Report: Regulations cost $2 trillion annually, but only Congress can fix the problem 

The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released its annual report documenting the vast burden that federal regulations impose on American businesses and citizens. 

“Government regulations continue to cost Americans more than $2 trillion annually, despite efforts by the Trump administration to find ways to deregulate,” said Wayne Crews, author of the annual Ten Thousand Commandments report. “Businesses and citizens spend too much time and money trying to comply with rules and edicts imposed by Washington, and those costs mean higher prices, lost jobs, and lower quality of life for us all.”  

Key findings include: 

• Regulations cost the US economy at least $2.153 trillion annually, averaging $15,859 cost per household. 
• The federal government consumes the equivalent of a third of the US economy when the cost of regulations and taxes is combined. 
• Nearly half of all federal rules are generated by five agencies: Transportation, Interior, Treasury, Commerce, and EPA. 
• The Unconstitutionality Index: Congress, not the executive branch, is supposed to do most legislating. Instead, for every law Congress passed in 2025, executive agencies issued 22 regulations. This is in line with recent years. 

The report also takes stock of the Trump record on regulation and spells out what Congress must do to achieve lasting reform. 

The Trump record: 

• Executive actions restored some cost-conscious regulatory review principles, emphasized energy production and permitting, put an effective freeze on most major new regulatory undertakings, and imposed rescissions and delays of existing regulations. 
• Trump signed 22 Congressional Review Act (CRA)-based resolutions of disapproval overturning late-term Biden-era regulations, more than all other resolutions prior to 2025 combined. 
• However, the administration has simultaneously sought and imposed subsidies, tariffs, and interventions that threaten to eclipse deregulatory gains. 

Reforms requiring Congress:

• Re-assert responsibility over federal regulations. For example, overturn vague/broad statutes, vote on costly/controversial agency rules before they become binding, and enforce annual cost assessment via the Regulatory Right-to-Know Act. 
• Require an expiration (sunset) date on regulations. 
• Impose a regulatory budget. 
• Create a regulatory reduction commission to eliminate unneeded regulations. 
• Require annual regulatory report cards and regular reporting on not just formal rules but unofficial, unaccountable “dark matter” like guidance documents. 

The Ten Thousand Commandments report serves as a snapshot of the regulatory state, examining data like the Federal Register, guidance documents, public notices, the watchdog role of the White House Office of Management and Budget, rules affecting small businesses, and the “Unconstitutionality Index” of rules passed by regulators that dwarf the number of laws passed by Congress.

View the report at cei.org/10kc