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.
The Biden administration added a total of 90,402 pages to the Federal Register in 2023. The page total will likely decrease after the National Archives processes the blanks and skips and finalizes the publication.
The 2023 Federal Register included the following 28,315 documents:
- 22,900 notices
- 295 presidential documents
- 2,102 proposed rules
- 3,018 final rules.
The 2023 Federal Register page total is the Biden administration’s highest annual page total. The Biden administration added a total of 80,756 pages to the Federal Register in 2022, and 74,532 pages in 2021. The 2023 page total exceeded the 2022 page total by 9,646 pages, and the 2021 page total by 15,870 pages.
According to government data, the Federal Register hit an all-time high of 95,894 pages in 2016.
Despite featuring the Biden administration’s highest annual page total, the 2023 Federal Register included the administration’s lowest annual final rule total. The following final rule totals in 2023, 2022, and 2021 under the Biden administration rank as the lowest final rule counts since the 1970s, decreasing with each year of the Biden Administration:
- 3,018 final rules in 2023
- 3,168 final rules in 2022
- 3,257 final rules in 2021
Though the Biden administration’s final rule total decreased throughout the administration, the total number of notices was highest in 2023. The Biden administration issued 21,985 notices in 2021, 22,505 notices in 2022, and 22,900 notices in 2023.
Ballotpedia maintains page counts and other information about the Federal Register as part of its Administrative State Project. The project is a neutral, nonpartisan encyclopedic resource that defines and analyzes the administrative state, including its philosophical origins, legal and judicial precedents, and scholarly examinations of its consequences. The project 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: Changes to the Federal Register
Additional reading: Click here to find yearly information about additions to the Federal Register from 1936 to 2021: Historical additions to the Federal Register, 1936-2021