Expansion of Regulatory Budgets and Staffing Continues in the New Administration: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 and 2010
Regulators’ Budget Report 31
October 2009
Veronique de Rugy and Melinda Warren
Sections
Executive SummaryThis annual report examines the Budget of the U.S. Government presented by the president to Congress for FY 2010 to track the expenditures of federal regulatory agencies and the staff needed to run these agencies. Key findings for the FY…
Introduction
This report tracks the budget of federal regulatory agencies and the staff needed to run those agencies based on the data of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) presented by the president in his FY 2010 Budget of the United…
Overview of the 2010 Regulators’ Budget
This report tracks the spending and staffing of 68 departments and agencies. As has been the practice in past reports, it divides federal regulatory activities into two main categories. The first category, social regulation, includes regulatory activities that address issues…
Trends in Federal Regulatory Spending, 1960–2010
Figure 1 shows the changes in real (inflation-adjusted) expenditures on regulatory agencies since 1960. Numbers and percentages in this section are in constant 2000 terms unless otherwise indicated.
Trends in Financial Regulatory Spending
In light of the recent financial crisis, it is useful to look at the trends in regulatory spending and staffing in the last 50 years. There is a misconception that deregulation, especially during the last eight years, has been the…
Trends in Federal Regulatory Staffing, 1960–2010
Figure 3: Staffing of Federal Regulatory Agencies
Figure 3 shows the trends in staffing at federal regulatory agencies between 1960 and 2010. In 1960, 57,109 full-time employees worked on writing, administering, and enforcing regulations at federal agencies. By 1970, that number…
Summary of Federal Regulatory Activity for Fiscal Year 2010
In his 2010 Budget Message, A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America’s Promise, the president emphasizes his intent to “lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth and prosperity.”1 As in his presidential campaign, the theme of change runs through the…
Conclusion
The FY 2010 Budget of the United States Government calls for expenditures on regulatory activities of $55.8 billion for the next fiscal year. This 2010 Regulators’ Budget request reflects both a nominal increase (4.2 percent) and an increase in real,…
Appendix
The Weidenbaum Center at Washington University has monitored trends in federal regulation for 31 years and has compiled 50 years of data on the administrative expenses of federal regulation. In 2002, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University joined the…
Regulators' Budget Report 2009
