Ryan Young and David Deerson of the Competitive Enterprise Institute throw out the idea of Congress creating a repeal committee to prune the books of old laws. They note two oddities in the federal code:

For example, one of the 50 titles in the [code] is dedicated entirely to the Panama Canal, which hasn’t been under United States jurisdiction since 1999. Elsewhere, an entire chapter consists of guidelines for dealing with the Y2K computer crisis that didn’t happen 12 years ago.

Along those same lines, federal regulations could use a going-over. The administration has said it wants to put a greater emphasis on looking at regulations currently on the books (“look-back” in regulator-speak), but the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which is in charge of that mission, has been shrinking staff-wise.

Between 1976 and 2009 alone, the American economy was weighed down by nearly 170,000 regulations. All these rules are a thicket to fall into often without even realizing it. Businesses become wary of taking risks for fear of violating a rule they don't know about. That holds back business investment and job creation. And some of these rules are outdated and no longer serve any purpose.  How many?  We don’t really know—but we should know.

What laws and regulations currently on the books should be repealed because they’re obsolete? Leave your answers in the comments.