On Saturday, the New York Times’ had a front-page story on a White House directive that all regulations by federal agencies this year must be proposed by June 1 (two days ago) and made by November. The case for the strict timeline is to prevent “midnight regulations” where top-level bureaucrats abuse their rule-making power.

The Washington Post’s Cindy Skrzycki’s “The Regulators” column (Who knew she would tackle this subject?) reveals the folks behind the no-midnight-regulations message—George Washington University’s Mercatus Center. The low-profile, highly influential think tank/academic center has released studies showing that regulations climb at the end of an administration. Both the President’s current and former heads of the Office of Management and Budget’s regulatory affairs office come from Mercatus.

The argument against Mercatus is that some things—like fuel standards and greenhouse gas emissions—ought to be regulated, even at the last minute. Read Skrzycki here. MB

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