How many federal agencies are there? Not even Washington knows
Have you ever wondered how many federal agencies there are?
If you haven’t, you might be surprised to learn that no one knows the answer. Not even the government!
Yes, you read that right. Not even Washington knows how big the federal bureaucracy (which they created) is.
Your taxes fund the federal government, but it can’t even tell you how big the bureaucracy you’re paying for is. That’s unacceptable.
Thankfully, the Department of Government Efficiency has done a good job of highlighting just how bloated the federal government is right now.
But how big is the problem?
A GOVERNMENT SO BIG, EVEN WASHINGTON LOST TRACK
While it’s difficult to imagine how big the federal government is, try wrapping your head around this: The Federal Register lists 441 agencies in the U.S. government. Whatever the precise number, most reasonable taxpayers would agree that the federal bureaucracy has run amok.
Just look at some of the agencies you’re funding with your tax dollars: The United States Agency for Global Media, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, or the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. Those issues might be important, but do they require taxpayer-funded agencies? Probably not.
On top of that, many agencies, departments, and subdivisions have overlapping jurisdictions and tasks. For example, the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Minority Business Development Agency all share similar duties and roles.
This is particularly harmful when businesses and industries are subject to regulation by a long list of separate agencies rather than just running duplicate programs. For example, tobacco products are simultaneously regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Is it efficient to have three agencies doing the same, or similar, jobs?
These hundreds of agencies aren’t cheap, either.
BIG GOVERNMENT, BIGGER BILL: WHAT IT’S COSTING YOU
The federal government spends more than $200 billion every year on employee salaries, which are, on average, far more than the average American’s.
That’s without even counting the billions of dollars these agencies spend on wasteful government programs, some of which were uncovered by DOGE.
Washington is using your money to finance a machine. And these agencies are tremendously powerful.
RULE BY REGULATION
Even though no one voted for them, federal agencies have the authority to write regulations with the full force of law. And bureaucrats use this power routinely.
Agencies issue regulations covering everything under the sun, from how much water your dishwasher uses, to what counts as a salad dressing, to the minimum size for Florida tangerines.
According to DOGE, federal agencies issue 18.5 regulations for every law Congress writes, and the code of federal regulations is 98.6 million words long and growing.
Even worse, if you happen to break some of these regulations, you could be in deep trouble with the law. At least 300,000 regulations carry criminal penalties.
Yet, none of these bureaucrats who make or enforce these regulations are accountable to the American people.
IT’S TIME FOR A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE
This isn’t what the Framers intended when they wrote the Constitution.
Congress should write the laws, not hundreds of executive agencies and thousands of unaccountable bureaucrats.
It’s time for Congress and the people to take back control of the policymaking process in America.
Policies like the REINS Act would significantly curtail federal regulators’ immense power and restore the constitutional balance of power.
If you want to learn more about what Americans for Prosperity is doing to restore constitutionally limited government in America, click here.
