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Record-High Number of Pages of Obama Regulations Exceed That of Bush, Clinton

Obama administration regulations are 167 times longer than the Bible

Barack Obama
AP
October 19, 2016

The number of pages of regulations issued by the federal government during the Obama presidency has hit a record high, according to a count from the Federal Register.

President Obama’s administration has issued 28,239 new final rules encompassing 201,046 pages in the Federal Register.

The over 200,000 pages of Obama regulations are 167 times longer than the Bible, which averages about 1,200 pages.

George W. Bush's administration issued 31,634 regulations encompassing 178,571 pages in the Federal Register. Bill Clinton’s administration issued 37,366 rules for a total of 161,766 pages.

The Federal Register has been tracking the number of rules and pages since 1976, and since that time no other administration has had produced longer regulations than President Obama has.

The Obama administration has also produced more "major" regulations, which are defined as regulations estimated to have an economic impact of $100,000 more per year, result in a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, and adversely affect competition and employment.

President Obama produced 600 major rules in 7.5 years, which is roughly 20 percent more than Bush did in eight years, according to a report from the American Action Forum.

The report found that major regulations produced by Obama cost the economy $743 billion, which is larger than the gross domestic product of Norway and Israel combined.

"It is a $2,294 regulatory imposition on every person in the United States," the report states. "In the equivalent amount of time to complete 194 million additional hours of paperwork, it would take 97,429 employees working full-time (2,000 hours a year) to comply with these new federal requirements."

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Published under: Barack Obama , Regulation