Editing Deregulation (section)

==== Transportation ====

===== Nixon administration =====
The first comprehensive proposal to deregulate a major industry, transportation, originated in the [[Richard Nixon]] Administration and was forwarded to Congress in late 1971.{{sfn|Rose|Seely|Barrett|2006|p=154}} This proposal was initiated and developed by an interagency group that included the Council of Economic Advisors (represented by [[Hendrik S. Houthakker|Hendrik Houthakker]] and Thomas Gale Moore<ref>{{cite web
 | title = Thomas Gale Moore
 | publisher = The Hoover Institution, Stanford University
 | url = http://www.stanford.edu/~moore/Bio.html
 | access-date = 2012-06-11}}{{self-published inline|date=December 2022}}</ref>), White House Office of Consumer Affairs (represented by Jack Pearce), Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Department of Labor, and other agencies.{{sfn|Rose|Seely|Barrett|2006|pp=152–60}}

The proposal addressed both rail and truck transportation, but not air carriage. (92d Congress, Senate Bill 2842)  The developers of this legislation in this Administration sought to cultivate support from commercial buyers of transportation services, [[consumer organization]]s, economists, and environmental organization leaders.{{sfn|Rose|Seely|Barrett|2006|pp=154–56}} This 'civil society' coalition became a template for coalitions influential in efforts to deregulate trucking and air transport later in the decade.

===== Ford administration =====
After Nixon left office, the [[Gerald Ford]] presidency, with the allied interests, secured passage of the first significant change in regulatory policy in a pro-competitive direction, in the [[Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

===== Carter administration =====
President [[Jimmy Carter]] &ndash; aided by economic adviser Alfred E. Kahn<ref name="kahn_obit_nytimes" /> &ndash; devoted substantial effort to transportation deregulation, and worked with Congressional and civil society leaders to pass the [[Airline Deregulation Act]] on October 24, 1978 &ndash; the first federal government regulatory regime, since the 1930s, to be completely dismantled.<ref name="jimmy">{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=John Howard |title=Jimmy Carter, Alfred Kahn, and airline deregulation: anatomy of a policy success |journal=Independent Review |date=22 June 2014 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=85–100 |id={{Gale|A377778767}} {{ProQuest|1541534529}} |jstor=24563260 |url=https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/econ-facpubs/80/ }}</ref><ref name="kahn_cornell">Lang, Susan S. [https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/12/alfred-kahn-father-airline-deregulation-dies-93 "Economist Alfred Kahn, 'father of airline deregulation' and former presidential adviser, dies at 93,"]
 December 27, 2010, ''[[Cornell Chronicle]],'' retrieved April 9, 2020</ref>

Carter also worked with Congress to produce the [[Staggers Rail Act]] (signed October 14, 1980), and the [[Motor Carrier Act of 1980]] (signed July 1, 1980).

===== 1970s deregulation effects =====
These were the major deregulation acts in transportation that set the general conceptual and legislative framework, which replaced the regulatory systems put in place between the 1880s and the 1930s. The dominant common theme of these Acts was to lessen [[barriers to entry]] in transport markets and promote more independent, competitive pricing among transport service providers, substituting the freed-up competitive market forces for detailed regulatory control of entry, exit, and price making in transport markets. Thus deregulation arose, though regulations to promote competition were put in place.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

===== Reagan administration =====

U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] campaigned on the promise of rolling back environmental regulations. His devotion to the economic beliefs of [[Milton Friedman]] led him to promote the deregulation of finance, agriculture, and transportation.{{sfn|Kleinknecht|2010|p=}} A series of substantial enactments were needed to work out the process of encouraging competition in transportation. Interstate buses were addressed in 1982, in the [[Bus Regulatory Reform Act]] of 1982. Freight forwarders (freight aggregators) got more freedoms in the [[Surface Freight Forwarder Deregulation Act of 1986]]. As many states continued to regulate the operations of motor carriers within their own state, the intrastate aspect of the trucking and bus industries was addressed in the [[Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994]], which provided that "a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of two or more States may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier." {{usc|49|14501}}(c)(1) (Supp. V 1999).

Ocean transportation was the last to be addressed. This was done in two acts, the [[Shipping Act of 1984]] and the [[Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998]]. These acts were less thoroughgoing than the legislation dealing with U.S. domestic transportation, in that they left in place the "conference" system in international ocean liner shipping, which historically embodied cartel mechanisms. However, these acts permitted independent rate-making by conference participants, and the 1998 Act permitted secret contract rates, which tend to undercut collective carrier pricing. According to the [[United States Federal Maritime Commission]], in an assessment in 2001, this appears to have opened up substantial competitive activity in ocean shipping, with beneficial economic results.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}