Regulatory spending now accounts for $860 billion, or 8% of our GDP. This amount is the equivalent to more than one-third of the entire federal budget back in the 1960's. Further, the Federal Register, where new rules are published daily, hit an all-time record high of 75,606 pages this past year (up from 9,562 in 1950, 20,036 in 1970, and 49,795 in 1990). In the pipeline are now 4,187 rules at various stages of completion. Five agencies are responsible for more than half of the rules: Environmental Protection Agency, and the Departments of Transportation, Treasury, Agriculture and Interior. But on a more positive note, according to a recent CATO Institute study, the number of regulations enacted by EPA fell for the fifth straight year in 2002, with only one major rule finalized by the agency during the entire year. The annual "Ten Thousand Commandments" report by CATO counts and categorized all rules issued by the federal government every year. Environmental regulations, according to the study, have been declining steadily since 1998. A count of all EPA regulations either newly finalized or in the approval process found that the agency published 409 rules in the Federal Register last year, down from 416 in 2001 and 462 in 1998. Major rules - those that cost $100 million or more - were down dramatically in 2002, with only one finalized. In 1998 the agency finalized nine major rules, and it finalized four in 2001. To further slow the growth of federal rulemaking, CATO recommends a process by which all federal regulations would need explicit approval by Congress before being finalized. This concept is similar to one proposed by the House Government Reform Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Doug Ose (R-CA). At a March hearing, Ose advocated the creation of a regulatory appropriations committee in Congress that would review all of the administration's proposed regulations for a given year and decide which ones to enact based on estimated costs and benefits. Critics of this approach point out that the Administration puts out 4,000 to 5,000 rules a year, and most are routine. If Congress had to approve all those rules, they would not have time to do anything else. And there would be a serious separation of powers issue.
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