earlier discussed (and agreed with) President Obama’s suggestion that law schools cut their length of study to two years from the current three…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 11): The Inappropriateness of Compulsory Transparency
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
Blog
Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize-Winning Economist, Dies at 102; CEI Releases Interview Footage From 2004
Ronald Coase, the University of Chicago economist who won the 1991 Nobel “for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
81 new regulations, from “shared responsibility payments” to Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes.
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MoveOn admits: “[I]f younger, healthier people don’t participate, then costs will skyrocket and Obamacare will fail.”
MoveOn.org yesterday sent me an appeal asking for $5 to help fund a $250,000 social media campaign supporting ObamaCare targeted to reach young adults. Here’s…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 10): Who’s Discriminating Online?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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CEI Podcast for August 29, 2013: Consequences of Net Neutrality
Have a listen here. In 2010, the FCC issued regulations to implement net neutrality. The resulting legal challenge is about to hit the D.C.
Blog
Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 9): How to Expand Consumer Choice and Access to Content
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 8): The Essential Elements of Non-Destructive Rulemaking
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
Blog
Historians Should Learn the Economic Way of Thinking
Simon Schama is one of the world’s great historians. Indeed, I am currently having my children watch his magisterial “History of Britain,” and they are…
Blog
Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 7): Mandatory Dumb Pipes? But Why Sacrifice Genius?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
Blog
Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 6): Does “Market Failure” Demand Neutrality Regulation?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
Blog
President Obama: Cut Law School from Three Years to Two
President Obama, a lawyer who once was a lecturer at the University of Chicago, recently urged law schools to reduce the length of study from three years…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from hunting migratory birds to grading avocados.
Blog
Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 5): The Fallacies Motivating Net Neutrality
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
Blog
Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 4): FCC Order Creates Political Vulnerability for All Market Participants
(Note: On Septe. 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of the…
Blog
Germany Legalizes Bitcoin: Competing Currencies Are Here!
While Thailand may have banned Bitcoin, the electronic currency — although some are not so sure — the economic powerhouse of Germany has…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 3): The FCC’s Disdain for Markets
(Note: On September 9, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 2): An Alternative Case for Agency Neutrality
(Note: On Sept. 9, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s…
Blog
Labor Unions Blast Obama’s American Airlines-US Airways Merger Lawsuit
Last Tuesday, the Department of Justice and six state attorneys general filed suit to block the planned merger of American Airlines and US Airways. I…
Daily Caller
Study: Put regulators on a budget
The idea of a regulatory…
Blog
Judge Leon’s Lawless Durbin Amendment Debit Card Decision
Since Judge Richard Leon issued his shocking decision on July 31 that called for even more draconian price controls under Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment, some legal commentators…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World, Part 1: Net Neutrality vs. Infrastructure Wealth
On September 9, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon's…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
71 new regulations, from D-Day reenactments to bio-fuel usage.
Detroit News
U.S. needs deregulatory stimulus
Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute recently published the “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State.” It is filled…
Saipan Tribune
Weak US foreign policy
“CEI, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is one of a growing group of organizations that monitors and quantifies the 80,000 or so pages of federal regulations…
Blog
3 Things You May Not Know about the US Airways-American Airlines Merger Lawsuit
On Tuesday, August 13, the Department of Justice, six states, and the District of Columbia filed suit to block the planned $11 billion merger…
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Let in More Foreign Doctors to Fix Looming Shortage of Physicians Aggravated by Obamacare
“Bring on the foreign doctors,” writes Slate’s Brian Palmer: If President Obama’s health care reform plan is implemented in its current form, the United…
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CEI Podcast for August 15, 2013: Justice Department Blocks Airline Merger
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner thinks the charges are overblown, and has ideas of his own for increasing competition.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
83 new regulations, from sweet cherries to air.
Blog
Not With Banks, Not With Retailers, But With Freedom
In explaining my policy positions, I often find myself pointing out I am neither pro-business nor pro-bank, but pro-market. My Competitive Enterprise Institute colleagues and I…
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CEI Podcast for August 8, 2013: CEI Appeals Dismissal of Dodd-Frank Lawsuit
CEI general counsel Sam Kazman discusses plans to appeal the case.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
82 new regulations, dairy import licenses to information sharing.
Blog
The Misleading Push for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Last year, the Senate did not ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with supporters falling just short of the two-thirds…
News Release
After Nearly 20 Years, CEI Applauds Victory on REINS Act
WASHINGTON, DC, August 2, 2013 – Wayne Crews, vice president of policy and director of technical studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, had the following…
Comment
Comments to the OMB on its 2013 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Agency Compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
Wayne Crews submitted comments to the OMB on its 2013 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Agency Compliance…
Blog
Court Wrong to Make Dodd-Frank Durbin Price Controls More Draconian
Today, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the Federal Reserve's implementation of the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, which sets price controls on…
Blog
Regulation of the Day Update: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
The USDA is temporarily suspending its magician's rabbit-license regulations "in order that we may undertake a review of their requirements."…
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CEI Podcast for July 31, 2013: REINS Act Hits the House Floor
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which is expected to pass the…
Blog
REINS Act to Hit House Floor Tomorrow
The bill would add some oversight to a regulatory process that has far too little of it.
Forbes
Congress Confronts ‘Laws Gone Wild’
How extensive is federal regulation? The “hidden tax” now tops $1.8 trillion annually, an immense drain on innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity and living standards. Federal…
Blog
New USTR Discusses Trade Agenda, How U.S. and EU Can Address Divergent Regulatory Regimes
At a forum this morning hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the new U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, discussed the next steps…
Blog
The Rip-Off that Is Occupational Licensing
Occupational licensing rules allow trade schools in some states to force students to attend them, enabling the schools to charge students lots of tuition for…
Blog
Regulating E-Cigarettes Creates the Wrong Incentives
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is gearing up to regulate electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) by early October. These regulations, rather than protecting the public…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from turtle-killing to felon financiers.
Blog
More Economic Suffering Due to Obamacare
The Washington Post reports on the ever-growing number of people losing wages and facing pay cuts due to the 2010 healthcare law: For Kevin…
Blog
D.C. Council Bows to UFCW, Votes No on Walmart, Yes to High Prices
Washington, D.C., has some of the highest living costs in the country. Its metro area contains six of the nation’s ten wealthiest counties, making it…
Blog
On Dodd-Frank’s 3rd Anniversary, “North Star” is Further Out of Reach
Over the weekend, President Obama hailed the third anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank “financial reform.” In his weekly radio address, the president…
Blog
The Government’s Wasteful Obsession with Subsidized Homeownership
The government has spent vast sums of money promoting homeownership through subsidies, tax exemptions, and bailouts. For example, in prosperous Alexandria, Virginia, certain people who…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Topeka shiners to room air conditioners.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 232: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
Marty Hahne has put on children's magic shows for almost 30 years. USDA regulations require both a license and a written disaster plan for his…
Blog
The FTC’s Uneasy Relationship With Innovation
The Sherman and Clayton Acts form the backbone of U.S. antitrust policy. But another piece of legislation gives the government the power to regulate business…
Blog
Unions Plead for Changes to Obamacare, Citing Lost Wages and Benefits
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the leaders of three major labor unions are asking Congress to make fundamental changes to Obamacare, saying that without such changes, it will…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from apartment building energy usage to when truckers have lunch.
Blog
The Apple E-Book Ruling and Antitrust Absurdity
A recent ruling against Apple over its e-book pricing policies highlights the absurdity of antitrust laws, as I point out in the Daily Caller:…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 11, 2013: Farm Bill Controversy
Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith breaks down the controversy surrounding this year's farm bill.
Blog
Scientists Warn of Dangers of “Precautionary Science”
Eighteen scientists recently weighed in on the unscientific and dangerous nature of the so-called “precautionary principle” in the July issue of the journal Food…
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