In this Mercatus Policy Series, Senior Research Fellows Veronique de Rugy and Jerry Brito provide an extensive analysis of midnight regulations. In addition to examining the motivations and circumstances behind this phenomenon, they address trends of regulatory activity, review the regulatory process, and discuss how midnight regulations can be mitigated in the future.

Lack of interoperable radio communications among first responders is a serious issue as the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina have recently highlighted. It is also a perennial problem that has existed for nearly 30 years. The interoperability problem is the result of what economist Mancur Olson called a collective action problem. The collective action problem in this case is the result of the national policy of public safety spectrum segregation and balkanization. That is, the federal spectrum gives each of the 50,000 public safety agencies in the country their own radio license over which to build out a communications system. While the policy affords localities great flexibility to build a system that best suits their needs, more often than not it results in custom systems that aren't compatible with those of their neighbors.