By Chris Cargill / For The Herald
It’s the Christmas gift 96,000 times worse than the jelly of the month club.
The Federal Register ± a manual of proposed and final rules and regulations required by federal bureaucrats ± has hit a new record and is likely to exceed 100,000 pages by the end of the year.
On Dec. 3, the register hit 96,088 pages. That eclipses the previous record of 95,894 set during the Obama administration.
It’s nothing to be proud of. Unneeded federal rules and regulations cost the economy millions of dollars and millions of jobs each year.
Economists at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University found the size of the regulation state significantly slows economic growth and has translated into a $13,000 loss in real income for every American.
Recognizing the need to trim red tape, Idaho and Montana have been leaders.
Over the past four years, Idaho has cut or reduced 95 percent of state regulations. Gov. Brad Little has signed numerous executive orders reducing the size of the state government:
Executive Order 2020-13: Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery
Executive Order 2020-10: Enhancing Licensing Freedom: Organization of the Department of Self-Governing Agencies
Executive Order 2020-01: Zero-Based Regulation
Executive Order 2020-02: Transparency in Agency Guidance Documents
Executive Order 2019-01: Licensing Freedom Act of 2019
Executive Order 2019-02: Red Tape Reduction Act
Wyoming, too, has seen a reduction in the number of state regulations.
In too many cases, bureaucrats take on the role of rule-making and implementation; even though they were never elected to write laws. Lawmakers should never delegate sweeping lawmaking authority to regulatory agencies.
One of the best ways to ensure laws and regulations do not become overly burdensome is to include sunset clauses or provisions. A sunset clause is an expiration date; requiring further legislative action if the legislation or regulation is to continue. This can be particularly helpful in a situation where a law was passed to address an urgent, timely situation, but no longer applies.
Unfortunately, tens of thousands of laws that were passed in the 19th and 20th centuries may be outdated, but they remain on the books and therefore create a larger regulatory burden each year. Adding sunset clauses requires lawmakers to review the effectiveness and need of regulations and programs.
President-elect Trump has proposed an effort to limit regulations, putting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of the effort. Musk has even highlighted Idaho’s efforts on X.
The president-elect wants his regulators to kill 10 regulations for every new one they propose – an effort that will no doubt help juice the economy.
As policymakers consider the rules that govern rules and regulations, they should take care to ensure they are simple, predictable, and reviewable.
And let’s leave the rule-making records to history.
Chris Cargill is president of Mountain States Policy Center, an independent free market think tank based in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Eastern Washington. Online at mountainstatespolicy.org.
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