Federal Register Tops 70,000 Pages, Headed for a Major Record
There’s no measure of regulation worse than counting Federal Register pages. But on the other hand, the bureaucracies aren’t exactly bending over backward to disclose costs and burdens of their rules.
So it’s noteworthy that today, the day after Columbus Day, the 70,000-page line was crossed earlier than ever, with the print edition of today’s October 11, 2016 Federal Register hitting 70,318 pages.
Let’s put this in some perspective.
The all-time record-high Federal Register was 81,405 pages in 2010. In fact, six of the seven all-time high federal register page counts have happened under the Barack Obama administration.
Back in the 1980s, the all-time-high record for the Federal Register was 73,258 at year-end 1980. We’ll top that sometime next week, and it’s not even Halloween yet.
In the 1990s, the record was 71,161 in 1999. The bureaucracies will top that before this weekend.
For a bit more recent perspective:
- In 2014 it took until November 24 for the Register to top 70,000 pages.
- In 2015, it had taken until November 12 to top 70,000 pages.
Indeed, in 2010, the year of the all-time-record count of 81,000 pages, the count “today,” the day after Columbus Day, was 62,674, over 7,000 fewer than now.
So this year is set to be a massive record-breaking year in terms of rulemaking, at least according to Federal Register heft. It is quite likely the Federal Register could top 90,000 pages. My colleague’s current projection is 89,416.
I track the Federal Register, rule counts, significant rules, “notices,” executive orders and memoranda here each week. Below, you can see the Federal Register page count since 1980.
Federal Register Page History
1980-2016
1980 73,258
1981 57,736
1982 53,104
1983 53,018
1984 48,643
1985 50,502
1986 44,812
1987 47,033
1988 50,616
1989 50,501
1990 49,795
1991 57,973
1992 57,003
1993 61,166
1994 64,914
1995 62,645
1996 64,591
1997 64,549
1998 68,571
1999 71,161
2000 74,258
2001 64,438
2002 75,606
2003 71,269
2004 75,675
2005 73,870
2006 74,937
2007 72,090
2008 79,435
2009 68,598
2010 81,405
2011 81,247
2012 78,961
2013 79,311
2014 77,687
2015 80,260
2016 70,319 on October 11, 2016. Projection, 89,416.