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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Trump’s Unified Agenda of deconstruction: Writing rules to erase rules
“It is the policy of my Administration to focus the executive branch’s limited enforcement resources on regulations squarely authorized by…

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The week in regulations: Coachella air quality and yogurt vitamins
The Federal Register, which tracks daily regulatory activity, has become less transparent. Jobs numbers for August were disappointing and actually shrank in June for…

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Free the Economy podcast: Clear-but-false ideas with Kevin Williamson
In this week’s episode we cover the Trump tariffs being struck down, Biden’s competition order being vacated, and new research on…
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Russian Revolution
On <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />December 2, 2003, Andrei Illarionov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief economic adviser, stunned green activists…
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Resentment, fear drive U.N. quest for control
There’s mounting evidence that the Internet’s good old days as a global cyberzone of freedom—where governments generally take a "hands off" approach—may be numbered.
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Wishful Anti-spam Thinking
Tomorrow, the House is expected to pass new anti-spam legislation. The effort is understandable: The increasingly apparent downside of an Internet on which you…
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Rescuing Free Trade From the Bureaucrats & Special Interests
Full article available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> In the aftermath of the…
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The Power of Positive Drinking: Are Alcoholic Beverage Health Claims Constitutionally Protected
Full Document Available in PDF Food and…
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October Edition of the Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: “On…
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