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
News Release
Regulators propose improvements to Clean Water Act regs: CEI analysis
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a pre-publication copy of a supplemental notice of proposed…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Maximum New York with Daniel Golliher
In this week’s episode we cover climate collusion between California and Quebec, how luxurious college campuses are breeding socialists, and government…
Blog
The regulatory costs we still aren’t counting
Several years ago, I assembled a “Costberg” working paper surveying the largely impenetrable and undisclosed costs of regulation. The project grew out of…
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Op-Eds
CEOs Should Mind Their Own Business
President Coolidge once said the business of America is business. He might have added that the business of business is to pursue profits,…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. FINANCE Government agencies target mortgage brokers for alleged “predatory lending” practices CEI Expert Available for…
Op-Eds
Caveat Emptor: No, Really
One of the oldest maxims in commerce is caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. Sadly, this is often interpreted as a condemnation of businessmen, a…
Op-Eds
Good Drugs, Bad Rap
These are turbulent times for the pharmaceutical industry and for its regulator, the FDA. Lately, both have focused increasingly on issues of safety.
Op-Eds
The Long REACH of the EU
The European Union's Council of Ministers is expected to vote soon on the proposed chemicals regulation called REACH, an acronym for Registration, Evaluation, and…
Op-Eds
Who Is Watching the Watchdog?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Today in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, outspoken hedge fund manager…
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