regulatory reform

President Trump threatened a new tariff on all Mexican goods, potentially scuttling the NAFTA/USMCA agreement. My colleague Wayne Crews went through the new Spring 2019 Unified Agenda and found 3,791 new regulations in the pipeline, and the 2019 Federal Register surpassed 25,000 pages. Meanwhile, during a four-day week due to Memorial Day, rulemaking agencies published new regulations ranging from anchovies to inertia locking devices.

The number of new final regulations this year topped 1,000 last Tuesday, and President Trump and Congress entered Memorial Day weekend at odds on issues ranging from infrastructure to the renegotiated NAFTA/USMCA trade agreement. Meanwhile, rulemaking agencies marked the unofficial start of summer with new regulations ranging from temporary safety zones to potato handling.

The ability of citizens to communicate privately and to retain anonymity if desired are foundational rights slipping away in the regulatory panopticon of the administrative state.

In keeping with the tradition of ignoring political failure in service of the administrative state, the economic and social effects of GSEs, or government-sponsored enterprises, are ignored as regulatory costs or as costs of intervention into the free economy.

The Game of Thrones finale aired last night, though the show’s less-plausible Washington spinoff appears set to continue indefinitely, and with a rather larger budget. In related trivia, dragons appear in twenty-five Federal Register documents so far this year, or more than one per week. The number of new regulations this year will also likely top one thousand next week. Meanwhile, rulemaking agencies issued new regulations ranging from nursery industry guides to package delivery signatures.

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes called for breaking up the company; CEI’s Iain Murray and Kent Lassman explain why that’s a bad idea. CEI also released the 2019 edition of “​​​​​​​Ten Thousand Commandments.” On Friday, President Trump enacted a new 25 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods. Meanwhile, rulemaking agencies issued new regulations ranging from tariff applications to habitat descriptions.

Earlier this week I had the good fortune to spend some time at the historic Mayflower hotel here in Washington, D.C. attending the Federalist Society’s 7th Annual Executive Branch Review conference. Organizers had assembled an impressive array of government officials and legal experts to present on and debate the state of the nation’s Article II governance.

Not one, but two potential Federal Reserve Board nominees withdrew from consideration last week, and economic growth and unemployment remained in excellent health. Meanwhile, with the 2019 Federal Register poised to exceed 20,000 pages this week, rulemaking agencies issued new regulations from TV channel lineups to postal products.

While Washington’s “This Town” types geared up for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the rest of the country flocked to movie theaters for a much more realistic and wholesome form of entertainment—“Avengers: Endgame.” Meanwhile, rulemaking agencies issued new regulations from Mushroom Council membership to hydroelectric licenses.