CEI Commends Executive Action Restricting Use of Regulatory Dark Matter
The White House today announced President Trump will sign 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. CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews has long advocated executive action aimed at curtailing the use of “regulatory dark matter” or guidance documents.
CEI Vice President for Policy and A Partial Eclipse of the Administrative State: A Case for an Executive Order to Rein in Guidance Documents and other “Regulatory Dark Matter” author Wayne Crews said:
“I commend President Trump and the White House for taking strong executive action aimed at restraining agencies from using guidance documents or ‘regulatory dark matter’ to effectively implement policy without at least adhering to the legally required notice and comment process created by the Administrative Procedure Act nor submitting guidance to Congress and the Government Accountability Office as required for review. CEI has long been making the case that the administrative state cannot be tamed until the proliferation of guidance and dark matter is addressed. This executive order is a vital start; in the future, Congress will also need to act in order to completely stop the practice of regulating through guidance documents.
“In the absence of a Congress willing to address this important issue, it is critical for the president to sign executive orders like these in order to advance the cause of regulatory reform and cement his legacy as a deregulatory president.”
CEI President Kent Lassman said:
“Progress was made today. The President makes clear through executive orders that undemocratic, unresponsive, and unaccountable agency action is on a path to extinction. More work is required to reestablish a proper separation of powers and limits on administrative authority however the executive orders on guidance, regulatory dark matter, and transparency are a necessary disinfectant to a diseased regulatory state.”
CEI Senior Fellow Ryan Young said:
“Restoring a healthier separation of powers requires effort from all three branches. Hopefully today’s executive order will jump-start that needed process. Congress now needs to strengthen transparency and other protections against agency abuses with legislation, which is more permanent than an executive order.
“This has so far been a missed opportunity for congressional Democrats, who have an opportunity to rein in a too-powerful executive branch, and to do it with bipartisan cooperation. Over in the judicial branch, the Supreme Court needs to end the judiciary’s near-automatic acquiescence to agencies in court cases in upcoming cases concerning Chevron deference and Auer deference.”
Read more:
- Crews: A Partial Eclipse of the Administrative State: A Case for an Executive Order to Rein in Guidance Documents and other “Regulatory Dark Matter”
- Crews: Mapping Washington’s Lawlessness: An Inventory of “Regulatory Dark Matter”