Regulatory Rules Decline 32 in Trumps First 9 Months

Obama Admin regs added $122 billion in annual costs to U.S. Economy Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C.  There are currently 283996 employees at Federal Regulatory Agencies. Those agencies now have a budget of $70 billion annually. After adjusting for inflation regulatory spending is nine times as high today as it was in 1970. As of September 30 the Federal Register for this year totaled 45678 pages. That reflects a 32 decline from the comparable time frame during President Barack Obamas final year in office. (Last years total through September was 67900 pages.) The Federal Register is a daily government publication listing proposed and finalized rules and regulations. It has often been used as a rough measure for the extent of regulatory activity. Ballotpedia is tracking the updates on a weekly basis as part of a larger study on the Administrative State. The Trump Administration has implemented 2183 new rules so far in 2017. Thats down from the 2686 rules implemented by the Obama administration in the first nine months of 2016.¹ Some of the Trump administration rules eliminated rules from the Obama administration so the actual gap in new rules may be even larger. The government classifies regulations that have more than $100 million of impact as significant rules." The Trump Administration has issued 116 such rules compared with 274 by the Obama Administration in the first nine months of 2016. The current administration also has far fewer proposed rules in the pipeline.¹ An earlier Number of the Day noted that eight years of Obama Administration regulations added an annual cost to the economy of $122 billion. However the number and impact of federal regulations have been growing since the 1970s.