Regulations Aplenty

Ryan Young, fellow in regulatory studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), reports that as of December 3, 2012, 3,392 final rules have been published in the Federal Register.

"That's roughly on par with an average year, although … in the last few weeks we've seen a little bit of a midnight rush post-election while Congress is in its lame-duck session," Young notes. "There are about 70 to 80 rules published in an average week. Last week, there were 94, and this week, as of Tuesday, we're already up to 33."

So, he suggests the country could end up with as many as 3,800 final regulations this year.