The cost of federal regulations has grown to more than $2.1 trillion per year, almost as much as the government’s annual haul from income taxes, according to a report released Thursday.
The report, released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and titled “Ten Thousand Commandments,” outlined how the annual cost of red ink has steadily risen due to decisions made by presidents and Congress that impose new requirements and paperwork on businesses.
“Congress should be held accountable for such large regulatory actions,” wrote Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., the report’s author. “Cost-benefit analyses are few, not aggregated by the government, and merely self-reported by agencies. Delegation of lawmaking power to this unelected bureaucracy allows Congress to blame others for unpopular spending and rules.”
The cost of federal regulations grew to roughly $2.15 trillion last year, up from $2.11 trillion in the previous year, and amounts to 7.3% of the U.S. gross domestic product. Individual income taxes provided an estimated $2.2 trillion in revenue for 2023.
An October 2023 report from the National Association of Manufacturers showed regulatory compliance at roughly $3 trillion annually.
American households were found to pay on average more than $16,000 annually in these hidden regulatory taxes, which eat up 16% of income and 21% of household expenses, the report said. That total exceeds household spending on health care, food, transportation, entertainment, apparel, services and savings, and is higher only than the cost of housing.
“If it were a country, U.S. regulation would be the world’s 8th-largest economy, ranking behind the Russian federation and ahead of Canada,” the report says.
President Trump has promised to cut multiple regulations for every new one approved. But the report says lawmakers’ appetite for mandates in energy and climate, and equity initiatives such as family leave and child care, “have not disappeared with the return of Donald J. Trump.”
Federal agencies are constantly issuing new regulations, with 3,248 new ones in 2024. Federal paperwork accounted for a total of 10.5 billion hours in 2023. Mr. Trump’s regulations in 2019 — 2,964 — were a record low.
There were 174 new laws in calendar year 2024, meaning agencies issue 19 rules for every law enacted by Congress.
“This Unconstitutionality Index—the ratio of regulations issued by agencies to laws passed by Congress and signed by the president—underlines how much agency lawmaking has replaced that of elected officials. The average ratio over the past 10 years is 29 rules for every law,” the report said.
The report found that the five agencies that produce the most rules are the Departments of the Interior, the Treasury, Transportation, Commerce and Health and Human Services. They account for nearly 1,500 rules annually, or 44%.
Former President Joseph R. Biden had an annual average of 126 finalized rules, which well exceeds the 86 from the first Trump administration and 84 from the Obama administration.
Mr. Trump has been on the warpath to overrule regulatory orders given by Mr. Biden. Earlier this month, he ordered federal agency heads to remove three regulations on the books for every new one implemented.
“These are regulations that are currently in effect that we believe blatantly violate the law, blatantly violate Supreme Court precedent or otherwise [are] just blatantly illegal,” said White House staff secretary Will Scharf as Mr. Trump signed the order.
It mirrored a similar move Mr. Trump made in his first term, his “One-In, Two-Out” deregulatory goal.
In a White House release last month, the Council of Economic Advisers said the Trump administration has saved Americans more than $180 billion by halting Biden-era regulations.
CEI is a free-market public policy group based in Washington.
