If confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nominee Gina McCarthy will inherit an agency exceeding critical mass. This bureaucratic onslaught has decreased American freedom and the EPA’s ability to efficiently address real environmental challenges. Given that McCarthy has helped to build this epitome of regulatory excess, it is important…

The Dodd–Frank financial regulation statute requires nearly 400 rulemakings.[1] As of January 2, some 60 percent of the rulemaking deadlines were missed, and a full third of the required regulations have not been proposed.[2] The delays may defer some compliance expenses. However, regulatory uncertainty also imposes costs on businesses as well as consumers, as the saga of…

More stringent regulation of mortgage lending constitutes a sizable chunk of the vast Dodd–Frank statute. As required, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Thursday released more than 800 pages of rules that will largely determine the availability and cost of mortgages. Neither consumers nor creditors emerge as winners. The mortgage rules were called for by…

During 2012, virtually every aspect of American life, from caloric intake to dishwasher efficiency, was subjected to government meddling. Most of these rules increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode freedom. Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course, but increasingly, the rules imposed by the government have less to do with health and…

After three years of unprecedented regulatory activity, the Obama Administration has noticeably slowed its rulemaking in recent months. A number of major rules remain under prolonged “review” by the White House, while publication of the regulatory agenda required by statute has not occurred. This flouting of the law is disturbing enough, but it is made worse by the…

Despite considerable pressure to adopt a subsidy-laden farm bill as drought conditions wither crops, the House on Tuesday scrapped plans to extend massive agriculture subsidies for yet another year. The extension had been considered a lesser evil than the five-year reauthorization of costly farm programs, but evidently House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) has realized (at…

This week marks the second anniversary of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. There is nothing to celebrate. With every new rule concocted by one of the 11 federal agencies involved, the flaws of the statute and its injurious costs to consumers have become glaringly, painfully apparent. Congress should devote Year Three of Dodd–Frank to…

As federal regulators struggle to implement the massive Dodd–Frank statute, it is obvious that its architects ignored its predictably destructive consequences. Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee this week proposed some logical steps that Congress should seriously consider to increase regulatory accountability and (modestly) decrease costs—at least until the…