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
Free the Economy podcast: Consumer protection and free speech with Casey Mattox
In this week’s episode we cover the debt load of state and local governments, advances in nuclear waste storage, and hope…
News Release
Update in CEI’s case against Wisconsin’s unconstitutional rule barring voter participation in prediction markets
Yesterday, a District Court denied CEI’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Wisconsin’s rule denying voters the right to participate in election prediction market…
Blog
The regulatory dark matter beyond Washington’s graveyard of rules: 83,141 ghosts and counting
The clocks have turned back, the days are growing darker, and Washington’s regulatory shadows lengthen. Washington’s policy ghouls are waking up to the fact…
Search Posts
Newsletter
EU Antitrust Rebuke, Record Deficit Numbers and the Costs of Global Warming Policy
European competition regulators get chastised for hiding evidence in a case against Intel. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the federal…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 29: Protecting Us from Cheap Foreign Goods
Sometimes (but not always), when a foreign producer sells goods to U.S. consumers cheaply, the U.S. government takes action to put a stop to it.
News Release
CEI Proposes Legalizing Horse Meat Sale
A Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and Tallahassee, proposes a simple solution to the spate…
Blog
Inconvenient Evidence Suppressed in EU-Intel Antitrust Case
The EU’s top antitrust regulator intentionally suppressed “potentially exculpatory" evidence in its case against Intel. This is the rule of men, not law.
Blog
We’re All Children Now
I propose the following rule: “Think of the children” rhetoric shall be reserved for those situations in which the author is not, in…
Products
CEI Planet: May – June 2009
To view this issue of the CEI Planet, please click here to download the PDF file. Below are selected articles…
Newsletter
Unseen Stimulus, E-waste Abroad and Pelosi’s Private Jet
CNN.com profiles Americans receiving benefits from the economic stimulus package. International agencies weigh in on the issue of “e-waste” – trash generated…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 28: Urine Trouble Now
Want to work for HHS? You’ll have to comply with approximately 32,463 words worth of regulations in the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing…
Blog
Microsoft, Yahoo, and Antitrust
If regulations are to be effective, they must be either clear or silent; antitrust statutes are neither. That alone is reason enough to urge trustbusters…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 27: Beekeeping in South Dakota
Beekeeping in South Dakota is illegal without a license.
Blog
A Poster too Important to Leave to the Market
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is giving away copies of a poster (pictured right) of Barack Obama, which it describes as “an original…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 26: Fortune Telling in Maryland
You need a license to tell fortunes in Annapolis, Maryland.
Blog
Union Bosses Say the Darndest Things
As described in an OpenMarket post by CEI’s Ivan Osorio a couple weeks ago, the Teamsters union and UPS are currently lobbying Congress to…
Blog
Chuck Schumer: “We’ve Got to Stand Still”
High-frequency stock trading — the markets where sophisticated algorithms running on bleeding edge hardware trade assets using information only fractions of a second old —…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 25: Cattle with Scabies
If you own cattle and they are at risk of catching scabies, you may want to read up on the pertinent federal regulations. There are…
Blog
End the Letter Delivery Monopoly: Sell The USPS
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion…
Blog
FDA to Smokers: Drop Dead
The FDA is now moving towards banning a smoking alternative that could save many lives. Every year, millions of smokers like my wife try…
Blog
The Antitrust Anachronism
Wall Street Journal columnist Gordon Crovitz has a great column in today's paper on the anachronism that is antitrust law. He writes: "Markets were so…
Blog
Newsflash to FCC: The iPhone is a Closed Platform, and Consumers Love It
Just when you thought the FCC’s investigation of the wireless industry couldn’t get any stranger, TechCrunch reports that the Commission has sent letters…
Blog
The Antitrust Religion still Has Many Adherents
Why bother with the ongoing challenge of competing in the marketplace if one can merely go to Brussels or Washington?…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 24: The Width of Ladders
It is illegal for a portable metal ladder to have steps narrower than 12 inches.
Blog
Bonus pay bill: CBO predicts huge costs to private sector, broad swaths of employees affected
After the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculated the enormous costs of an all-encompassing health care scheme with a bloated public option, members of Congress…
Blog
More on the Microhoo Deal
The long-awaited collaboration of Microsoft and Yahoo on search has the tech business community abuzz. CEI analysts Wayne Crews and Ryan Young made their original…
Blog
(Un)Free Press Sticks it to the Essentials
The latest missive from the folks at Free Press has crossed the line: When challenged, the wireless carriers actually compare their industry to another: soda.
Blog
A Bailout for the First Amendment?
Dan Rather actually made the following two contradictory statements in the same speech: I personally encourage the president to establish a White House…
Blog
Prof. Gates’ property rights likely violated in arrest — but Obama was wrong to weigh in
Amid all the endless media psychobabble about “national conversations” and “teachable moments” – and we will no doubt here more of this in the reporting of…
Blog
Food Safety Bills Moving Through Congress
With all out attention diverted to the government's attempted takeover of the half of US health care that isn't already nationalized, the attempted destruction of…
Blog
The Challenge of Network Industries
“Network” industries such as electricity, air transport, telecommunication, freight rail, and internet services face a challenge with their competing flow and grid components. Flows are…
Blog
In Defense of Average Cost Pricing
Many industries in the modern economy are ridiculed for the financing strategies they employ. Only marginal cost pricing is defended as a legitimate practice. Yet…
Blog
Where’s the Reality in Legislation?
In “Why Obamacare Is Sinking,” Charles Krauthammer argues that President Obama’s reliance on rhetoric is finally beginning to fail because “you can’t fake it…
Blog
VIDEO: Healthcare Reform Ideas from the Other Washington
John Barnes at the Washington Policy Center (motto: “Improving Lives Through Market Solutions”) passes on a 3-video series about the fight over healthcare “reform” we’re…
Blog
Russia introduces strict new antitrust law
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev has signed into law amendments that will bring increased penalties for price collusion and unfair competition. The new amendments will allow…
Blog
Policy Translated: Special Access Reform
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQO84UjQ2Fg 285 234]…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 23: Texting While Driving
Texting while driving is both dumb and dangerous. But making it a crime won’t make people stop doing it. It will merely make more people…
Blog
Food Police Attack Denny’s Over Salt
It seems that the food police at the unconscionably named Center for Science in the Public Interest are at it again. Last week, CSPI filed…
Blog
Best Way to Curb Irrational Exurberance?
Zachary Goldfarb, a Washington Post staff writer, discusses (p. A10, “SEC Moves to Limit Short Sales of Stocks”) this SEC proposal – sympathetically. The article…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 22: Rhinestones
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, after much deliberation, has banned crystal rhinestones from children's products, despite no evidence of harm.
Blog
The Folly of 100%
The same groups that have been insisting for years that there is something fundamentally wrong with the United States’ international broadband ranking…
Blog
Put it in quotes: health care “reform”
Robert J. Samuelson has a hard-hitting column in today’s Washington Post on the non-reform elements of the health care reform package. He points out…
Blog
Dems’ Health Care Bill Looking Weaker by the Day
For the Democrats still supporting the health care overhaul, the blows just keep coming. As if the financial problems I described in a previous…
Blog
Health Insurance Reform: look at what does and doesn’t work already
“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and…
Blog
How to End the War over Antitrust
If the executive branch is not going to consistently enforce antitrust laws -- and they shouldn't -- they should be repealed.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 21: Potato Research and Promotion
The Agricultural Marketing Service has a potato research and marketing plan, pursuant to the Potato Research and Marketing Act.
Blog
Getting the Health Care You Pay For
There was a good front page article in yesterday's Washington Post on the history of advances in medical science and technology. The conclusion: Although the…
Blog
Net Neutrality: A Dialogue With Ars Technica
CEI’s broadband reply comments from earlier this week received a generous quotation by Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson. Mr. Anderson took issue,…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Attack of the National Broadband Plans
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI's fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday.
Blog
Our Colleague Julie Called it “Subprime Healthcare”
I think that about sums it up.
Newsletter
Google Book Search, FCC Comments and the Minimum Wage
The Justice Department investigates Google’s legal settlement over its Book Search service. Federal Communications Commission broadband coordinator Blair Levin accuses recent comments from the public…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 20: Anti-Flatulence Medication
The U.S. Code contains an entire section on over-the-counter anti-flatulence medication. There are rules for permitted active ingredients, maximum dosage, and label text.
Blog
Exploiting the Minimum Wage
Young people with little or no work experience may not be able to offer $7.25 per hour worth of productivity; small wonder so many of…
Blog
Leave it to the Experts
Send your used light bulbs to Washington! They're the experts. They'll know what to do.
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Destroys Cheap Health-Care Options, Raises Taxes, Breaks Promises
In 2008, Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. But he is now breaking that promise by…
Blog
Standing Before the FCC Shouting Stop
CEI submitted our initial comments to the FCC on broadband policy last month, and this week we submitted our reply comments. A brief overview.
Blog
Aggravated FCC Bureaucrat Knows Better than Us; Calls Petitioners “Sloppy”
Federal Communcations Commission broadband coordinator Blair Levin, charged with coming up with a “U.S. National Broadband Plan,” by February, says the 8,500 pages…
Newsletter
Broadband Plans, Saving Healthcare Dollars and Obama’s Diplomacy
The Federal Communications Commission drafts a “national plan” for broadband policy. The White House announces proposed healthcare cost-saving measures. President Obama continues to insist that…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 19: Fospropofol
The Drug Enforcement Administration, would like to schedule fospropofol, approved by the FDA last year for use as an anesthetic, as a Schedule IV controlled…
Blog
Democrats Inconsistent on Senior Death Discount
White House health care policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel has explicitly endorsed adopting not only comparative-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis in the health care realm, but also…
Blog
If you like FEMA, you’ll love federal health care, says Jindal
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal providing a succinct critique of the Democrats’ health care plan and offering…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 18: Shipping Live Animals
If you ship live animals via the USPS’s Express Mail Service and it takes three days or more, you may be eligible for a refund,…
Comment
Comments on the Federal Communications Commission Report ‘A National Broadband Plan for our Future’
The Commission’s record of alleged “regulatory restraint” toward the telecommunications sector over the past 13 years has come under fire by a number of commenters…
Blog
Want Recovery? Remember Antitrust is Anti-Economy
More restraint is in order when it comes to the Obama administrations intent to escalate “antitrust” enforcement against business and enterprise in America.
Blog
Richard Rahn on “Washingtonosis” — The Most Destructive Disease
"Washingtonosis(n): a disease most often found in people working within three miles of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, ... Those infected tend to lose…
Blog
Policies to Promote Competition often Stifle it Instead
Chairman Genachowski is right that the Internet has been “the most successful driver of economic growth” in recent years. Why, then, pursue an agenda that…
News Release
Clear Government Roadblocks to Broadband Competition
Contrary to many critics, investment in broadband networks by U.S. telecommunications firms is booming, and the biggest roadblocks to even more robust growth are primarily…
Blog
“Libertarian paternalism”?
In Sunstein's latest book Nudge. . . he makes the case that people often make bad decisions, and a slight "nudge" can set things right…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: Sliding Car Doors
A new set of rules for sliding car doors will come into effect on September 1, 2010.
Blog
In Which the Case for Antitrust Action against Telecoms Weakens
New research finds that U.S. telecoms are charging, on average, ten cents less per minute than their counterparts around the world. Tell me again why…
Blog
Union Pension Fund Bailout Taking on a New Form
Senate Democrats and organized labor leaders are reportedly near a deal on removing the card-check provision from the s0-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Response to EPA Cover Up Increases
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI's fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: Endangered Snails
The sixteenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state. Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from…
Blog
House Dems Would Ban New Private Health Insurance
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Color of Stitches
The federal government regulates which colors may be used in surgical stitches.
Newsletter
White House Science Czar, Catfish Imports and Gingrich’s “Real” Stimulus
Critics question the controversial beliefs of White House science adviser John Holdren. U.S. catfish producers try to block inexpensive fish imports from Vietnam. Former House…
Blog
Exclusivity is the Mother of Invention
The web is all aflutter in the debate over handset exclusivity. Harold Feld of Public Knowledge describes in a recently posted video how exclusive…
Blog
A Handshake, Not a “Contract with America”
Newt Gingrich’s new “Strategy Memo: Time for a Real Stimulus Bill” is helpful on highlighting tax cuts that could stimulate business’ capacity for job…
Blog
Fishy Politics May Harm US Consumers
The various US attempts to hobble the Vietnamese farmed-catfish industry is no less underhanded. And, in order to prevent a trade war with Vietnam, it…
Blog
Lamar Smith on Cap and Tax
A good, short, succinct summary of why Rep Lamar Smith (R.-KY) voted against Cap-and-Tax. Hat-tip: The Chilling Effect [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBFwZUiGOWs 285 234]…
Blog
Doing Business in DC
DC Progress notes that Washington, DC has ranked dead last in the annual Small Business Survival Index every year since the mid-1990s. One of the…
Blog
Growing Young Statists
Gene Healy’s column in Examiner today chronicles the alarming statism and collectivism of today’s youth and tomorrow’s voters. The generation born from the…
Blog
Reason’s Shikha Dalmia on EFCA’s Binding Arbitration Provision
With Al Franken joining the Senate, public attention is again turning to the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In the weekend Wall Street Journal,…
Newsletter
Sotomayor in the Senate, The New GM and State Farm in Florida
Judge Sonia Sotomayor prepares for her confirmation hearings in the Senate. A slimmed-down General Motors emerges from bankruptcy. Florida’s insurance commissioner claims to have “a…
Blog
“It would be hard to devise a surer formula for economic catastrophe.”
It may not be in a debacle like California’s, but I still find it galling to see my home state of Florida go from being…
Blog
Reason’s Michael Moynihan on the SEIU Chavistas
At Reason Hit & Run, Michael C. Moynihan looks at the Service Employees Internatinoal Union’s harassing of broadcasters who air ads opposing the so-called…
Newsletter
Safe Bottled Water, a Second Stimulus and Keeping Government out of Insurance
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) questions the safety of the U.S. bottled water industry. Officials consider putting together a second stimulus package to follow the $787…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Firsthand At the Tea Party
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI's fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the…
Blog
A Second Stimulus?
Any stimulus proposal is, by its very nature, less than a zero-sum proposition. Stimulus involves taking some money out of the economy, wasting some of…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: Asphalt Emissions
EPA is proposing national emission standards for asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing.
News Release
CEI Questions ProtectingAmerica.org Insurance Study
Analysts at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank, criticized protectingamerica.org’s continued advocacy for a federal insurance backstop.
Blog
Crews in the News: Consumer Choice Doesn’t Come From Regulation
CEI’s own Wayne Crews is quoted in the Boston Globe this morning, explaining why real competition — not government-mandated ‘openness’ — is the best…
Blog
Igniting Agricultural Innovation
"Biotechnology applied to agriculture has enormous potential to enhance our ability to develop seeds for improved crops and for enhanced livestock to enable us to…
Blog
Antitrust Irony
Microsoft is having a tense antitrust discussion with the EU. Meanwhile, Google is readying an operating system to directly compete with Windows. Compare and contrast.
Boston.com
Pick Your Handset or a Network, Not Both
Blog
Antitrust Policy and Telecoms
It’s hard to make a case that a company is abusing market power if it doesn’t really have any. And Verizon and AT&T are not…
Blog
Stepping Up the Class War
On both of the most salient issues of the day, health care reform and climate change, proponents of the corresponding legislation are setting their sights…
Newsletter
Cap and Trade, Tea Parties and Luggage Limitations
The Senate prepares to consider the “cap and trade” global warming legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives. Citizens around the country gather at…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Size of Your Carry-On Bags
The Securing Cabin Baggage Act wouldn't add to security, wouldn't make flying more convenient, and may well be the result of rent-seeking.
American Spectator
Unnecessary Baggage
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) thinks that your carry-on bags are a threat to national security. To address this grave threat, he has introduced the Securing…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Price of Shrimp
The ITA has been upset for some time that a Thai shrimp exporter is selling shrimp cheaply; hungry consumers have had no complaints.
Wall Street Journal
The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic
Blog
Washington Post Sells White House Access to Lobbyists, and Misreports Obama Health-Care Facts
Until it was publicly-exposed, the Washington Post was selling its access to the White House to lobbyists. As Politico reported, “For…
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