GW Regulatory Studies Podcast

Policy analysts Matias Vesperoni and Finn Dobkin share key takeaways of the new Regulators’ Budget report. The latest edition covers fiscal years 1960 through 2024 and presents data extracted from the Budget of the United States on the outlays and personnel devoted to writing, administering, and enforcing federal regulations at 77 departments and agencies. The Regulators’ Budget offers insights into the growth and changing composition of federal regulation over the past 65 years. Access the complete report at our website.

Previously considered largely a tool for the incoming Congress and president to overturn a departing president’s midnight regulations, Congress has recently begun using the CRA in unanticipated ways. Professors Susan Dudley and Steven Balla discuss new approaches and implications for the future. Read full commentary.

Hoover Institution Research Fellow Patrick McLaughlin discusses how the driving force behind safety improvements in the freight rail industry is capital investment, not minimum staffing requirements.

While the public comment process may be in need of sensible reform, some current efforts arguably go beyond constructive changes and threaten to fundamentally alter longstanding practices which support good governance. Political scientists Steven Balla and Adriana Bunea discuss how governments on both sides of the Atlantic have recently taken steps to limit opportunities for public comment during the policymaking process. Read full commentary.

Will Yeatman is a lawyer specializing in administrative law and regulatory policy. He recently joined the RSC team as research professor and deputy director.