Federal Register weekly update: Weekly pages added averages 2,191 this year (2024)


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 May 20, 2024, through May 24, 2024, the Federal Register grew by 2,282 pages for a year-to-date total of 46,014 pages.

The Federal Register hit an all-time high of 95,894 pages in 2016.

This week’s Federal Register featured the following 597 documents:

  • 508 notices
  • nine presidential documents
  • 31 proposed rules
  • 59 final rules

Two proposed rules, including a proposal to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to review and potentially recognize air operator certificates issued by the Regional Safety Oversight Organization to foreign air carriers as valid from the Federal Aviation Administration; and five final rules, including minimum capital requirements and reporting obligations for swap dealer and major swap participants from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 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 2024 has issued 70 significant proposed rules, 161 significant final rules, and one significant notice as of May 24, 2024.

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 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017: https://ballotpedia.org/Changes_to_the_Federal_Register 

Additional reading:

Click here to find yearly information about additions to the Federal Register from 1936 to 2021: https://ballotpedia.org/Historical_additions_to_the_Federal_Register,_1936-2021