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.
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Mid-year 2026: Is Washington actually deregulating?
It’s June 30, mid-year 2026 — almost America’s birthday. In terms of conventional issuance of rules and regulations in the Federal Register, the Trump…
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A $25 minimum wage cannot legislate away the high cost of living
Affordability is the political buzzword for 2026. Last week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) announced plans to introduce the Living Wage for All Act,…
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The week in regulations: Blacksmith shops and airman certificates
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan passed away. Neither the Reflecting Pool debacle nor its algae have faded away. PCE inflation is over 4…
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News Release
White House Auto Bailout a Recipe for Failure
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How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
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Credit Card Price Controls Harm Consumers
The Wall Street Journal editorial got it exactly right: The Federal Reserve cut rates to historic lows Tuesday, but today it…
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Paul M. Weyrich, RIP
[Since I wrote this, Paul Weyrich’s last column was published the day of his death, “The Next Conservatism, A Serious Agenda for the Future”…
News Release
Berlau Commends Schapiro Pick for SEC
John Berlau, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, issued the following statement on President-Elect Barack Obama's appointment of Mary Schapiro…
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Coming to an ISP Near You: Google Servers
Over at the Tech Liberation Front, the Internet’s premier free market technology blog, we’re discussing the implications of Google’s OpenEdge program. The program plans to…
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Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
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Ryan Young
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Fred L. Smith, Jr.
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