Shrinking Government Bureaucracy Provides Roadmap for Rethinking Federal Agencies

Federal regulations burden Americans with nearly $2 trillion of red tape each year, but a new set of reports from the Competitive Enterprise Institute suggests dramatically decreasing federal regulations could boost the economy, unshackle job creators, and put more money back in Americans’ pockets.

The Shrinking Government Bureaucracy series tackles seven federal government entities and details concrete steps both the executive branch and Congress can take to diminish regulatory burdens and rein in overreach by government regulators. By reforming, restructuring, and reducing the power of the federal bureaucracy, our nation’s entrepreneurs, innovators, and small businesses will be freed up to create new, affordable products and increase overall economic benefits for everyone.

“Neither clarity nor efficiency in government has improved in the past eight decades,” says CEI President Kent Lassman. “The federal government’s multitudes of offices, boards, commissions, and agencies are not at all organized and surely not suited to the task of responsible government. It is long past time for Washington to focus on regulatory reform.”

In Shrinking Government Bureaucracy, CEI experts argue for significant changes to better protect consumers by reforming the Depression-era Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and drastically shrinking and reevaluating the need for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CEI also proposes concrete and readily implementable recommendations on how to properly scope the Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Communications Commission, bring a sense of order to the sprawling Department of Commerce, and rethink the functions of the Securities and Exchange Commission and National Labor Relations Board.

See CEI’s one-pager on the Shrinking Government Bureaucracy series here.

Read Shrinking Government Bureaucracy here.