Ten
Thousand Commandments 2018, An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, by Clyde Wayne Crews. 4/19/18
Ten Thousand Commandments 2018 Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: 9,999 Commandments?
Chapter 2: Toward a Federal Regulatory Budget
Chapter 3: The Cost of Regulation and Intervention
Chapter 4: Thousands of Pages and Rules in the Federal Register
Chapter 5: Presidential Executive Orders and Executive Memoranda
Chapter 6: More than 22,000 Public Notices Annually
Chapter 7: Analysis of the Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulation
Chapter 8: Government Accountability Office Database on Regulations
Chapter 9: Regulation and the FCC
Chapter 10: Liberate to Stimulate
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise
Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations,
and how they affect American consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy at
large. Written by CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews, it shines a light
on the large and under-appreciated “hidden tax” of America’s regulatory state.
The current edition marks 25 years since the first report was published as part
of the Journal of Regulation and Social Costs in 1993.
Federal government spending, deficits, and the national debt are
staggering, but so is the impact of federal regulations. Unfortunately, the
financial impact of these rules gets little attention in policy debates
because, unlike spending and taxes, they are unbudgeted and difficult to
quantify.
By making Washington’s rules and mandates more comprehensible,
Crews underscores the need for more review, transparency, and accountability
for new and existing federal regulations.
The 2018 report charts new territory as it presents the initial
results of President Trump’s efforts to cut red tape via executive order, the
most aggressive effort at regulatory reform in over a quarter century. Trump
has slowed the momentum of the Obama years and implemented policies to
incentivize further restraint, but the long-term agenda of the government’s
executive agencies could easily stray back toward bureaucratic overreach without
permanent reform by Congress.
Highlights
from the 2018 edition include:
Federal regulations and intervention cost Americans $1.9 trillion in 2017.
Federal regulation is a hidden tax that amounts to nearly $15,000 per U.S. household each year, more than Americans
spend on any category in their family budget except for housing.
In 2017, 97 laws were enacted by Congress during the calendar
year, while 3,281 rules were issued by agencies. Thus, 34 rules were issued for every law enacted.
If it were a country, U.S. federal regulation would be the world’s eighth-largest economy, ranking behind India and
ahead of Italy.
Many Americans are concerned about their annual tax burden, but
total regulatory costs exceeded the $1.88 trillion the
IRS collected in both individual and corporate income taxes in
2017.
Some 67 federal departments, agencies,
and commissions are currently working on 3,209 new regulations in
various stages of development.
The five most active rulemaking
entities– the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Transportation,
Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency–account for 1,359 rules, or 43 percent of all
proposed regulations currently under consideration.
The 2017 Federal Register contained 61,308 pages, the lowest count since 1993 and a 36 percent drop from
Obama’s 95,894 pages in 2016, the highest level ever recorded.
The information in this report is based on a compilation of best
available government and private data.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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