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
Blog
The week in regulations: Bone void filler and halibut action
May’s job numbers were strong for the third month in a row, though job growth since Liberation Day remains under 100,000, for a labor force…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: State budgets and bailouts with Thomas Savidge
In this week’s episode we cover promising new classroom technology, increasing productivity (and avoiding layoffs) with AI, and the repeal of the…
Blog
The week in regulations: Onion marketing and refrigerator leaks
PCE inflation, which the Federal Reserve uses for its interest rate decisions, rose to 3.8 percent, nearly double the Fed’s 2.0 percent target. President Trump…
Search Posts
Blog
CEI Podcast for November 3, 2011: Scary Makeup
Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini debunks scare stories that chemicals in makeup and other household products cause cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects, and other health problems.
Citation
Reforming the FCC’s Regulatory Process
Blog
Wealthy Chanhassen, Minnesota, NIMBYs Oppose Retail Competition, Support Development Socialism
Reading the tired, silly claims of left-wing, anti-Wal-Mart activists generally makes me yawn. But it annoys me to see some of my former neighbors from…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: November 2, 2011
A round up of the interesting booze-related news stories from around the nation. Hint: the two best are at the end. National: Our nation’s…
Blog
Bank of America Debit Decision Doesn’t Negate Dodd-Frank’s Costs to Consumers
Bank of America and other banks are cancelling plans to impose monthly debit card fees. This was one of the ways Bank of America, as…
Blog
Regulation is this Halloween’s Goblin
Uncle Sam may be the biggest spook to business this Halloween. A new Gallup poll of small business owners shows that “complying with government regulations”…
Op-Eds
Get a Job!
Repeal Financial Regs Repeal portions of the Bush-era Sarbanes-Oxley Act to make it easier for smaller companies to raise capital by going public,…
Blog
Yes, Regulation Does Keep Unemployment High
Over at RealClearMarkets, my colleague Wayne Crews and I argue that the law of demand holds. Hard to believe that's actually controversial, but that's Washington…
Citation
Regulations Are The Boot On Hiring’s Neck
Daily Caller
Regulation Is This Halloween’s Goblin
American entrepreneurs and small business owners have good reason to be scared this Halloween. According to a new Gallup poll, small business owners consider…
RealClear Markets
Yes, Regulation Does Keep Unemployment High
When regulations make hiring employees more expensive, companies won't hire as many of them. It's a simple truth. But it is an inconvenient one…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Yet another batch of regulatory bloopers: Motorists entering Tacoma, Washington, with criminal intent are required to telephone the chief of police. It is illegal to…
Blog
Biotechnology’s 29th Anniversary!
Twenty-nine years ago tomorrow, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s and Genentech’s Humulin, making it the first ever fully…
Letters
Coalition Letter on Sarbanes-Oxley
Full Document Available in PDF Now that the Senate has defeated the so-called American Jobs Bill, which…
RealClear Markets
2012 Candidates Target Costly Enron-Era Law Aimed at Thwarting Accounting Fraud
Blog
Beware of Asking FDA to Change Itself
Every five years, Congress must reauthorize a piece of legislation called the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which gives the…
RealClear Markets
Flat Tax This: Regulations Are the Boot On Hiring’s Neck
It’s almost 2012, and President Obama still wants a half trillion more from you for jobs spendulus. I’m waiting for Rod Serling to explain this…
RealClear Markets
Competitive Enterprise Institute and Americans for Prosperity Join Groups Opposing Ag Committee Proposal
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
House Republicans Work To Reduce The Burdens Stifling Growth For Businesses Small and Large
Blog
The House Considers Legalizing Online Gambling
Defenders of online gambling testified before the House today to beg for their right to gamble legally. Poker Players Alliance Chairman (and former U.S.
Letters
Coalition Letter on Agriculture Spending
Full Document Available in PDF The Competiitive Enterprise Institute signed a…
The Volokh Conspiracy
CEI “Durbin Dollars”
The Volokh Conspiracy
The Stimulus Delusion
Popular delusions are always debunked, but rarely before they do a lot of harm. The ancient physician Galen believed that bloodletting, the forced removal of…
ACLU
I Went to Washington and Democracy Broke Out
Bloomberg
Obama Wrote Fewer Rules Than Bush, Cost More
Bloomberg references Wayne Crews's study on the federal regulatory burden. The administration has 219 major rules under consideration, up from 137 in 2005,…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: Ale-oween Edition
National: Phusion Projects, the makers of the now-infamous alcoholic energy drink Four Loko, have reportedly reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
SCPR
E-Verify Briefing Turns Into Shouting Match
Blog
Regulation Roundup
It is illegal to slurp your soup in New Jersey restaurants, plus more.
SCPR
Weekend Reading: The True Story of Cosmetics
Washington Times
Wholesale Deception
Beer wholesalers contend that alcohol legislation they are pushing on Capitol Hill would safeguard state and local rights – but in reality, it is…
Washington Times
RedBlueAmerica: Is ‘Regularity Uncertainly’ Holding Back U.S. Economy?
Blog
Truck Drivers Don’t Need a Revised Hours-of-Service Rule
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is poised to enact a revised hours-of-service (HOS) rule that would greatly impact commercial motor vehicle operators.
Blog
The Unemployment Discrimination Myth
The defunct American Jobs Act, which Hans skewered so well a while back, contains a provision to end “discrimination against the unemployed.” Apparently, there…
Blog
SEC Jumps into Cybersecurity Debate
Much of the cybersecurity focus this year has been on Congress’s efforts to mandate data breach notifications and security standards. Now the Securities and…
Washington Times
The EWG Provides Food for (No) Thought
Blog
Cut the Capital Gains Tax and Government Spending to Create Jobs and Promote Technological Advances
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Amity Schlaes notes that cuts in the capital gains tax were one of the key factors that paved the…
Washington Times
Sugar Policy Bitter for Consumers, Manufacturers
http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Washington Examiner 10-16-2011.jpg
Bright Light of the Week: CEI’s ‘Durbin Dollar’
Study
A FAIR Criticism
A recent report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform argues for increased immigration restrictions as a way to address the federal budget deficit. However,…
Study
The True Story of Cosmetics
Many environmental groups want to rid the world of synthetic chemicals. Now they are at war with your makeup.
Blog
White House Involved in FDA Approval of Genetically Engineered Salmon?
A couple of days ago, Talking Points Memo's Jim Kozubek reported that the Food and Drug Administration had finally decided to…
Blog
No Money, No Sense: On the Infrastructure Bank
This morning, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit held a hearing on the President Obama’s infrastructure bank proposal. In September, the…
Blog
Congress Should Reject Tying a Repatriation Tax Holiday to a National Infrastructure Bank
It was reported on Tuesday that Senate Democrats intent on creating a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) have quietly thrown Republicans a bone on the…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: October 7, 2011
National: A Supreme Court decision is being heralded as potentially liberating the advertising market for tobacco and alcohol as it expands first amendment protections…
Blog
CEI Podcast for October 6, 2011: How to Deregulate the Economy
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews is author of the new CEI study, “The Other National Debt Crisis: How and Why Congress Must Quantify Regulation."…
Study
Stifling Medical Device Innovation
The United States has long been the home to cutting-edge innovations in the medical device industry. However, increasingly burdensome regulatory policy is driving pioneering research…
Blog
Barone is Right: Appeasing Protectionists Is a Bad Idea
President Obama is finally sending three pending trade agreements — with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama — to Congress for a vote. The three trade…
Blog
Poll: 14 Percent Approval Rating for Congress
Lawmakers need to do something about their do-something bias and try a deregulatory stimulus. Besides stimulating the economy, it would likely stimulate approval ratings, too.
News Release
Congress Should Start Quantifying Federal Regulation
Washington, D.C., October 4, 2011—Lawmakers in the nation’s capital seem to be desperate to secure a big fix for the broken American economy. But as…
Study
The Other National Debt Crisis
Runaway federal regulation represents the biggest threat to our economy today. To address the problem, lawmakers first need to define it and quantify its costs.
http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Washington Examiner 10-16-2011.jpg
Clean Air’s Dirty Residue
A lot has been made of recent court filings in which the Environmental Protection Agency suggested that it needed 230,000 more bureaucrats to regulate…
http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Washington Examiner 10-16-2011.jpg
Time Out for Federal Regulation
At the moment, the Federal Register stands at 61,247 pages–for 2011 alone. You can see the Code of Federal Regulations from space. Assuming this perturbs…
Fox News
Eight Ways to Keep People Out of Work
Fox News cites Wayne Crews's article on the cost of regulatory burden to make the case that ignoring the costs of regualtion will keep peolple…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Massage parlors are illegal in well-named Horneytown, North Carolina, plus more.
Fox News
Today’s Red Tape Would Have Killed Home Depot’s IPO
Your editorial “The Anti-Solyndras” (Sept. 22) is right on target in detailing the devastating impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on job and…
Fox News
Debit Durbin
Read the headlines — and your bank statement — and weep, but don’t say TAS didn’t warn you. As I detailed here in February…
Blog
Right on Cue
In this morning's CEI Podcast, my colleague John Berlau predicted that the new price cap on debit card swipe fees would lead to the end…
Blog
CEI Podcast for September 29, 2011: The End of Free Debit Cards
Every time you use your debit card, the merchant has to pay a fee to the company that issued your card, usually about 1 percent…
DC Velocity
Freedom to Move: Interview with Marc Scribner
Blog
Automatic Economic Stabilizers or Stable Economic Rules?
Former Obama OMB Director Peter Orszag (who joined Citigroup earlier this year as vice chairman for global banking) over at The New Republic thinks we’ve…
Blog
Blame Not Banks — But Big Box and Big Government — For Free Checking’s Demise
Read it and weep, but don't say OpenMarket didn't warn you. Thanks to Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment, price controls on interchange fees --…
Blog
FDA Approves Device To Help Doctors Detect Skin Cancer
There's an unusual bit of good news out of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In March 2010 and again last November, the…
DC Velocity
Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) Regulation Tends to Serve Interests of Lawyers, Not Consumers
DC Velocity
Lawyers Use Ban on Unauthorized Practice of Law to Restrict Speech & Competition
For Construction Pros
NRMCA: President’s Jobs Plan At Odds With Administration Regulatory Action
For Construction Pros discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Highlighting the magnitude of numerous new regulations, this…
Blog
Pull Out of Basel III: The Moral Hazard of Government Ratings
Recently and for different reasons, two high-profile players from different parts of the financial sector -- JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and respected banking analyst…
Blog
Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Premiums by 55 to 85 Percent in Ohio, Study Says
The Charleston Daily Mail’s Don Surber points to a recent study “that shows that 790,000 Ohioans will lose their private health insurance and premiums…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
In Seattle, Washington, the maximum length allowed for concealed weapons is 6 feet, plus more.
Blog
Flushing Oral Oncology Drugs Down the Toilet?
An interesting article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (via yesterday's Jerusalem Post) argues that the U.S. Food and…
Blog
Dodd-Frank Financial Law Uses Regulations to Outsource American Jobs
American jobs will soon be outsourced due to the Dodd-Frank financial "reform" law passed in 2010 with strong support from the Obama administration. That law…
Blog
Government Fines Businessman for Creating Jobs
A CEO recently told Congress about how he was fined for hiring too many people: “I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 197: Planking
Threats to freedoms even as trivial as planking should not be taken lying down.
Townhall
Michigan on Brink of Massive Education Reform
On Friday September 9, Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) announced he would introduce legislation giving teachers in his state right to work…
Blog
The Mythical Benefits of Plastic Bag Bans Debunked
Some municipalities have now imposed taxes or restrictions on plastic shopping bags, even though banning or taxing plastic bags has little effect on litter, and…
Blog
Phony Breast Cancer Group’s Phony Findings on BPA
Activists at the Breast Cancer Fund are scheduled to release a new scaremongering “study” on the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) tomorrow,…
Blog
How to Make Legal Advice and Legal Services More Affordable Without Taxpayer Subsidies
At Truth on the Market, I discuss how to make legal advice and legal services more affordable at this link. I also discuss…
Blog
Federal Register Near Record Pace
This year's Federal Register is on pace to be 80,190 pages long. That's an average of 220 pages of fresh proposed rules, final rules, notices,…
Townhall
Google And The Antitrust Case Against Antitrust
Now that the economy has recovered to robust health and unemployment is back below 5%, the U.S. Senate has ample time and resources to spend…
Ceske Noviny
Czech President Warns in USA Against Effort to Restrict Freedom
Blog
Obama’s Proposed New Tax Will Multiply Red Tape and Enrich Tax Lawyers and Accountants More than the Treasury
I have argued that "significant tax increases" may be necessary as part of a deficit reduction deal, given the enormity of the deficit and…
Blog
Warren Buffett, Give Your Secretary a Raise!
So it has been decreed -- by Warren Buffett, by President Barack Obama, and by media members going gaga over to so-called Buffett Rule --…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Flirting is illegal in Haddon, New Jersey, plus more.
Blog
House Hearing on Effects of EU Privacy Directive
Yesterday the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing addressing the economic consequences of the European Union’s internet privacy regulations. The…
Ceske Noviny
Liberate the Jobs!
The most fascinating aspect of House Speaker John Boehner’s very effective address to the Economic Club was not the specific solutions he presented but the…
Fox News
Regulation Nation: As Firms Grow, Regs Follow
Fox News highlights Wayne Crews's annual report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. In his yearly report, Ten Thousand Commandments: An…
Blog
Obama and Sarbanes-Oxley Review — The One Sentence Worth 4,000 Words for Jobs
In President Obama’s 33-minute-long speech to Congress on job creation last week, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words.
Blog
Infrastructure Si, Infrastructure Bank No
In his Forbes column, James Glassman provides a counterpoint to the Obama proposal to create a national infrastructure bank. Rather than direct funds through…
Blog
Congressional Vote to Halt NLRB Job-Killing Regulations
President Obama and the Senate Democrats' agenda will be put to the test. GOP senators have called for the vote on the Protecting Jobs…
Fox News
Law Schools Roundup
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
GOP Attack on Regulations Starting This Week
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Complaints about government overreach are not new,…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Will Obama and Congress Slay the Sarbox Job-Killing Monster?
In President Obama’s 33-minute-long speech to Congress on job creation, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words. In the…
House Oversight Committee
Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform
Blog
H.R. 1909 Brings Competitive Regulation to Small Loan Market
The Summer of 2011 will likely be remembered as a season that overregulation came to a boiling point -- at all levels of the U.S. government.
Blog
Belt Tightening At FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Last week the House Appropriations Committee released its draft bill for funding of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. Of particular note is the appropriation…
Blog
State Losing Control of Pennsylvania Liquor
Privatizing Pennsylvania's liquor stores has been a subject of debate for decades. Proposals in the past have been met with fear about the effects privatization…
Blog
Regulatory Roundup
Here’s another batch of regulatory bloopers: In Little Rock, Arkansas, it is illegal to honk your horn at a restaurant after 9:00 pm. It has…
House Oversight Committee
Nice Talk. When’s the Jobs Speech?
Hauling the United States Senate and a reluctant House together to listen to you on NFL kickoff night–when it’s not even State of the…
House Oversight Committee
Immigration is Not Charity
The biggest misconception about immigration is that it is a zero-sum game–that there is a finite number of jobs which immigrants “take” from the…
House Oversight Committee
A Plan Better than Obama’s to Create Jobs
News Release
CEI Presents Alternative to American Jobs Act
Washington, D.C., September 9, 2011—Last night, President Obama presented Congress with a $447 billion “American Jobs Act.” The high price tag covers yet another…
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