Last-minute regulatory rush is a Cinderella story

For the past 50 years, outgoing presidential administrations have had one thing in common: They have all engaged in a last-minute rush to get new federal regulations in place before the new team comes to town. That's the conclusion of a new report, "The Cinderella Constraint: Why Regulations Increase Significantly During Post-Election Quarters," from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. According to the report, several variables-including executive branch term limits, the number of days Congress is in session, and the level of partisanship in both branches-affect how many regulations are published as administrations end. The report argues that, contrary to popular perception, partisan differences don't have a significant impact on a lame-duck administration's last-ditch efforts to push through regulations. The most important factor, according to the study's author, Jay Cochran, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center, is much less dramatic: executive branch term limits, also known as the "Cinderella constraint." "As the clock runs out on an administration's term in office, would-be Cinderellas (e.g. the President, Cabinet officers and agency heads) work assiduously to promulgate regulations before they turn back into ordinary citizens at the stroke of midnight," writes Cochran. Cochran provides statistical analysis for the widely-held theory that outgoing administrations-regardless of party-tend to issue a flurry of "midnight regulations" between November and January in an effort to get policy rules firmly into place before the new administration takes over the executive branch. Laura Hill, spokeswoman for the Mercatus Center, also offered another reason for the flurry of late-term regulatory activity. "It could just be plain old procrastination. It happens regardless of the party in power," Hill said. According to Cochran's study, regulatory volumes (measured in terms of Federal Register pages) increase, on average, 29 percent between November and January, compared to the same period in non-election years. Congress also affects the number of rules issued during the post-election period, the report says. The longer Congress stays in session, the more legislation it will presumably pass-increasing the number of regulations agencies will implement. During the post-election period between 1980 and 1981, the volume of rules was 43 percent higher than during the same period during the previous three years. In 1980-the last year of the Carter administration-there were 87,000 pages in the Federal Register, with an additional 10,000 written in January 1981. Cochran's study predicts that 29,000 pages in the Federal Register will be written between November 2000 and January 2001, for a grand total of 100,000 pages during President Clinton's last year in office. In November, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued its controversial ergonomics rule, which makes employers responsible for injuries associated with repetitive movement. Other "midnight regulations" on the administration's list include an EPA rule that would establish new diesel fuel emission standards and a "blacklisting" rule preventing companies with questionable labor-relations practices from winning federal contracts.