The Trump Administration has taken an important step in overhauling the administrative state by tackling the rampant abuse of agency “guidance.”  Instead of issuing formal rules, agencies have come to rely on informal interpretations, advice, statements of policy and other forms of regulatory “guidance” that declares agency views on what the public should or should not…

The two executive orders issued by the White House—“Bringing Guidance out of the Darkness,” and “Transparency and Fairness”—promise to start clearing the fog of faulty guidance documents issued by federal administrative agencies in the so-called Washington D.C. “swamp.” The administration should be applauded on taking a decisive step to reduce agency overreach.   Among other mechanisms…

Despite the fact that both the Constitution and Administrative Procedure Act prohibit the practice, federal agencies often engage in the common-place tactic of issuing informal interpretations, fact sheets, and other forms of “guidance,” the practical outcome of which is to surreptitiously force the regulated community to comply with  a variety of “policy positions” that are…