New Report: Bringing Regulatory Dark Matter to Light

One federal agency accumulated nearly 56,000 pages of informal guidance buried beneath its regulations. This report details how they fixed the problem and how other agencies can follow suit. 

NEW YORK, NY — Embedded in every federal law is a set of official regulations meant to govern how the law is implemented. Yet for many states, nonprofits, and local governments that rely on federal funding, decades worth of additional informal memos and guidance have complicated their compliance processes and added a layer of bureaucracy that few in Washington have been willing to confront. A new Manhattan Institute report documents one bold and successful attempt by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to clean up this "regulatory dark matter" and offer a replicable blueprint for other agencies. 

In the report, ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams draws on his experience within ACF, which administers roughly $70 billion annually across programs including Head Start, foster care, child care subsidies, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Prior to this reform, ACF had accumulated nearly 56,000 pages of guidance documents, amounting to more than 61 pages of informal guidance for every page of actual regulation. 

Adams outlines a three-step approach for cutting regulatory dark matter: 

1. Inventory: ACF conducted a comprehensive count of all guidance documents across program offices, finding 4,118 documents totaling 55,776 pages — the result of decades of accumulation with no system for review or retirement. 
2. Review with a presumption of obsolescence: Rather than asking why documents should be removed, program offices were asked to justify keeping informal memos and guidance documents. As a result, 74% of documents were rescinded, including outdated funding instructions, COVID-era requirements, and letters encouraging grantees to recognize "World Water Week."
3. Prevent re-accumulation: ACF implemented review provisions requiring new guidance to expire within three to five years unless actively renewed and made all active documents publicly available for the first time. 

Click here to read the full report.