Competitive Enterprise Institute

08/28/2026

The FAA’s Special Flight Authorization for supersonic flight has been issued just four times since 1973, twice in the last three years as technology has finally reached the point where supersonic commercial aviation is plausible.

CEI’s Steve Swedberg and Iain Murray support the FAA’s proposal to replace the recurring, per-operation SFA with a one-time authorization per aircraft type per operator. The projected net regulatory savings: $2.4 million over five years, from reduced administrative costs on both the industry and agency sides. The comments also make the case that supersonic aircraft manufacturing is the kind of high-skilled US aerospace production the administration says it wants to support, and that reducing regulatory barriers achieves that goal without subsidies, tariffs, or industrial policy.

The government supports those outcomes best by getting out of the way. Full comments:

Dear Administrator Bedford and Staff, The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) respectfully submits these comments in response to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Enabling Supersonic Overland Flight,” Docket ...

08/28/2026

CEI’s Wayne Crews argues that the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda needs more than headlines and executive orders. It needs a plan.

As the early DOGE momentum has slowed, there is another tool. The Regulatory Plan, an annual document published by the Office of Management and Budget that outlines the regulatory agenda across the federal government. A plan needs to be treated as an actual strategic document, not a bureaucratic formality, if deregulation is going to outlast the current administration’s executive actions. Without a durable regulatory plan, reforms risk being reversed as quickly as they were announced.

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As the Trump administration's early emphasis on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has tapered off, so too has its emphasis on the once-high-profile “ten-for-one” deregulatory campaign launched by Executive Order 14192, “Unl...

08/27/2026

Housing permitting reform has become one of the few housing policies to attract support across the political spectrum. CEI’s Steve Swedberg explains why third-party permitting reviewers are at the center of that consensus.

Essentially, instead of requiring all permit applications to go through a municipal reviewer with a fixed workload and no competitive pressure, states allow private third-party reviewers who are licensed by the state to review applications.

Those third parties compete for business based on their speed and the quality of their reviews, creating incentives that government reviewers do not face. States as politically diverse as California, Texas, and Florida have implemented or expanded such programs.

The result is shorter backlogs and faster housing construction without adding government employees or creating new bureaucracies. Swedberg examines the evidence and makes the case for broader adoption.

Full piece:

Housing permitting reform has become one of the few housing policies to attract support across the political spectrum. States as politically diverse as California, Colorado, Florida, and Washington State have adopted reforms intended to reduce unnecessa...

08/27/2026

The FAA has proposed a rule that would allow civil supersonic flight over land, provided aircraft meet noise standards designed to limit sonic boom impacts on the ground. CEI’s Steve Swedberg explains why the proposal is the right move and what guardrails it should include.

The FAA’s proposed shift from a speed limit to a performance-based noise standard reflects this technological reality. Swedberg also flags an important caveat: the new performance standard should not become the next rigid barrier to innovation. Atmospheric variability and ongoing flight testing will produce new data, and the regulatory framework should have room to update as engineers learn more.

Full piece:

What if a cross-country flight took less time than your favorite movie? That future may be closer than it sounds. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently proposed a rule that would allow civil aircraft to fly faster than sound over land, prov...

08/26/2026

CEI’s Steve Swedberg and Iain Murray have submitted formal regulatory comments to the FAA on its proposed rule to enable supersonic overland flight, supporting the proposal but urging the agency to go further.

The FAA’s 1973 prohibition barred all supersonic civil flight over land based on aircraft speed, a categorical approach that does not distinguish between aircraft based on their actual sonic boom impacts on the ground. Regulations should be about the sound, not the speed at which an aircraft is traveling.

Modern technology, including Boom Supersonic’s demonstrated boomless cruise and NASA’s X-59 “thump” design, has already moved well beyond what the 1973 rule assumed. CEI also urges the FAA to build a 3-year review into the interim 0.11 psf noise limit, since the agency acknowledged setting it on incomplete data.

Full comments:

Dear Administrator Bedford and Staff, The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) respectfully submits these comments in response to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Enabling Supersonic Overland Flight,” Docket ...

08/26/2026

The fundamental question in Disney’s FCC lawsuit is whether broadcast license renewal authority can constitutionally reach a broadcaster’s programming and editorial decisions. CEI’s analysis says it cannot.

Brian Rankin: “Because the First Amendment is central to the public interest, broadcasters should be free to air content and make independent editorial decisions regardless of whether an administration approves.” DJ Hatch notes that Disney’s lawsuit escalates what had been a regulatory standoff into active federal litigation, a development with significant implications for First Amendment law and broadcast regulation.

Full CEI analysis:

Today, Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against President Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in response to the FCC's early review of Disney-owned ABC television station license renewals. CEI...

08/26/2026

CEI’s Jacob Tomasulo has published an op-ed in National Review explaining why a new federal rule rescinding the ESA’s regulatory definition of “harm” is a win for both property owners and species conservation.

For decades, federal wildlife agencies stretched the word “harm” in the Endangered Species Act to cover habitat modification on private land, giving agencies sweeping authority over ordinary activities that might incidentally affect a listed species. Tomasulo explains why the interpretation was wrong legally and counterproductive for conservation: it incentivized landowners to preemptively destroy existing habitat to avoid triggering regulation. The result was that a rule designed to protect species created incentives to harm the habitats those species need.

The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service published the final rule rescinding the harm definition on July 14. Read the full op-ed at National Review via CEI:

For decades, the federal government's misinterpretation of a single word (“harm”) in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has had severe effects on private property owners, project development, and species recovery. Fortunately, on July 14, the Fish and Wil...

08/25/2026

CEI warned in its August 12 coalition letter that the FCC should not use its license renewal authority to influence private broadcast decisions. Disney’s lawsuit, filed against the FCC alleging First Amendment retaliation over ABC content, is the direct test case that letter anticipated.

Disney asserts that the early review of its eight ABC-owned stations, initiated years before the standard renewal schedule, constitutes retaliation for content the Trump administration dislikes. If the FCC’s license authority can reach editorial content decisions, the implications extend well beyond Disney and ABC to the entire broadcast industry.

Read CEI’s analysis: https://bit.ly/4qw0vmw

Today, Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against President Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in response to the FCC's early review of Disney-owned ABC television station license renewals. CEI...

08/25/2026

Paul Renfroe raised approximately $1.2 million to develop a family-run video game business through personal networks. The SEC initiated an investigation, brought enforcement actions alleging securities violations, and the process spanned several years and imposed legal costs reportedly exceeding $250,000. The business failed, Renfroe personally declared bankruptcy, and all investors lost their investments.

CEI’s new Protection Paradox paper uses the Renfroe case to illustrate a feature of SEC enforcement: the cost of defending against an SEC action can exceed the value of the enterprise. Full paper: https://bit.ly/4wGZQjB

08/24/2026

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has set aside and remanded the Biden administration’s Department of Energy efficiency standard for stoves, handing a significant win to the seven states that sued.

The court found that the DOE’s use of a “direct final rule”, a streamlined rulemaking process reserved for uncontroversial actions, was inappropriate for one of the Biden administration’s most contentious appliance policies. The court said: “The previous administration’s gas-stove measures were among its most controversial energy proposals. The idea that all that controversy could be elided using the DFR is untenable.” CEI’s Ben Lieberman traces the full history of the Biden administration’s attempts to restrict gas stoves through regulatory maneuvering, and explains what the ruling means going forward.

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Last June, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court decision upholding a bad Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency regulation targeting residential furnaces and sent the case back for reconsideration. As CEI detailed in an amicus brief filed with the hig...