The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity, accounting for both regulatory and deregulatory actions.
From Dec. 18, 2023, through Dec. 22, 2023, the Federal Register grew by 1,486 pages for a year-to-date total of 88,814 pages.
The Federal Register hit an all-time high of 95,894 pages in 2016.
This week’s Federal Register featured the following 621 documents:
- 495 notices
- Four presidential documents
- 44 proposed rules
- 78 final rules
Four proposed rules, including one that proposed listing the coal darter—a fish native to the Mobile River Basin in Alabama— as a threatened species from the Fish and Wildlife Service; six final rules, including a rule implementing an Executive Order on project labor agreements in Federal construction projects from the Defense Department, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and four notices, including one that announced the resumption of a program renewing domestic visas for qualified H–1B nonimmigrants from the State Department, were deemed significant under E.O. 12866, as amended by E.O. 14094—defined by the potential to have large impacts on the economy, environment, public health, or state or local governments. Significant actions may also conflict with presidential priorities or other agency rules. The Biden administration in 2023 has issued 331 significant proposed rules, 278 significant final rules, and 17 significant notices as of Dec. 22.
Ballotpedia maintains page counts and other information about the Federal Register as part of its neutral, nonpartisan encyclopedic coverage that defines and analyzes the administrative state, including its philosophical origins, legal and judicial precedents, and scholarly examinations of its consequences. The coverage area also monitors and reports on measures of federal government activity.
Click here to find more information about weekly additions to the Federal Register in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017:
Additional reading:
Click here to find yearly information about additions to the Federal Register from 1936 to 2021: