Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for January 11, 2018
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
January 11, 2018: In 2017, the first year of the Trump administration, an unadjusted total of 61,950 pages (including blanks and skips) were added to the Federal Register, a legal newspaper published every federal working day by the United States government.
The Federal Register is often used as a proxy for the amount of increased federal regulation in a given year. Each issue contains both proposed and finalized administrative agency rules and regulations, policy statements, interpretations of existing rules, presidential documents, notices, and agency orders.
By this measure, the level of federal regulatory activity in 2017 was the lowest in 27 years. An earlier Number of the Day reported a 32 percent decline in regulatory rules in Trump’s first nine months. The number of full-time federal employees declined by 16,000 during President Trump’s first year in office.
This follows a record-setting year in 2016, the final year of the Obama administration. During that year, an unadjusted total of 97,069 pages were added to the Federal Register. That number reflected an all-time high. (See a year-by-year summary dating back to 1936 here.) Over the full eight years of the Obama administration, new regulations added $122 billion in ongoing annual regulatory costs to the economy.
Over the course of 2017, 635 proposed regulations were withdrawn and 105 regulatory rules were canceled by the Trump administration.
Still, 98.5 percent of crimes on the books were established by regulations and never approved by Congress. There are currently 283,996 federal regulators, a number that has grown significantly in recent decades. The annual budget for regulatory agencies has also experienced sustained growth and now totals $70 billion.
While some Americans are troubled by this trend, 40 percent of Americans believe rule by experts is a good approach to governing. However, Americans are more enthusiastic about representative democracy. Eighty-six percent believe it’s a good system, while only 13 percent see it as bad.
It has been 45 years since a majority of Americans have trusted the federal government.
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- January 10, 2018 – 16,000 fewer federal jobs after nine months of Trump administration
- January 9, 2018 – 3.5 billion dollars per mile for latest NYC subway project
- January 8, 2018 – 5 obstacles to Trump’s infrastructure policy ambitions
- January 5, 2018 – 2.7 million cord-cutters dropped cable in first nine months of 2017
- January 4, 2018 – 83 percent of Americans say they understand the risk of police work
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.
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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
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