CEI Unveils Agenda for Congress

Washington,
D.C., January 26, 2009—With the incoming
Obama administration and the opening of the new Congress, the House and Senate
are preparing to embark on an ambitious policy agenda. The Competitive
Enterprise Institute today unveiled its 2009 Agenda for Congress, which includes urgent policy matters,
including: energy, Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules, corporate welfare, the
federal flood insurance program, immigration, e-commerce and net neutrality,
cybersecurity, environment policies, food and drug safety, free speech issues.

CEI President Fred L. Smith, Jr.
commented: 

Now a new Democratic administration comes to Washington, promising
“change we can believe in”—and that could be a good thing. The last few
decades—of over-spending, over-regulating, and over-intervening—call for
considerable change. Only a few years ago, a Republican team roared into Washington with its own ambitious reform agenda—and soon
became mired in the bogs of Washington.
If the Democrats replicate their Republican colleagues’ mistakes, their
honeymoon will be brief.

On
the topic of the economy, CEI Vice President
for Policy, Wayne
Crews, said:

A truly effective economic stimulus program would reduce
the “tariffs” on wealth creation. It would free the world’s largest economy
from excessive regulation and spending—by freezing both, for starters—and from
the undisciplined political money and credit creation at the core of the
financial crisis.

As Congress moves forward with these proposals, the policy
experts of the Competitive Enterprise Institute will be watching and tracking
their progress. For analysis on the costs and implications of this new
legislation, contact CEI in the days and weeks ahead.