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: Revisiting Earth Day with Todd Myers
In this week’s episode we cover the dwindling number of US public companies (via Todd Zywicki of George Mason University), a pro-consumer…
Blog
The week in regulations: Drone settlements and gambling losses
The 2026 Federal Register topped 20,000 pages. President Trump got into a feud with the Pope. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from mail standards to…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: How to Get What You Want with Josh Bandoch
In this week’s episode we cover AI development in China, how large investors recycle homes, and why permitting reform needs to…
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Letters
Letter to Senators Dodd and Shelby, and Congressmen Frank and Bachus regarding National Regulatory Modernization
Full Document Available in PDF This letter written to Senators Dodd and Shelby, and…
Blog
Baptist-Bootlegger Alliance on Tobacco
In today’s Washington Examiner, Tim Carney has an excellent column on how the bill to place tobacco under FDA regulation would reduce competition in…
Op-Eds
Government’s Mistakes Have Deepened This Recession
Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith suggest one unexplored aspect of our financial crisis: the role of egalitarian policies. To see this, note…
Blog
Rise of the Luddites
When it comes to things such as environmental policy, the Progressives have been rather successful at promoting their world view. They realized that it would…
Blog
A Bounty on Your 401(K)
The Obama Administration’s mortgage bailout for irresponsible borrowers (including wealthy borrowers with modest mortgage payments) provides a bounty for reckless sub-prime mortgage lenders…
Blog
That G20 Communique
Yesterday’s communiqué from the leaders of the G20 – a motley collection of democracies and dictatorships – has some good points, but in general…
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