Regulatory reform is a broad and all-encompassing policy goal of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. It is essential for entrepreneurship, innovation, and prosperity to flourish. We advocate for reform by surveying the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations. We show how they affect the U.S. economy at large and making proposals to policy makers to enact reforms.

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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Op-Eds

UN-Dermining the Net

There's mounting evidence that the Internet's good old days as a globalcyberzone of freedom—where governments generally take a “hands off” approach—may be numbered. [Last year] delegates from 192 countries met in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Geneva to discuss how the Internet should be governed and what steps should be taken to solve the global “digital divide” and “harness the potential of information” onbehalf of the world's poor. Also on the table at the session—the UnitedNations World Summit on the Information Society—was the question of domainname management and how much protection free speech and expression shouldreceive on the Net. The real issue, however, is whether a “United Nations forthe Internet” is on the way. The great advantage of the Net is precisely the ability to reach as many peopleas possible and overcome artificial restrictions on trade or communications attraditional geographic boundaries. The Web, whatever problems it has raised,has provided far more opportunity and freedom to mankind. The United Nationsappears eager to assume greater control over the Net, not because of itsfailures, but because it undermines members' authority. That sounds like thebest reason ever to make sure a United Nations for the Internet never becomes areality.  …

Regulatory Reform

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