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: Subsidies for billionaires with David McGarry
In this week’s episode we cover White House intervention in corporate ownership, the nation’s falling economic freedom ranking, and welcome new…
News Release
Federal appeals court rules on NLRB unconstitutionality
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a ruling suggesting the structure of the federal government’s top labor dispute regulator, the National Labor Relations…
Blog
The week in regulations: Import paperwork and postal possession
The 2025 Federal Register topped 40,000 pages. President Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The Producer Price index rose at its fastest level since…
Search Posts
Blog
Obama Uses BP Oil Spill to Push Corporate-Welfare-Filled Global Warming Bill That BP Once Lobbied For
Talk about chutzpah. President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global…
Blog
CEI Weekly: How Deregulation Can Curb Terrorism
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features Iain Murray's article in the American Spectator arguing for reform…
Blog
Media Give Disgraced Politician Eliot Spitzer a Soapbox to Lecture the Public
Eliot Spitzer, who was forced out as Governor of New York after paying prostitutes tens of thousands of dollars and then violating federal finance laws…
Blog
Friday Regulation Roundup
$300,000 of stimulus money to pay for floating toilets, plus more.
Blog
Today’s the Day
Today is National Donut Day. Ordinarily, this would be just another cute calendar event. But nowadays we’re bombarded by government proposals…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 139: Mailing Fake Grenades
In which a new regulation actually makes some sense.
Op-Eds
Australian Resource Tax Will Dampen Innovation (Letter to the Editor)
Sir, Your editorial, “Taxmen vs miners: Australia’s resource super profit tax is a good idea” (May 31), argues that “natural resource profits are…
News Release
Supreme Court to Rule on Major Sarbanes-Oxley Case
Washington, D.C., June 3, 2010—The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hand down a major ruling which could put much-needed constitutional limits on an agency…
Blog
Obama Administration Pushes More Bailouts at Taxpayer Expense; America to Bail Out Corrupt Union Pension Funds
The Obama administration and its congressional allies are now pushing for billions more in bailouts for mismanaged union pension funds, and teachers unions. The union…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 138: Dwile Flonking
H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” He may as well have been talking about regulators.
Blog
BP: A “Serial Environmental Criminal” With Close Ties To The Obama Administration
BP, which is responsible for the terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has a safety record infinitely worse than other oil companies, which…
Op-Eds
Fee Free Way to Protect Consumers
The U.S. Senate, in the name of protecting American consumers, passed last month a massive financial regulation bill that creates the Bureau of Consumer…
Blog
Divorce Courts Mistreat America’s Soldiers and Small Businesses
Memorial Day is an opportunity to thank our troops, and open our eyes to the disgraceful way they are treated by divorce courts. The bias…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Sues NASA to Uncover Key Global Warming Docs
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's federal lawsuit against NASA to force them to comply…
Blog
Massive Fare Hike in Washington, D.C. Subway System; Public Sacrifices, Overpaid Union Doesn’t
The mismanaged Washington, D.C. Metro system is pushing through huge fare hikes, not only increasing subway and bus fares, but adding a new 20…
Blog
Myths About Green Energy: The Truth Is, It’s Corporate Welfare That Destroys American Jobs
In The Washington Post, Robert Bryce debunks five myths about green energy: it won’t create jobs, won’t help the environment, and won’t make America…
Blog
Federal Register hits 30,000 Pages
This year’s Federal Register is on pace for 73,459 pages. Like most of President Obama’s policies, this represents less than a one percent change from…
Blog
Sudden Acceleration in Media Falsehoods Regarding Toyota
“Now that the dust has begun to settle on Toyota’s recall fiasco, it’s being made clear that the toll on human life was greater than…
Blog
Congress Expected to Vote Soon on Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy Restricting Gay Soldiers
“Separate votes” are expected “in the House and Senate later this week on legislation repealing the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ restriction on gays serving…
Newsletter
Union Bus Drivers, Fannie Mae Reform and Transportation Partnerships
In New York, bus drivers can take months of paid leave to recuperate from being spit on by passengers. The Obama…
Blog
More Bailouts for Corrupt Mortgage Giants: “More Aid Expected for Fannie, Freddie”
The bailouts are getting even bigger, for the most undeserving recipients. “More Aid Expected for Fannie, Freddie,” reports The Washington Post. The Obama administration…
Blog
California: Leading the Way in Failure
As one might expect of California, successful transportation public-private partnerships (P3s) face many government hurdles. In the early 1990s, the California Department of Transportation…
Citation
Obama’s Secular Socialist Legacy
Blog
Liquor Licensing Overhaul Brewing in NJ
Democratic Senator James Beach introduced a set of bills earlier this month that, if passed by the New Jersey state senate, will make it…
Blog
Corrupt Mortgage Giants Escape Reform: “Obama Administration Says Fannie, Freddie Reform ‘Too Hard'”
There won’t be any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-sponsored mortgage giants that even Obama administration officials admit were at…
Blog
Stimulus Package Increases Trade Deficit: Replaces U.S. Jobs with Foreign “Green Jobs”
The $800 billion stimulus package is shipping American jobs overseas. More than 79 percent of “green jobs” funding under the stimulus package went to…
Citation
Vitter Amendment
Blog
CEI Statement on Senate Passage of Restoring American Financial Stability Act
The “Restoring American Financial Stability Act,” that passed Congress last night with 39 senators voting “nay,” will hurt Main Street investors and entrepreneurs, and worsen…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Blasts Unconstitutional EPA Power Grab
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's efforts to fight the EPA's recent power grab to…
Blog
Senate Passes Financial “Reform” Bill, 59-39; Will Wipe Out Jobs and Increase Credit Card Costs
The Senate has just passed a 1,500 page financial “reform” bill that deliberately leaves unreformed the corrupt mortgage giants that spawned the financial crisis–while…
Op-Eds
Dodd Bank Bill: Brown Folds but Vitter’s Not-Everything’s-a-Bank Amendment Passes
Yesterday, Scott Brown caved, and the Senate passed its “financial reform.” That story is at the top of every news web site.
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, a Pay Cut for Congress and Kagan Missing in Action
The Senate rejects a move to cut off debate and further amendment on the financial regulation bill sponsored by Chris Dodd…
Opposing Views
While America Crumbles, Congress Wastes Time on Beer & Golf
The days of trillion-dollar deficits, multiple land wars in Asia, and other catastrophes may soon be coming to an end. Congress continues to work long…
Blog
Kagan Shirked Duty to Defend Federal Laws Protecting Crime Victims
Federal law authorizes life sentences without parole for particularly heinous violent crimes committed by 16 and 17-year olds. But Solicitor General Elena Kagan was…
Blog
Legal Elites Chip Away at Protections Against Violent Crime
On Monday, the Supreme Court, citing “international opinion,” outlawed life imprisonment without parole for juveniles who commit rape, torture, and other non-homicide crimes. Earlier,…
NH Insider
Congress May Roll Dice and Legalize Internet Gambling
NH Insider
Dodd’s Bank Bill: New Nationalization Powers for Fed, FDIC, and Treasury Secretary
There are many bad things contained in Chris Dodd’s "Restoring American Financial Stability Act," the financial regulatory "reform" bill that after filibustering for…
NH Insider
Dodd’s Bank Bill: New Nationalization Powers for Fed, FDIC, and Treasury Secretary
There are many bad things contained in Chris Dodd’s “Restoring American Financial Stability Act,” the financial regulatory “reform” bill…
News Release
Failed Bank Bill Filled with Unintended Consequences for Main Street
Washington, D.C., May 19, 2010 – After the Senate today defeated a major banking regulation bill, CEI issued the following statement by John Berlau,…
Blog
How Much Would a Congressional Pay Cut Save?
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is proposing a 5 percent pay cut for members of Congress. For every $816,502 the federal government spends, that would save one…
Newsletter
Immigration Reform, SCOTUS and “Market Fundamentalism”
The New York Times reports that younger people are more likely to favor liberalized immigration policy than the baby boomer generation. The Supreme Court’s decision…
CNET
Congress May Roll Dice and Legalize Internet Gambling
Blog
Supreme Court Overturns Life Sentences Without Parole for Violent Juveniles, Citing “International Opinion”
The Supreme Court has just held that violent juveniles cannot be given a life sentence without the opportunity for parole, unless they succeed in killing…
Blog
Preempting State Pension Bailouts
Congress has long used its control of the federal government’s purse strings as a club with which to force states to change laws that fall…
Blog
The Myth of Bush the Deregulator
Contrary to popular belief, the Bush administration was the best friend regulators have had in a generation or more.
Blog
Sometimes I Think They’re Just Messing with Us
Here's an excerpt from an early 1980s Office of Management and Budget report.
Blog
Radical Law Professor Goodwin Liu Approved as High-Ranking Judge by Senate Judiciary Committee, on Party-Line Vote
Radical law professor Goodwin Liu was approved to sit on the federal appeals court for the Ninth Circuit in a party-line, 12-to-7…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Defends Internet Freedom
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's defense of the internet against new FCC regulations by…
Blog
Bailout Supporters Lose Elections in Germany and Utah; Obama Administration Presses Ahead With More Bailouts
Senator Robert Bennett lost reelection in Utah’s Republican primary amidst anger over his vote for the $700 billion bank bailout known as TARP.
CNET
Dems Block Reform of Corrupt Mortgage Giants
In a party-line, 56-to-43 vote Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-backed mortgage giants…
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