The costs of supporting the nation’s urban transit industry are rising, yet ridership is declining. In all but a handful of urban areas, transit uses more energy and emits more greenhouse gases per passenger mile than the average automobile. Transit no longer serves large numbers of low‐​income people, as most of them have purchased auto­mobiles. Transit systems with declining ridership do little or nothing to relieve urban congestion; nearly empty buses often increase congestion. For all these reasons, says Cato scholar Randal O’Toole, it is time to end subsidies to transit and consider privatizing it instead.

The executive and legislative branches of government oversee the modern administrative state. At present, however, the contest between the polit­ical branches is dangerously out of balance. Since Richard Nixon, presidents have increased control over the administrative state through a process known as “White House regulatory review.” Congress hasn’t kept pace. In a new paper, Cato scholar William Yeatman proposes the creation of a congressional capacity to evaluate administrative action.