Issues arise in the Federal Register

In a bid to enhance transparency and disclosure, there has been growing concern over the accuracy of data on the Federal Register website.

Recent reports suggest that the count for significant rules in 2025, obtained manually, stands at 81, while the Federal Register displays "80+ documents." Similarly, the total rules issued in 2025, as of September 2, 2021, are displayed as "1700+" instead of the precise number.

These imprecise tallies have raised eyebrows, with many calling it a serious setback for transparency. The Office of the Federal Register (OFR), responsible for maintaining and restoring the precise rule numbers in the Federal Register, has been urged to restore discrete rule counts.

The Federal Register website, managed by the Trump administration, has been experiencing glitches recently. No announcement has been made regarding these issues, leaving users in the dark.

The advanced search function on the Federal Register website no longer returns precise rule counts, adding to the confusion. Queries with fewer than 10 results now only show "Limited results." Even the "actual" count for proposed rules in 2025, obtained manually, is 1,091, while the Federal Register database displays "1,000+ documents."

Historically, the search tool on the Federal Register website supported detailed filtering by date, agency, rule type, small business or significant economic effects, and other attributes. However, the current setup caps search results at 20 per page, with no way to access the rest of the results set, regardless of sorting method.

Another concern is the absence of the Spring edition of the "Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions," making it later than any since 2012. The Federal Register website does not currently provide precise figures for significant final rules affecting small business.

To address these issues, a proposal for annual regulatory report cards has been suggested. This could facilitate ongoing regulatory reforms and streamlining. Additionally, a new "Deregulatory" category has been proposed to capture Trump's "Unrules"-actions.

To improve transparency and disclosure, it is crucial for the Federal Register to work closely with Congress to include deregulatory actions in rule reporting. Restoring precise figures and improving the database could help regain public trust in the Federal Register's data.