Contrary to what people think of when they espouse, or decry, "gridlock", new regulations that are imposed on the people who "built America" are continuing non-stop:
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Regulatory Trends in 2008 and 2009
By most measures, regulatory burdens increased at near record rates in 2009--due to new rules adopted by both President Bush and President Obama.
Tracking year-to-year changes in regulatory burdens is no easy task. Unlike on-budget expenditures, there is no single bottom-line figure to report for regulations. Yet, there are a number of yardsticks that can provide a fair picture of what is happening in the regulatory world.[5] Among these are the number of pages in the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations, the annual budgets of regulatory agencies, the number of major regulations, and the estimated costs of major regulations.
Regulatory page counts. One of the most commonly used yardsticks of regulatory activity is the size of the daily Federal Register, which reports regulatory changes. Before any new federal rule can be finalized, the agency proposing the rule must have it published in the register. In 2008, the Federal Register hit a record 79,435 pages for the year.[6] In 2009, the number dropped to 68,598. Such a decrease is not unusual in presidential transition years.
The size of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) provides a second yardstick of regulatory activity. Unlike the Federal Register, which is a catalog of regulatory changes, the CFR is a compendium of all existing regulations. In 2008, the CFR weighed in at 157,974 pages, having increased by 16,693 pages since the start of the George W. Bush Administration.[7] In 2009, the page count hit a record high of 163,333.
Number of new rules. Page counts, however, are not the best measure of the size of regulation. More important than the mere number of pages in the Federal Register or the CFR is the content of those pages: How many new rules are being adopted, and what is their cost to Americans?
Thousands of regulatory actions, or rulemakings, are completed each year: 3,503 such actions were reported in the Federal Register in 2009 alone.[8] However, many of these rules are not "regulatory" in the common usage of the word; they do not limit or impose mandates on private-sector activities. Many, for instance, are just internal rules that govern how agencies are run. Others are fiscal in nature, such as those that establish conditions for federal spending programs.
Excluding such "non-regulatory" rulemaking activity still leaves many thousands of agency actions each year that increase or decrease regulatory burdens. All of them have a cost, but their impact varies widely. Perhaps as much as 90 percent of regulatory costs are imposed by "major" or "economically significant" regulations--regulations that have an economic impact of more than $100 million. While costly, relatively few regulations reach this threshold.
If Congress didn't pass one law next year, the agencies already set up would continue to grind out new regulations unchecked.
The beast will continue to feed itself:Quote:
More than 50 agencies have a hand in federal regulatory policy, ranging from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Together, these agencies enforce more than 150,000 pages of rules, with purposes and impacts as varied as the agencies themselves.
Even when one administration, while continuing the ever-increasing regulatory morass, makes a minor attempt to control the madness, the next immediately puts a stop to the attempt:
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During its eight years in office, the George W. Bush Administration compiled a mixed record on regulation. The Bush White House made significant efforts to improve the screening process for new rules: The Office of Management and Budget (through its regulatory unit, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)), took a more active role in reviewing proposed rules, and required more detailed cost-benefit analyses. The Bush Administration, to its credit, also took a strong stand against new regulation in many areas--most notably opposing costly economy-wide limits on CO2 emissions.
Despite these efforts, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the Bush years were not a time of regulatory shrinkage; the number and cost of federal regulations, by every measure, actually grew during this period.[2]
Once in office, President Obama quickly issued an executive order freezing uncompleted Bush Administration rule changes, and issued an executive order reversing some technical changes to OIRA regulatory review procedures.
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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko
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